AA Roller Door Curtain To Track Clearance

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Hi everyone,
I have a Steel Line AA series roller door that I’m planning to put up on Friday. It’s 5185mm wide, by 2400mm drop.

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The tracks are 50mm deep, and I need to find out how far the roller door curtain gets inserted into the tracks. ie what is the clearance between the inside of the tracks and the edge of the curtain that runs within them.

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I have emailed steel line and they have told me that they only have instructions for A series roller doors, and they provide training for their installers installing AA roller doors. I then asked them the same question (curtain insertion into the track) and they told me it gets inserted 50mm. This means the edge of the curtain would be rubbing up and down the inside of the tracks every time the door is opened and shut. I think they misunderstood my question and told me the track depth of a AA series door.


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The A series instructions talk about the tracks being positioned to allow the door curtain to run in the track by 25mm, and I think that the A series doors have tracks that are 35mm deep, leaving a 10mm clearance on each side between the curtain and the inside of the track that they run in.

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Is there anyone who has installed this door, or an AA door of similar size with 50mm tracks that can help me?
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Many Thanks,
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[Ronaldo451]

I installed second hand roller doors on some sheds I had - hence no instructions or guidelines, just tried to figure out the best way myself....

I fixed the siderails so the curtain fitted reasonably snugly but allowed enough adjustment in the bolts and fixing slots holding the siderails for them to be 'jiggled' around until the up-down movement was not pinched, particularly in regards to possibly being out of true from top-bottom. That could occur from either the siderails not being true vertical or the brackets on either end of the roller not being true horizontal.

Once they seemed to slide OK in the side rails the bolts were then nipped up tight.

[Barry_White]

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I think you will find that there will be some sort of a nylon guide block that will be fitted to the bottom of the curtain that will run in the guides that only needs the minimum of clearance so it doesn't bind on the guide and you will find that it will protrude a whisker past the side of the curtain and that is all the the clearance you need for the curtain so the the curtain goes pretty well right into the guide.

As long as the guides are put in parallel the curtain wont rub on the guides.

If you have too much clearance the curtain will be too sloppy and will wander all over the place and have more chance of coming out of the guides when you run the door up and down.

Steeline didn't misunderstand your question. Series A doors only have 25mm deep tracks and the curtain works the same way. Series AA doors are usually used for wider applications and being bigger need the deeper tracks so that the curtain doesn't come out of the guides under high wind situations.

BTW I am the door guru on the forum as I spent several years selling and installing them and the principles of installing all brands of roller doors is the same..

[online]

Hi Barry,
thanks for your reply. I called up steel line late this afternoon in Adelaide and got a helpful bloke. He told me that the track to curtain clearance should be minimal, and told me to work on about 3mm.

I'm using 3/8" bolts fed through a 90mmx90mm permapine post to secure the tracks. This will allow for around 5mm of track movement within the track mounting brackets. The previous roller door tracks and axle mounting brackets were secured with coach bolts which had been overtightened and had chewed out the soft pine post. Either that or they were loosened by the previous owner of the house driving into the roller door from what appears to be both sides. I think the coach bolts might be slightly easier to fit, but I'm hoping the bolts will be better long term. I figure that once the door is tensioned with the initial 2 turns of the roll, and I pull it down about half way I should be able to slide the track on one side until it just touches the curtain, and then mark the post through the top track mounting bracket so the track can be adjusted away from this position ie the track/curtain clearance increased if need be. Once the top track mounting bracket fixing has been installed and moved out to give around a 2-3mm gap , I would get the track vertical with a level, and mark and fix the mounting bracket closest to the ground.
I would then repeat this for the 2nd track.

Is this how you would go about mounting the tracks barry?

Thanks also for all of your previous posts; I have tensioned the old roller door safely and successfully thanks to your good advice in past posts.

Online.

[Barry_White]

Hi Barry,
thanks for your reply. I called up steel line late this afternoon in Adelaide and got a helpful bloke. He told me that the track to curtain clearance should be minimal, and told me to work on about 3mm.

I'm using 3/8" bolts fed through a 90mmx90mm permapine post to secure the tracks. This will allow for around 5mm of track movement within the track mounting brackets. The previous roller door tracks and axle mounting brackets were secured with coach bolts which had been overtightened and had chewed out the soft pine post. Either that or they were loosened by the previous owner of the house driving into the roller door from what appears to be both sides. I think the coach bolts might be slightly easier to fit, but I'm hoping the bolts will be better long term. I figure that once the door is tensioned with the initial 2 turns of the roll, and I pull it down about half way I should be able to slide the track on one side until it just touches the curtain, and then mark the post through the top track mounting bracket so the track can be adjusted away from this position ie the track/curtain clearance increased if need be. Once the top track mounting bracket fixing has been installed and moved out to give around a 2-3mm gap , I would get the track vertical with a level, and mark and fix the mounting bracket closest to the ground.
I would then repeat this for the 2nd track.

Is this how you would go about mounting the tracks barry?

Thanks also for all of your previous posts; I have tensioned the old roller door safely and successfully thanks to your good advice in past posts.

Online.

Online

When you mount the door on the saddles on the brackets and before cutting the binding straps rock the the door backwards and forwards to ensure the door is centred on the axle and then make sure the door is also centred in the opening. By doing this you will ensure when you cut the straps and pull the door down it wont cone and run up and down uneven.

As you say after you have the door on the brackets and the tension on the door but only pull it down until it is about level with the fixing lugs on the top of the guides and then put your guides on both sides of the curtain. I usually slip the guides on until they touch the nylon guide blocks. Then fix the lugs with your bolts drilling in the middle of the slot in the lug. By doing this it gives you some leeway to adjust them later.

Once you fix the top lugs pull the door right down to the floor and instead of using a level on the guides step back and line the bottom of the roll up with the ribs on the curtain. This will ensure that the guides are parallel and square to the curtain.

Once doing this fix off the bottom lugs while the curtain is pulled down. After that you can fix off the intermediate lugs

If you use the level on the guides all that is doing is making the guides plumb and does not allow for any discrepancies in the building because you want the door square and parallel to itself.

One other thing to ensure is that the brackets are dead level and the best way is to use a water level. Don't measure up from the floor or down from the head of the opening because there is no guarantee that they are level.

Hope this helps.

[online]

Hi Barry,
I tried to put the AA roller door up yesterday without success. The door lost it's tension. Rather than pull this post off topic, I have sent you a private email.

Thanks for your help.
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