ouch!

So, we woke upthis morning at the kids CY house to sunshine. Hurricane Sandy to a southern route and we were spared any inconvenience except for a lawn full of tree branches, bark, and leaves. Which meant I had to go ahead and start the door project in the garage.

first i had to clean out the corner cause my kid had not prepped for anyything. Then we madew a list and went to the store for lumberand supplies, and a ladder believe it or not and finally at 3:00 we had all in place.
I went to measure for the opening cutout, placed my hand on the garage door spring,,,,,BAM!

Damn thing broke. When it did, it collapsed taking a dime size piece of skin off of each of my fingers on the right hand.

Blood everywhere.

Kids screaming.

Daughter-in-law dialing for an Ambulance.

The wife yelling and getting out the battle dressings

After a moment, I took a look at my hand, cancelled the ambulance and asked for two things. Ten Bandaids and two fingers of scotch.

Everyone laughed at the silly old man, the wife did her surgery and the scotch came as Amaretto. My son has higher, more refined tastes, than scotch. I would have settled for McGregors.

Connecticut??

Anyhow, who would have thought the garage door springs were that deadly. Watch out for them suckers. They be mean.

Consider yourself lucky. I seen what happened to a friend of mine. Tore his arm up bad enough he had 2 operations and missed several months of work. Big springs are mean suckers waiting to unleash it on someone.

FrancSevin said:

Anyhow, who would have thought the garage door springs were that deadly. Watch out for them suckers. They be mean.

Click to expand...

I have the utmost respect for garage door springs myself :

TOMLESCOEQUIP said:

I have the utmost respect for garage door springs myself :

Click to expand...

WOW! I'm feeling pretty lucky now.

It appears the hook end of the spring failed. Just from the additioanal stress from the weight of my hand. It was likely to go in the next few cycles of the door.

Not something my kid could fix so, in the end a good thing as Dad is here to put things right.

I wonder how this kid is gonna keep up with this old house in the future. We live 1,150 miles away.

Dad should research some local contractors and interview them. You have enough experience with people and construction to find somebody trustworthy for him.

muleman said:

Dad should research some local contractors and interview them. You have enough experience with people and construction to find somebody trustworthy for him.

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Yeah, but Dad is a cheap bastard that doesn't think most contractors would pass the Mike Holmes standards. By the look of most of the remodel construction errors in this house, he is right.

My grand kids live here.

FrancSevin said:

After a moment, I took a look at my hand, cancelled the ambulance and asked for two things. Ten Bandaids and two fingers of scotch.

Click to expand...

You're more of a man than I. I would have asked for 10 fingers of Scotch and if I still remember what happened, a couple bandaids.

Yes I'm also familiar with garage door springs and why we have a pro change them with the proper tools. A property manager in Florida attempted to fix one when I was there and almost cut himself in half. Some of these springs are petty stout to say the least. Oh and I'm surrounded with them with 455 garage doors on this property.

FrancSevin said:

WOW! I'm feeling pretty lucky now.

It appears the hook end of the spring failed. Just from the additioanal stress from the weight of my hand. It was likely to go in the next few cycles of the door. .

Click to expand...

Know right where your at franc....So does the dent in my pickup hood from one of several sping failures of a 16X10 Wooden overhead door that was very heavy. Sounds like dynomite when it happens.

There is a new style spring being made that does not have a hook bent in the end. It uses a seperate piece of flat strap steel that is hooked in to each side of the end of the unmolested coil sping ends, forming a half loop you can hook into. The old style ALWAYS seem to fail at the hook, where it is bent. I could have told you how well they work, but it has only been a short time..I think it will solve the problem.

Ask around the locals as to who is a good contractor in the area. The Coffee shop is a great place to start....

Have fun, Kirk

I'll toss it out for your consideration.

I'm assuming we're dealing with the torsion spring(s) that goes to both sides of the garage door (as opposed to the type that go up each side individually).

Like these:


We all know there's a gazillion pounds of pressure on those springs but that's only true when the door is closed. When the door is open, there's only about 20 pounds of pressure on them when the door is in the full open position.

If you're removing, installing or adjusting these springs where you have to loosen the set screw, only do it when the door is open. Lift the door fully open, put a large screwdriver or rod in the hole then slowly loosen the set screw. There's virtually no pressure on the spring. Adjust, tighten set screw and lower door.

Voila. 95% of the danger is now removed.

Thanks for the advice my friends. Actually I am not working on the garage doors. The spring was just there in the way a bit of the human door project. All I did was touch it.

I am cutting a 38" X 84" opening for a new man door so the wheel chairs folks can navigate from the van to the house without going outside. The garage door tracks and spring were just nearby and I simply touched the spring while the door was down.

And yes Kirk, it does sound like dynamite going off.

I have installed well over 25 OH doors with both tension and torsion springs. I like the torsion style better. That yoke style spring clamp is a good idea. I will look for them in the morning so I can make the repairs.

Damn it is hard to type with just one thumb and a left hand.

You are lucky that all you lost was some skin. We changed to an aluminum door several years ago when the spring on our old wooden one failed. It did that when the door was closed at night.

