Garage Door

bradgator2

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Once the door is up wouldn't it stay up? I've manually raised and lowered my door and it doesn't fall by itself.

Maybe I gave it a little push to get it going, I honestly don't remember. All I know is that once it going..... There was no stopping it. Scared the living daylights out of me.
 

L-boy

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Once the door is up wouldn't it stay up? I've manually raised and lowered my door and it doesn't fall by itself.

Probably because the springs were still working. You can manually do the door up and down and if the springs / cables still work it is fairly easy. If the springs break, and the cables come off, you have a couple of hundred pounds of dead weight.
 

TLB

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More fun with garage doors.

Those springs are a b!tch. This same door that is now broken (hope for a visit on Friday to check it out and bill me obnoxious amounts of money), has had issues earlier. At the bottom corner on each side is a post with a wheel on the end. The wheel travels inside the metal track to guide it up and down. The post is set within a bracket at the bottom corner to move the door.

Several months back, one corner had the wheel come out of the track. Of course, you can't manhandle the wheel back in there, so I'm mechanically inclined to unscrew the 3 bolts holding the bracket, put the assembly back together loose with the wheel in the guide, then tighten the bracket back in place. All is good, amen. However, in unscrewing the bolts that hold the bracket, this jack ass gets 2 of 3 out and is struggling with the last bolt. The bolt becomes cockeyed as it nears exit from the door, which is puzzling, but not as much as why the last damn one would be so difficult while the other two I could unscrew with my hand. Crank-Crank-Crank with the wrench to get that damn thing out and >>BANG<< the bracket and bolt just disappeared. I found them half way across the garage. I then realize I never took off the spring, and that caused the tension in the bracket-bolt arrangement and the cockeyed behaviour. I very well could have killed myself if it had shot at my face, that bracket was launched with velocity. I count my blessings, undo the spring, reassemble, and things are good for the next few months.

About 5 weeks ago, that same wheel came out of the track again. And that same jack ass went about taking out the bolts to put things right. And, you see this coming, I forgot all about the spring and was wondering why that last bolt was being a cock eyed sonofab!tch again. I had brought my son over for a lesson in how to fix things, so he's standing next to me as I crank-crank-crank that bolt out and >>BANG<< it shoots off again. Doubly blessed as the bracket shot across the room and avoided us both, but the bolt shot up, bounced off the door and pegged my son on top of his head. He left, crying, and saying he doesn't want to help daddy fix anything anymore. I think that's a wise move on his part.
 

pilot-in-fla

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Once the door is up wouldn't it stay up? I've manually raised and lowered my door and it doesn't fall by itself.

The purpose of the springs is to counterweight the door. If the springs are correctly adjusted, when you either lift or lower the door, you are only working against the friction of the mechanism not the weight of the door itself. If a spring breaks, you will have to work against gravity on the weight of the door to lift it. And, once it starts down, you will have to work against gravity to prevent it from slamming to the ground.
 

Durty South Swamp

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I sorta feel like this forum is a bit of a do it or fix it yourself type place where we come to discuss stuff... Except for Lboy, he starts a thread to tell us how the bulb went out in his fluorescent kitchen light, and how the repairman he called to change it for him bent him over :lol2:
 

grengadgy

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I sorta feel like this forum is a bit of a do it or fix it yourself type place where we come to discuss stuff... Except for Lboy, he starts a thread to tell us how the bulb went out in his fluorescent kitchen light, and how the repairman he called to change it for him bent him over :lol2:
Hey, that was my thoughts too. Maybe L-boy is soliciting business. You know, keeping the books for all of those high price repairmen.
 

stephenPE

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My last house had a huge garage door made out of wood. Weighed a ton. One day I hear this hollering and my 7 year old son is pinned to the cement by the door. He tried to crawl under before it closed. Still makes me laugh. But back to the point. My BF was an installer for a gainesville business for years. So he put in a new one for cost. It is good to have close friends that can actually FIX things...........my brother is one of those types.
 

crosscreekcooter

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A garage door operator reverses itself once the closing travel is interrupted. Also garage doors for the last 25 years have an electric eye that reverses a door back to the open position if the beam is interrupted. That operator must have been an antique or malfunctioning. We had a cat that used to climb up on the garage door if it was left open and sleep until one day it got squeezed between the door header and the door when we closed it. I went back out into the garage for some reason and saw the damn cat hanging there and freed it. He never did that trick again.
 

L-boy

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I sorta feel like this forum is a bit of a do it or fix it yourself type place where we come to discuss stuff... Except for Lboy, he starts a thread to tell us how the bulb went out in his fluorescent kitchen light, and how the repairman he called to change it for him bent him over :lol2:

Yeah buddy, go eat a d1ck.

Speaking of fluorescent lights, at least the compact ones, does anybody else notice you have to end up changing them a hell of a lot more than advertised? I have a whole bag full of them waiting to be recycled at Home Depot.
 

G 2

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Yeah buddy, go eat a d1ck.

Speaking of fluorescent lights, at least the compact ones, does anybody else notice you have to end up changing them a hell of a lot more than advertised? I have a whole bag full of them waiting to be recycled at Home Depot.
Our builder filled our house with them. 6 had burned out within a year. How is that any better than incandescent? Obviously they save on electricity but they don't go to full brightness immediately nor can they be dimmed. Now changing all bulbs out to LED when I find deals.
 

L-boy

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Our builder filled our house with them. 6 had burned out within a year. How is that any better than incandescent? Obviously they save on electricity but they don't go to full brightness immediately nor can they be dimmed. Now changing all bulbs out to LED when I find deals.

Yeah I'll start changing out to LEDs also. Have a couple of LED ceiling lamps I our remodeled bathroom that have worked very well.

The compact fluorescents are an environmental disaster given their mercury content. However the regulation to switch away from regular light bulbs will pay off long term as LEDs become a far superior and cleaner option. This is what can happen sometimes with some environmental or conservation related regs. Short term they may not do much good and sometimes has unintended side effects. But long term they change people's habits and technology can fix the bad side effects.
 

crosscreekcooter

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The compact fluorescents are an environmental disaster given their mercury content.


When I was a kid we used to break thermometers open and rub that stuff on quarters to make them real shiny. We also used to run behind the mosquito truck and play in the fog.
 

G 2

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When I was a kid we used to break thermometers open and rub that stuff on quarters to make them real shiny. We also used to run behind the mosquito truck and play in the fog.
This explains a lot. :cool:
 

L-boy

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When I was a kid we used to break thermometers open and rub that stuff on quarters to make them real shiny. We also used to run behind the mosquito truck and play in the fog.

We absolutely used to do that. Except we would ride backs behind it, and the fog was so thick you'd almost run into each other. Not like this wussy stuff that they spray out now you can hardly even see.
 

Durty South Swamp

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Yeah buddy, go eat a d1ck.

Speaking of fluorescent lights, at least the compact ones, does anybody else notice you have to end up changing them a hell of a lot more than advertised? I have a whole bag full of them waiting to be recycled at Home Depot.
Hit a nerve huh? Deal with it.
 

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