Teach Me About Barn Doors

In reply to TRoglodyte:

I think 16' width was mentioned somewhere

yamaha wrote: In reply to GameboyRMH: You obviously have never had to break ice away from the bottom of a sliding door......they are top sliders btw.

I admit I only had ice with lifting doors

In reply to GameboyRMH:

thats the reason our current farm shop now has all overhead doors. When we add on to it, thats what we're looking at the 42' wide bifold for. Being able to pull the combine in with its 35' header sounds great.

Go here:

http://www.tauntonstore.com/finewoodworking-magazine-issues.html

Issue #216 Tools & Shops Winter 2010/2011

There's a pretty good overview of how the owner built the doors of the shop on the cover. They're even insulated.

TRoglodyte wrote: Swinging doors are pretty simple to build,how large is the opening?

I would need to measure them to make sure, but I believe they are 9x8.

2x4 frame glued and screwed together,slap a sheet of plywood on it and glue and screw it together with an x brace corner to corner. Couple of strap hinges and done! Spray with Thompson Water seal yearly.

They've generally been a pain when I've dealt with them on aircraft hangers, and I'm not sure the guy in this video is necessarily doing a good job selling the concept, but stacker type doors at leas score high on a do it yourself scale-- 2x4s, sheathing/insulation, single overhead roller and a lot of door hinges.

http://youtu.be/4Av-qsIIncg

this thread needs moar ACVW bus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIqfLuASe_c

No info on how it was built but this looks like it may be the ticket. I'm seriously considering replacing my sliding barn doors with this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMeu2bJQ0-s

Another video with construction details

bravenrace wrote:

TRoglodyte wrote: Swinging doors are pretty simple to build,how large is the opening?

I would need to measure them to make sure, but I believe they are 9x8.

Swinging doors for that opening won't be difficult; plywood with a 1"x4" border. 4/4.5' each door won't sag anytime soon either with the useage your describing.

I like the bi-fold idea, but it looks like it would be a much bigger project to do myself, and more expensive if I buy it.
I'm thinking either I make my own swinging doors, or I'm not thinking about restoring my doors by buying new hardware and springs, and putting a facia on the outside. Maybe something like T-111 siding with a light cosmetic frame around the outside. The doors are still structurally sound, its just the center masonite sections and hardware that are bad.

I was a fencing contractor for several years and built quite a few gates. Biggest thing you can do to absolutely prevent sagging is a steel frame, with a diagonal cross bar. Simple to build, but nobody else ever did it. 1 3/4 angle stock, a couple of welds = super gate. I also fabbed my own hinges, again, simple. Used 1/2" threaded rod and nuts so there was a lot of adjustability. Should work for your application.

In reply to cwh:

That's a good suggestion! And I'm better with steel than I am with wood! And I could attach a wood facia to it so it looks good. I'm going to have to look into that. Thanks!

If steel is an option skin it with Galvanized roofing?

I've built pretty sizeable gates out of wood with decent success and the steel frame will be even better. When fabbing it up, remember that your cross brace needs to be in tension not compression. This means the top of the cross brace will be on the hinge side. You could even make it as a turnbuckle (like a huge screen door brace) so it could be easily adjusted.

The only sagging I ever encountered was from the gate mounting post shifting. the screw type hinges gave me plenty of adjustability if that happened.

Door on my shed was a sheet of T-111 with a 2x2 frame on the inside. In this pic you can see where it warped a little. So I made a new frame from 1" square steel tube and that took care of the problem. The white trim is solid vinyl which helps a little bit structurally. The door has heavy strap hinges that I cut down and bolted it to the door and the shed with carriage bolts. It has been on the shed for 12 years since I redid the frame and has no problems with sagging or warping.

i don't know about the climate where this is taking place, but here in MN i would never purposely put swinging or sliding doors on any building that i would need to get anything out of in the event of a decent snowfall- your snowblower or snowplow is kind of useless until you can get it out to actually put it to work .. outward swinging doors suck when there is a 3 foot drift of hard packed snow piled up against them, and sliders are a pain in the ass with even the smallest amount of snowfall..

In reply to novaderrik:

Exactly why I'm going to replace my current sliders with the vertical folding door I linked to above. I'm sick of having to chip out the bottom of the sliders in the middle of the winter.

I have an overhead slider for the fence in my backyard. It's big enough to easily back a full-size pickup truck through. Twenty years old, no issues whatsoever. Before that, I had two swinging doors. They always sagged.

I have two 8' barn track sliders on my garage. Besides the snow and ice issues even the smallest clearance gap between the door bottom and floor allows leaves to pass through from the weather side. Even though I don't park in the garage now it's not good for OA cutting, heavy grinding or welding w/ leaves inside.

I'll have roll-ups on the next one.

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