Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

truetex.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 344 posts

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#131

Post by imoverclocked »

amluto wrote: post #126
levocardia wrote: post #5

I had a teacher in high school who was blinded (I think only in one eye) trying to do this repair. You could not pay me enough money to do this repair. >This work is risky, but the risk is comparable to doing your own car repairs, or climbing on the roof of your house to clean your gutters. Notably, "unintentional fall" is the #1 cause of emergency department visits for adults [1], which is why I'd hire a professiona…

I don’t understand why it’s even considered safe to have one of these springs in one’s garage without a solid shield of some sort. While the energy involved is small on the scale of energy storage devices ( Which brings to mind some rather different designs. A rather small motor with a lot of mechanical advantage can easily open a close a garage door, and if a DC or low voltage AC motor is used, it could do so quite…

> A rather small motor with a lot of mechanical advantage can easily open a close a garage door, and if a DC or low voltage AC motor is used, it could do so quite a few times even if the power goes out.

Garage doors are actually fairly heavy. By balancing the weight with a spring, you do a lot of favors to your mechanical advantage systems. (Eg: less wear, less advantage needed, the door can open in a reasonable amount of time…) You also do yourself a few favors for when things fail. (Eg: you pull the safety release and it’s possible to open the door without the motor.) Finally, power isn’t free and motors aren’t either; A spring is a really cheap way to reduce the cost of both of these things.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#132

Post by timschmidt »

willcipriano wrote: post #73
levocardia wrote: post #5

I had a teacher in high school who was blinded (I think only in one eye) trying to do this repair. You could not pay me enough money to do this repair. >This work is risky, but the risk is comparable to doing your own car repairs, or climbing on the roof of your house to clean your gutters. Notably, "unintentional fall" is the #1 cause of emergency department visits for adults [1], which is why I'd hire a professiona…

Looks like you have to use a bolt to deload, replace and then load a spring. With the risk being you overload it and it snaps in your face? A chainsaw is scarier to me.

Battery electric chainsaws are a game changer. I have a little 20v 12 inch that I've felled and limbed 2ft thick trees with. Doesn't jump around, stops the moment you let go of the trigger, isn't noisy or hot. Still have to respect it, but it's a much tamer beast than the two cycle monsters of yore.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#133

Post by pavel_lishin »

arh68 wrote: post #75

> but the risk is comparable to doing your own car repairs "Comparable" in that it's way, way greater , sure. Unless we're talking dangerous car repairs, like using a spring compressor to disassemble a strut &c. Or using harbor freight jack stands.. When my spring broke, I thought someone crashed their car into my house. It's an incredible amount of energy. Garage door springs are up there with lathes & table saws, i…

I once bought a table saw, then watched a YouTube safety video about table saws, and then sold my table saw.

I wouldn't even consider owning a lathe. I know my limits, and even the chop saw in the garage gives me the shivers.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#134

Post by giobox »

dylan604 wrote: post #86
YeBanKo wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Potentially throwing away so many good years How much time did you spend changing oil?? It's a 20-30 min job once you have done it coupe of time and know the ropes. I sometimes do it myself not because I want to save few bucks, but because it's sometimes faster than going somewhere.

I'm assuming you're leaving out the time it takes to drive somewhere to dispose of the used oil and driving back. I grew up in the boonies, and my dad was one to dispose of oil "out back". It was such a shock the day he brought home a proper catch can to have it disposed of properly

This isn't that bad for most people living in the US, given every major auto part chain in the country accepts the fluids for free (o'reilly, autozone, etc). There's often an auto parts store next to the supermarket or close by. Besides, for most cars we are talking about a once every 12-24 month event for only ~5 quarts of old fluid.

You can show up with the used oil in any receptacle you like, there's no such thing as a proper container beyond not leaking, they will take the contents off your hands.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#135

Post by kelnos »

amluto wrote: post #126
levocardia wrote: post #5

I had a teacher in high school who was blinded (I think only in one eye) trying to do this repair. You could not pay me enough money to do this repair. >This work is risky, but the risk is comparable to doing your own car repairs, or climbing on the roof of your house to clean your gutters. Notably, "unintentional fall" is the #1 cause of emergency department visits for adults [1], which is why I'd hire a professiona…

I don’t understand why it’s even considered safe to have one of these springs in one’s garage without a solid shield of some sort. While the energy involved is small on the scale of energy storage devices ( Which brings to mind some rather different designs. A rather small motor with a lot of mechanical advantage can easily open a close a garage door, and if a DC or low voltage AC motor is used, it could do so quite…

If the garage door opener breaks, or the power is out, many people might have a really tough time opening the door manually without those springs. They might not be able to even do it at all.

It is still, of course, a valid question to ask if it's worth having dangerous springs up there all the time for the rare event of the opener being inoperative.

Or maybe we just shouldn't have doors that are that heavy?

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#136

Post by LeifCarrotson »

elzbardico wrote: post #105

At my home country we used counter-weights, pulleys and cables. Took more space, it is arguably uglier (but who cares how it looks on the inside?) but the cable usually lasts for ages and fixing it is not a life-threatening procedure.

How does a counterweight work?

A torsion spring is great because as it unwinds, the tension decreases. As the garage door transitions from 200 lbs of vertical load in the closed position to almost 0 lbs when it's mostly parallel to the ceiling, a properly sized and wound spring reduces the force in synchrony with the door position.

Wouldn't a counterweight provide insufficient force at the bottom and/or excess force at the top?

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#138

Post by Brian_K_White »

derekp7 wrote: post #66
TheGRS wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its widely known as one of the most dangerous DIYs you can do. I think typically people working on them will get pushed off their ladder suddenly from the tension in the spring releasing.

Happened in my family a number of years ago. The instructions said to crank the spring 7 1/4 turns. So it was really make a 1/4 turn, repeat 7 times. Not 7 full turns plus 1/4 additional. After pulling the vice grips off, the door shot up with such force that it knocked the ladder over, causing a broken collar bone in the process.

Holy crap what a terrible instruction!

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#139

Post by Waterluvian »

> so if you have any doubts about your abilities to do risky physical work on your own, hire the job out like everyone else.

The problem I witness is that the people who kill or maim themselves will tell you they were confident. When people aren’t confident, their brains are responding properly to the danger and it generally leads them to making good decisions.

Re: How I replaced deadly garage door torsion springs (2002)

#140

Post by Scoundreller »

linsomniac wrote: post #30

Nobody seems to mention keeping the springs lubed for longevity. What's the groups thinking on that? I keep a spray bottle of lube by the door and shoot it every few months, which is probably overkill, but it's so easy. Then just wipe off the excess and grime maybe yearly.

Don't just lube the springs, take the cover off the opener and grease up the nylon gears. The grease eventually dries out and then the gears turn into dust.

Here's the DIY video I followed to overhaul it when that eventually happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE3GTc1h5N0

Post reply on HN