On Wed, 30 Oct 2013 13:32:45 -0700, Oren wrote:

When the spring is tightened, the marks on the coils
will off-set ...

Dan Musick personally told me NOT to measure the number
of turns of the painted stripe in the spring, because
it's much more logical (and intuitive) to just count
quarter turns.

He also suggested, last time, I paint an additional
stripe AFTER the spring is installed.

The results show here, where you can see residual tension
on the spring when the door is all the way up (i.e., the
spring is unwound):
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2813/1...498d8525_o.gif