Roller Doors

[Shedhand]

A tip for anyone installing Roller Doors. when making adjustments to the tension ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE U-BOLT ON ONE END IS VERY TIGHT. DAMHIKT

[DanP]

You're going to have to elaborate now...

[Shedhand]

I decided that I could hang the roller doors in my new shed myself. They came with excellent instructions to install and the supplied motors also had detailed instructions.
Everyone told me that as long as all tjhe tracks were plumb and mounting brackets were installed properly I'd have no trouble.
I duly installed the motors and hung the doors. Tensioned them accoring to the instuctions. As I don't have power connected yet I just disengaged the motor lever and rolled the doors up and down by hand. The first door was perfect. No further adjustment. The second door was about 10mm skewed and didn't meet the floor properly. I made sure the non-motor end clamping u-bolt was tight - bearing in mind that both my arms are still recovering from surgery for lateral epycondiliytis - then released the u-bolt on the motor end...bang..the tensioning spring went. I couldn't get it back up and had to call the experts in. 220 bucks later doors work perfectly. I just didn't do the u-bolts up tight enough (lack of strength in arms).

[Barry_White]

Shedhand

You were fortunate, people have been killed doing that.

[Shedhand]

Shedhand

You were fortunate, people have been killed doing that.

fortunately the door was down at the time.

[Coldamus]

Shedhand

You were fortunate, people have been killed doing that.

I was nearly one of them. One day my boss hit the roller door of our warehouse with the forklift mast (didn't raise the door far enough). This bent the door slightly in the middle and caused one side to pop out of its track.
It was a big door - about 6 metres high and 6 metres wide and must have weighed a couple of tonnes.

He got me get to climb up about 4 metres on a ladder and belt the door with a hammer while he put pressure on it with the forklift so as to force it back into the track. It wouldn't quite pop back in so he lifted one end with the forks. Of course he lifted it too far and the opposite end of the axle came out of its supports and dropped about 2 feet. By some miracle, the nearer end of the axle didn't slide out. If it had, the whole roller door would have come down and I would have been about a cm. thick, like in the Wile E. Coyote cartoons.

After that, we got the experts to fix it.

regards
Coldamus

[Rossluck]

I'm struggling with mine at the moment. The problem from my point of view is that the brackets they supply don't seem to be strong enough for the tension of the axle (is that what it's called?). Every now and then I tackle the job of tensioning them by holding two pairs of stilsons on the axle and turning (hold with one, turn with the other). But I'm always surprised by how little the incredible tension in the spring converts into a "light-lift" door.

I've known these stupid brackets to twist under the tension and I've had to reinforce them by welding heavier stuff onto them. I have the feeling that I'm doing something wrong.

[Barry_White]

I'm struggling with mine at the moment. The problem from my point of view is that the brackets they supply don't seem to be strong enough for the tension of the axle (is that what it's called?). Every now and then I tackle the job of tensioning them by holding two pairs of stilsons on the axle and turning (hold with one, turn with the other). But I'm always surprised by how little the incredible tension in the spring converts into a "light-lift" door.

I've known these stupid brackets to twist under the tension and I've had to reinforce them by welding heavier stuff onto them. I have the feeling that I'm doing something wrong.

Hi Ross

If you do a search on roller doors in the forum I listed the process for tensioning roller doors. I used to install and service roller doors for a living for about five years.

One problem that may be occurring is that on the saddles on some brands of roller doors there are little teeth that will grip the axle and wont allow it to turn.

What you may have to do is to slacken off the saddle one side at a time and lift the axle so that the teeth let go.

You should only need one set of stilsons to tension the axle.

Here is the link. http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ht=Roller+door

[Rossluck]

Hi Ross

If you do a search on roller doors in the forum I listed the process for tensioning roller doors. I used to install and service roller doors for a living for about five years.

One problem that may be occurring is that on the saddles on some brands of roller doors there are little teeth that will grip the axle and wont allow it to turn.

What you may have to do is to slacken off the saddle one side at a time and lift the axle so that the teeth let go.

You should only need one set of stilsons to tension the axle.

Here is the link. http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ht=Roller+door

Thanks for that.

[Shedhand]

I was nearly one of them. One day my boss hit the roller door of our warehouse with the forklift mast (didn't raise the door far enough). This bent the door slightly in the middle and caused one side to pop out of its track.
It was a big door - about 6 metres high and 6 metres wide and must have weighed a couple of tonnes.

He got me get to climb up about 4 metres on a ladder and belt the door with a hammer while he put pressure on it with the forklift so as to force it back into the track. It wouldn't quite pop back in so he lifted one end with the forks. Of course he lifted it too far and the opposite end of the axle came out of its supports and dropped about 2 feet. By some miracle, the nearer end of the axle didn't slide out. If it had, the whole roller door would have come down and I would have been about a cm. thick, like in the Wile E. Coyote cartoons.

After that, we got the experts to fix it.

regards
Coldamus

So? Did you report the freekin moron to Workplace Safety Dept? He would have been fined thousands just for making you climb the ladder while he did what he did with the fork truck. There are some idiots around and most of them are bosses (trying to cut costs by cutting corners).:mad::mad: