Seeking "hold closed" catch for a bifold door

[Jeff Wisnia]

Our front hall closet has a two panel bifold door on it. Lately the door has been annoying us by refusing to stay closed. After it's closed it mockingly drifts open a few inches by itself.

I've checked carefully and there's nothing in the closet which is pushing back against the door panels, and all the hinges and hardware are nice and free, nothing is binding and springing back.

From previous experience with other doors which "move by themselves" I know this is happening because something in the door's framing is out of plumb and gravity is moving the doors towards a position with lower potential energy. I've tried moving the top hinge bracket sideways in both directions as much as I could without making the door look out of kilter, but that hasn't helped.

Before I go ahead and reinvent the wheel by figuring out how to mount a magnetic catch somewhere (probably at the top, near the center), is there a standard hardware solution already available to keep those doors neatly closed, but still let you open them with just a tug on the knob?

Happy Holidays guys,

Jeff

[nospambob]

You probably have considered shims behind hinges but it probably needed to be asked anyway. I've checked carefully and there's nothing in the closet which is

[Ron]

Adjust the stop peg in the track so that the door closes more tightly against it. If your door has the spring type, adjust that to give more pressure when closed. It sounds odd but you need the pressure when the door is closed in order to keep it closed.

[Jeff Wisnia]

Capital idea, thanks much!

There's no obvious stop in the track right now, maybe it didn't come with one; or if it did the builder "forgot" to install it.

I'll check it out with a mini C clamp or something similar to satisfy myself.

Should be pretty easy to machine up a little block of aluminum with mounting slots and a spring plunger in it and screw it into the track with a couple of toothed lock washers under it to help it stay where it needs to be. Something to do the next time it's too crummy to want to leave the house.

Happy Holidays!

Jeff

-- Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place the blame on."

[Jim Thompson]

Jeff, There should be a snap-in "doohicky" in the track with a spring. You can probably get a replacement "doohicky" at HD or Lowes.

...Jim Thompson

[David Babcock]

Two thoughts come to mind along a similar vein, you can move the doors slightly closer together so that the pressure of door against door has the same effect of tension keeping the doors closed, or adjust the pin guide at the top of the offending door, so there is tension against the top of the track when it is closed. As far as something being out of plumb, it might not be the side to side alignment of the doors, but the face plumb instead, meaning the top of the door is leaning forward more than the bottom, and to complicate matters more, it probably is just the door that opens.

Dave

[Jeff Wisnia]

Yeah, that's just what I found on my own office's door when we rented the suite we're in now. The damn thing wouldn't stay open against the wall like it should, it just drifted about half way towards closed and then stopped there.

I mentioned it to one of the building owner's maintenance guys and a couple of days later I found he'd "fixed" it by removing one of the hinge pins and bashing it with a hammer so that it was bent. Then he rammed it back home in the hinge.

It "worked" but the door had such a annoying draggy feel to it that I undid his butchery and bought a proper door "holder opener" gadget at a locksmith's place. One piece mounts on the door and had a ball on it's end. The other screws to the baseboard and has a spring loaded clip (a la a broomstick holder) to snag the ball.

Works as advertised.

Happy Holidays,

Jeff

-- Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place the blame on."

[Jeff Wisnia]

Well, I made my own doohickey out of a bit of sheet steel, a compression spring and a pop rivet. Took far less time than going to any store which might have had one which would fit the19 year old track.

It works "slicker 'n snot on a brass doorknob" as they say one state north of us. (Maine).

Since I had to take the track down to slip my doohickey into it from one end, I moved the whole track 3/4" closer to the door trim. Now the doors stand parallel to the trim rather than having a big gap near the top at the sides and almost none at the bottom. It's downright rificulous that the guys who built our home called themselves "craftsmen".

Thanks for the tips, guys...

Happy Holidays,

Jeff

Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can smile when things are going wrong, you've thought of someone to blame it on."