Garage Door spring bracketry

[Jlaa]

Happy New Year!

Normally every year I take a New Year's Day drive up and down California Hwy 1. Its a lovely drive, and often times on NYD there are lots and lots of classic and other enthusiast cars just driving up the coast on this holiday.

I don't think I'll be doing that this year. Argh! I'm trapped inside my garage! Of course this happens new year's day when no garage door person is available to fix it.

Just venting --- man --- that stupid steel bracket which holds the spring to the header snapped in two --- and now the garage door, which is HEAVY, is jammed and cocked in this position.

I feel like this is a crap bracket or undersized bracket to begin with.

Oh well, first world problems.....

 

[ace10]

That sucks.
Don't put any of your fleshy bits anywhere near that fractured bracket. In case that wasn't obvious.


I went with three high lift sidewinder doors on my new garage. It's my first experience with them. Nothing but positives in the first month. Can't wait to swap out the old, crappy screw drive mechanicals on my attached garage.

Good luck with the repair.

 

[nocfn]

I recently had my spring break, spendy replacements but don't mess with it, let the garage door folks mess with it.

 

[gerryvz]

Extremely dangerous to mess with yourself. DANGER.

+1 with Looey .... let the pros handle it.

Cheers from The London Eye,
Gerry

Yes that’s Big Ben on the left side undergoing refurbishment.


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[Jlaa]

Nice View of Big Ben! Hopefully the London Eye has strong steel!

 

[gerryvz]

Yep! Survived my first time on the Eye! It was pretty cool at night. Bucket list item for everyone who goes to London ... I’ll never do it again though.


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[skikrazey]

Garage door springs, UGH!!! Ran safety wire through the springs that ran parallel with the track at my old house. One did break and saved my car from damage! Let the pros handle that stuff!

New house has the same spring set up as Jlaa, must check my brackets when I get home!

 

[ace10]

New installation:
Haas 8X10 doors. ~r17 insulation. No glass.

Sidewinder motors. The first pic is the bracket for double spring in the 12' ceiling section. Probably 16 gauge, or thereabouts.

Second one is where the door travels up to about 15-16'. Single spring. Bracket metal is all of 1/8" thick.

All of the spring and motor H/W is lagged into a triple LVL header.

 

[Jlaa]

New installation:
Haas 8X10 doors. ~r17 insulation. No glass.

Sidewinder motors. The first pic is the bracket for double spring in the 12' ceiling section. Probably 16 gauge, or thereabouts.

Second one is where the door travels up to about 15-16'. Single spring. Bracket metal is all of 1/8" thick.

All of the spring and motor H/W is lagged into a triple LVL header.

View attachment 71710View attachment 71709

Thanks for the pics.

-- The first 3 pics -- the 16 gauge "residential bracket" is what my garage door, installed 6 years ago, employed. The ceiling is about 8.5', and I have a double spring. My garage door is roughly 400 lbs.

-- The remaining pics -- the 1/8" thick "commercial brackets" is what I just had installed for the double spring, replacing the original "residential brackets".

Here's some better photographs ---- The first two photos are of the original 16 gauge brackets, and the third photo is of the new 1/8" thick commercial brackets. Man, looking at the failure mode of the 16 gauge residential brackets --- I'm totally amazed. The force to BREAK this bracket -- IMMENSE. The force, obviously, came from one of the two springs at the top of the garage door ---- and to note that the break was a clean break -- it didn't bend at all in the flat/bendy direction. WOW.

The garage door guys who came out and fixed it today noted that they've only seen this occur ONCE since 1981 --- and it happened on a 25+ year old installation. Not a 6 year old installation.

 

[500AMM]

This type of product is made of typically low strength carbon steel qualities to keep the cost down. Next is how the brackets are made, and the most common way is like this;
- randomly cut to shape from sheet metal
- hole pattern cut/punched out
- cold bending to 90° done in less than 1/10 a second

Low strength carbon steels does not like fast and sharp bending processes, it's high risk for inducing micro cracks. And the general key is to do any bending across the sheet metals origin rolling direction during production - which is overruled due to time & cost.
We can't do anything than live with it. ☺

 

[JC220]

I recently had a new automated insulated garage door installed but the springs are part of the Door system. They are not wall mounted like that - just the frame is. The attached pic is from my supplier. Note the springs at the outer edge of the door

 

[BigWillieStyle]

Torsion spring, threaded rod and 6 turns of tension. Spring was probably over-tensioned, door weighs more than standard cheap aluminum foam filled doors. My guess would be if door installers are using the same motor for heavier doors they are trying to compensate by adding additional tension to the spring which puts additional stress on galvanized stamped bracket. Probably need to upgrade or gear down the motor because if not it will prolly crapout ahead of schedule. My uncle runs a garage door business, maternal grandpa built the business but the uncle is now big hoss. Nonetheless in my analysis of the business I've realized any ape can fix a damn door. Child labor activists and attorneys, ear muffs, I used to crank those springs while on grandpa's shoulders.

The springs are an inherent flaw in the design of all doors. I think they're rated at 20k up & downs total life? The cost and design were implemented before Moore's Law, under the assumption that electric motor pricing would remain fixed.

 

[BigWillieStyle]

Here's a good post or answer on Quora if anyone ever wants to building their own deal.

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-calculate-the-electric-power-required-to-lift-100-kg-of-material

 

[BigWillieStyle]

Get a 3kw servo with brake and a VFD, you'll have enough "oomph" to lift a diabetic mother-in-law. Insert Tim the Toolman grunt here.