Good extension spring installs have a safety cable through the center to contain them when they brake.

tom

You got lucky there Franc. As stated earlier, those springs can be brutal. I have a cable through mine to protect the sheet metal but I guess it can save your hide as well.

TOMLESCOEQUIP said:

I have the utmost respect for garage door springs myself :

Click to expand...

Back to the 38" x 84" rough opening for the man door, I have a question;

What height door is the 84" dimension for? A 6'-8" rough door opening height is 82-1/2", and a 7'-0" uses a 86-1/2" height. Do you have a custom height door?

JEV said:

Back to the 38" x 84" rough opening for the man door, I have a question;

What height door is the 84" dimension for? A 6'-8" rough door opening height is 82-1/2", and a 7'-0" uses a 86-1/2" height. Do you have a custom height door?

Click to expand...

Gimmie a break Jev. That is the rough out dimension of the frame before I install the prehung 36" X 80" door. I always build the opening that way to give me room for maximum adjustment, The header at 84" gives me room to add a 2X4 at the proper height for the door. I achieve the 82 1/2" when I level that part of the framing.

I always oversize the opening when retrofitting a door. It is easier to shim than cut out a jack stud.

In this case I may also have to install a ramp which will put one inch of decking under the door. If that is the case, I will substitute a 1X4 for the 2X4 lentil.

Hope your hand is better. I won't come near a garage door for for the very reasons listed above.

bczoom said:

I'll toss it out for your consideration.

I'm assuming we're dealing with the torsion spring(s) that goes to both sides of the garage door (as opposed to the type that go up each side individually).



We all know there's a gazillion pounds of pressure on those springs but that's only true when the door is closed. When the door is open, there's only about 20 pounds of pressure on them when the door is in the full open position.

If you're removing, installing or adjusting these springs where you have to loosen the set screw, only do it when the door is open. Lift the door fully open, put a large screwdriver or rod in the hole then slowly loosen the set screw. There's virtually no pressure on the spring. Adjust, tighten set screw and lower door.

Voila. 95% of the danger is now removed.

Click to expand...

Zoomer..........Not always true.

In my case the door was on the back of a large semi sized box truck. I had sold the truck off my lot for a friend who was selling off his vehicles because he had terminal cancer & could no longer run his business.

The purchaser was asking me if I could get the door working as it would not raise because the cable was off the pulley & in a bind on one side.

I raised the heavy wooden door to the open position using a forklift, then used vice grips in the tracks on both sides to make sure the door would not fall on me.

I was on a 12' stepladder working on the right hand cable. I had put a bar in the spring winder pried down and removed tension from the spring to allow me to place another bar in one of the winders additional holes to keep the spring in place while I rewound the cable on the pulley.


When I was working with the cable, there was a probably 4' loop hanging down along side of me and the ladder. I was wearing leather gloves while working with the cable due to burrs & the greasy conditions.

I must have pulled just hard enough when I was untangling the birds nest at the end of the cable that the spring moved just enough releasing pressure on the safety bar which flew out and was launched to the front of the truck box and at that same instant the 4' loop shot along my arm (leaving marks like I'd been thru a briar patch).

The cable wound around the center shaft not the pulley and quick as I was I pulled back my hand...............I had cable burn marks on my 2 left most fingers & the third was cut off mid way just past the first joint. the rest of my middle finger (which I really miss now as I'm unable to signal traffic) and the glove was wound around the shaft.

The whole thing tool about as long as snapping your fingers, (pun intended) start to finish.

So having the door up is no guarantee that it's safe.............it never is.

I really consider myself lucky, 'cause if I had been oriented slightly differently on that ladder, I would be missing an entire hand or arm, or hanging there unable to get free slowly bleeding to death.

My phone was laying just above me on top of the truck by the way.


Please everyone............call someone who works with these everyday if you need anything fixed on an overhead door.

Tom

Tom,

If the cable was on the pulley, wouldn't the spring pressure have been near nill with the door open? It sounds like the cable falling off had the spring pressure running at the wrong time especially if it took a fork truck to open the door.

I do these as little as possible (and only my own doors) but found the door-open to work for me (knock on wood).

Sorry you can't signal traffic. Your son should be old enough now to handle that for you.

A safety cable runs through the center of the spring from the door jam to the spring mount angle iron at the very end of the track.
It is independent of the door cable it doesn't have to be banjo tight just tight enough not to interfere with spring and pulley.

bczoom said:

Tom,

If the cable was on the pulley, wouldn't the spring pressure have been near nill with the door open? It sounds like the cable falling off had the spring pressure running at the wrong time especially if it took a fork truck to open the door.

I do these as little as possible (and only my own doors) but found the door-open to work for me (knock on wood).

Sorry you can't signal traffic. Your son should be old enough now to handle that for you.

Click to expand...

Cable was bound up around the shaft & pulley with much tension..........enough to keep the spring from unwinding when I raised the door..........It was like a mousetrap & I was the mouse !

Just a FYI...........Boy is nearly 17 now & signaling traffic on his own..........on his way to the deer stand tonite with hopefully positive results !

Kid's deadly with his compound bow & is as we speak waiting on just the right buck to pass under his stand............they grow up fast..........daughter just got her permit too..............