What great neighbours I have! This was brought home to me yet again on Monday-
I get home after work, pull my driveway, and hit the garage door opener. I should say in advance that my garage door is the older one piece style, and not the horizontal section type. And it always goes up and down in a somewhat jerky fashion, with the associated stress on the assembly. It's suffered trauma in the past, which I have thus far been able to sort out. Not this time!
So, about halfway open the door jerked and stopped at a crazy angle. It was obvious that something was very wrong!
Upon inspection, it appeared that the angle iron which supported the spring had literally broken off at the attachment point where it swivels. Hard to describe here and I don't have a digital camera, but suffice to say that a chunk of the angle iron had just broken off due to the stress. Just a chunk out of that had twisted off. So now there was no way to reattach the angle iron to the swivel. I should mention that the angle iron was like 2"x2"x 1/8".
That is, without first removing the angle iron and taking it to the local weld shop. (Damn me for selling my welding set-up, since I could've fixed that easily given my fabrication experience). And so now, I figured I had to disassemble the angle iron from the brackets that held it there with the springs. Do-able but a PITA!
So, as I was just looking at the problem my next door neighbour came over. He's always been very helpful in the past and is the consummate home handyman, and has helped me out many times in the past as I'm kind of a klutz! Well, he and his buddy assessed the problem right away and went right to work.
He got a bigass thick washer and ground off a corner so it would sit comfortably in the broken off area. And then proceeded to drill a couple holes in it which he attached with self-tapping screws to the angle iron, which effectively made it the same line-up to the swivel.
But first he had to grind off the swivel, since it was effectively a pressed on assembly and therefore not replaceable otherwise. To this, he affixed a big bolt which held it on to the anchor point.
A few adjustments to the spring and the door was repaired. This all took all of an hour and a half, and I once again had a fully operational garage door. And if I would have called a garage door repair company, they surely would have tried to sell me on a whole new sectional door, with the inevitable price tag!
All to say that helpful neighbours are worth their weight in gold.
:cheers:
Cheers,
RR
I get home after work, pull my driveway, and hit the garage door opener. I should say in advance that my garage door is the older one piece style, and not the horizontal section type. And it always goes up and down in a somewhat jerky fashion, with the associated stress on the assembly. It's suffered trauma in the past, which I have thus far been able to sort out. Not this time!
So, about halfway open the door jerked and stopped at a crazy angle. It was obvious that something was very wrong!
Upon inspection, it appeared that the angle iron which supported the spring had literally broken off at the attachment point where it swivels. Hard to describe here and I don't have a digital camera, but suffice to say that a chunk of the angle iron had just broken off due to the stress. Just a chunk out of that had twisted off. So now there was no way to reattach the angle iron to the swivel. I should mention that the angle iron was like 2"x2"x 1/8".
That is, without first removing the angle iron and taking it to the local weld shop. (Damn me for selling my welding set-up, since I could've fixed that easily given my fabrication experience). And so now, I figured I had to disassemble the angle iron from the brackets that held it there with the springs. Do-able but a PITA!
So, as I was just looking at the problem my next door neighbour came over. He's always been very helpful in the past and is the consummate home handyman, and has helped me out many times in the past as I'm kind of a klutz! Well, he and his buddy assessed the problem right away and went right to work.
He got a bigass thick washer and ground off a corner so it would sit comfortably in the broken off area. And then proceeded to drill a couple holes in it which he attached with self-tapping screws to the angle iron, which effectively made it the same line-up to the swivel.
But first he had to grind off the swivel, since it was effectively a pressed on assembly and therefore not replaceable otherwise. To this, he affixed a big bolt which held it on to the anchor point.
A few adjustments to the spring and the door was repaired. This all took all of an hour and a half, and I once again had a fully operational garage door. And if I would have called a garage door repair company, they surely would have tried to sell me on a whole new sectional door, with the inevitable price tag!
All to say that helpful neighbours are worth their weight in gold.
:cheers:
Cheers,
RR
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