Hi. I'm rebuilding the doors on the back of my garage, and am likely to put in a barn-style sliding door rather than an overhead door. I've been looking for an opener that's designed for this kind of door, and am drawing a blank. Any suggestions? Can I get away with creative use of a 'standard' garage door opener?
Many thanks,
I was going to suggest rigging up a sliding gate opener until I saw the prices!
That's how mine is rigged.
Standard garage door openers come in two types, a chain drive and a screw drive.
If you can figure out how to mount the head of the unit sideways and some way to couple the door to a drive screw or a bicycle chain the standard opener should work, but it will not be an easy install.
The commercial sliding gate openers I have seen have a bicycle chain setup where the chain is strung along the bottom of the gate and the opener drives a sprocket.
The problems I see with a sliding garage door is that the doors slide past each other, and there is not a lot of room to rig an opener.
I can see the potential for some serious safety issues and code violations here. Standard openers are designed to be installed at 8-10ft off the ground. I'm guessing that in this configuration the electrical and mechanical parts will be within easy reach of a child. Fabricating a safety shroud would be a non-trivial task.
It's scary thinking about what the sprocket and chain with 0.5-1.0 HP behind it would do to a child's fingers... :-(
I have to climb on a ladder to reach the mechanism. It's at least 10 feet above ground, above the door.
Ladder? Well, serious safety issue right there ;-)
Is there any chance you could post some pics? I'm curious to see what you did and I'm sure it will help the OP too.
Same here...or was. I rigged one up that way and all the mechanism was at the top of the door.
I did discover that the maintenance on the track and bogies was a PITA though. Finally got tired of it and put in a standard overhead. Mine was homebuilt out of 3/4" lumber and the weight of the door was the major problem. Maybe with a light weight door the wear and maintenance wouldn't be so bad.
Anothe thing I discovered is "Put in a 9' (wide) door, not an 8'. Been kicking my rear ever since I installed the 8'.
Harry K
Yeah, most of the industrial strength installations I've seen have the chain drive at ground level, presumably 'cause of the door weight. Fine when the mechanism is protected but horribly expensive for a regular garage.
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re: It's scary thinking about what the sprocket and chain with 0.5-1.0 HP behind it would do to a child's fingers...
You might be surprised how flexible a child's fingers can be.
When I was 11 YO and in Boy Scout camp, we had a "ferry" that went across a small pond. A heavy rope was attached to one end of a floating platform, wrapped around a tire rim attached to a tree on one shore, back through 2 posts (front and rear) on the platform, then to a tire rim on the other shore and back to the platform. If you were on the ferry, you could pull yourself across the pond, or any one (or more) on shore could pull the ferry across. When there was a bunch of us trying to get the ferry across, we used to see how fast we could get it moving.
One time while I was on shore with a bunch of boys pulling the ferry as fast as we could, my feet slipped but I held on to the rope for support. I was the last one in line and my fingers were pulled around the tire rim, and bent backwards into the shape of the inside curve of the rim. Hurt like h*ll! The medic said an adult's fingers would have snapped, but I was just bruised and a few hours later my fingers relaxed and I was able to bend them again.
Granted, that wasn't a sprocket and a chain, which have the abilty to puncture, but a kid's fingers just might give a little more than you might imagine.
That said, put the opener out of reach!
Not about side-sliding doors.
Around here and other places, two single doors are popular instead of one wide enough for two cars. A bad place to economize if you ask me. I can only imagine how many people hit the post in the middle, or how many wish they could park one car in the middle and put things on the sides.
That's why we should have more kids working in factories and the needle trades, where they could be useful.
Nah.
There are security gates for neighborhoods that open sideways. The gages are often lightweight but probably not always. I suppose the brand names are right on the mechanism. They might make a cheaper version for homes too.
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