|
Posted by DerbyDad03 on July 7, 2007, 3:32 pm
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > One of the cables broke on my garage door. It appears that when it
> > broke the spring pressure did the damage. The door track is (was)
> > hung from a vertical 2x4 coming down from the ceiling. (I have an 8
> > foot high door in a garage with a 9 foot ceiling). The spring was
> > attached to a large eye hook in that 2x4. The spring actually
> > shattered that 2x4 causing the track to become disconnected and free
> > hanging. The spring was found in the rear of the garage where it
> > knocked a bunch of cans of oil and other automotive chemicals all over
> > the floor and a chunk of wood was ripped off one shelf. This left a
> > major mess with oil on the floor.
>
> > Luckily I entered the garage via the walk in door. I was shocked when
> > I went in there. I first noticed the oil mess and started cussing at
> > my cats, thinking they had gotten in there. But there were no cats.
> > When I turned around I noticed the door track hanging free and soon
> > discovered the spring on the floor.
>
> > I heard these springs are dangerous, but I never knew they could do
> > this much damage. I know I can fix this, and this time I intend to
> > use a hardwood 2x4 or maybe a 4x4 if I can find one. However, I dont
> > like the idea of walking into a garage with these springs ready to
> > fly, which could cause severe injury.
>
> > Is there any way to secure the spring so if something breaks, at least
> > it will stay up in the air where it belongs?
> > This is an older 8 foot high, 9 foot wide wooden door. It's not that
> > heavy, but still needs the springs to lift it. Where I used to live
> > we had a 10 foot wide fiberglass door and I could lift it without
> > springs, although it was a bit of a struggle. Those springs were not
> > as large (and likely not as powerful).
>
> > I'm off to buy a new cable, but I wont feel safe going into the garage
> > until I can find a way to make those springs safer. Placing them
> > inside a steel tube (pipe) seems like one way, but how?
>
> > Anyone got any tips?
>
> > Thanks
>
> > Andy
>
> I had this happen twice at my old house. The eyes of the springs develop
> fatigue cracks over time, and when the crack propagates deep enough....BAM!!
> The best solution is to get new garage doors with torsion springs on them.
>
> If you don't want to do that, then replace all the springs so they are the
> same age and have the same number of cycles on them. Replace every 5 years
> or so before the have a chance to break.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
- The best solution is to get new garage doors with torsion springs on
them.
While a torsion spring may not let go with the force of an extension
spring, they do present a different kind of danger.
Many years ago, before I knew jack about stuff around a house, my wife
called and told me the garage door was stuck about half way down. When
she tried to use the opener, it just went clunk. When I got home, I
looked at the cables and noticed they weren't on the pulleys any more.
I had no idea what was going on, so I grabbed the release cord for the
opener and pulled it.
Little did I know that the torsion spring was broken and all that was
holding the door up was opener. I also didn't know that my 2 year
daughter was at that exact moment running into the garage. As soon as
I pulled the cord, the door dropped with it's full weight and
miracously stopped just inches before it hit my daughter. The cables
had tangled themselves around the brackets and caught the door. Or
should I say that God wrapped the cables around the brackets and
stopped the door. I'm not a mushy guy, but I still get all weird
inside knowing how close I came to probably killing my daughter.
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap