Garage Work

Well, now that the garage has been cleaned out well enough to get both of our cars in it at once, I guess it has come to the time to get the doors working for us. Last weekend, Angel went to Sears to see about buying a new remote for the existing opener and while she was there, she put yet another Sears gift card to good use. She picked up another chain drive door opener for our other door.

As with most of everything that I get myself into, this turned out to be more complex that I had anticipated. I thought the major work was already done. I couldn't have been more wrong. I had thought since the header brackets (door and motor side) were in place and the bell wire and button installed that I'd just have to assemble and mount the new opener. Well, to my frustration, this was not the case.

So, I initially started working under this assumption. I got the system built, no problem there. I got the sensors installed and wired, no problem there. However, when I was ready to mount the system, I found that the header on the door side was the wrong width. I'd have to replace the bracket. No problem, the system came with one. I unbolted the existing header, installed the new one. The screw holes were off, but nothing a quick poke with the drill to get a guide hole made won't fix.

Once the door header bracket is mounted, I hook in the bar for the opener and then have to figure out how I can get the motor up, in place, and bolt it in by myself. The system did not come with prefab bars designed to attach nicely to the existing motor header system. Therefore, I take what was provided, L bars with alternating holes down its length and hammer it flat. However, these bars are about three feet long. How am I supposed to cut it? I don't have tin snips or a pair of dikes, so what do I have that will cut it? Well, from working in my trunk, I have a jigsaw that I borrowed from Ernie. This worked wonderfully (after I screwed the bar to a 2x4).

Before trying to hold and screw the motor, I mount the bar to the ceiling bracket. I pivot the motor close to being in place and begin to bend this bar so that it will line up with the motor. After a few shots at this I get the holes to line up. Wee.. now the system is mounted stable enough to see if I have enough clearance. The system is not mounted to the door yet, so I take and manually open the door. Anyway, to make a repetitive story short, I had to bring the system down and put it back up 3 times before I was able to get the door open without hitting the bar. The last time I even had to move the trolley (for manual operation in the event of a power outage) out of the way to reduce the clearance height requirement.

After having the system up and down 3 times, I was in quite the unhappy mood. Anyway, I braced the top of the door with the spare L bar and mounted the system to the door. Please keep in mind, up to this point, I only have the motor mounted to the ceiling with 2 hand tight bolts on one bracket. The other bracket hadn't been made yet because I was not sure the horizontal alignment with the existing bracket was even close.

Now that the door is mounted I gave the system its maiden operation. With some hesitation and excess noise, the door was successfully opened. The real challenge came when I couldn't get the door to close again. After some careful inspection, I found that the lag bolts on the left hand track were loose and the closing of the door was causing it to move and this movement was requiring too much force from the motor to move that it would just backup due to its safety system.

Thankfully, the lag bolts provided with the system were longer than those that were holding the track in place, it was a simple replace. After securing the track, the door would attempt to close and stop with about six inches left to go. Well, I read the manual and I had to increase the closing power of the motor. Several attempts and many adjustment screw turns later, I got the door to close without stopping short or hitting the ground and backing up again.

Now, let me tell you the a couple key details that I left out throughout this entire process. During the mounting process, in order to get the door to clear the bar, I had to put the mounting bracket partially in the ceiling. As I'm sure you can conclude, this also meant that the bar was partially in the ceiling and the trolley was also hitting the ceiling. Therefore, I had to cut a hole in the ceiling close to the bar everywhere things were hitting it. I still have drywall dust falling on my car at this point.

Here are some photos of my craftsmanship.