Don Bruder wrote:



If you've got torsion type springs, I strongly suggest you *DON'T* try
to mess with them unless you *KNOW* what you're doing - They're usually
wound tight enough to break an arm and/or pitch a person off a ladder,
and I've see a fellow lose one of the tensioning bars, and have the
spring fling it across the garage and through the drywall on the inside,
and the particleboard and aluminum siding on the outside, and come to a
stop stabbed about four inches into the trunk of a tree in the middle of
the back yard. When it went by, it made this weird humming/zinging kind
of noise that was spooky as hell.


And while those torsion springs can certainly maim someone who doesn't
know what he's doing, the tension type springs can injure an "inncent
bystander" who happens to be under one when it breaks loose and flails
around before coming to a rest, usually dangling down by one end.

I had one bust while I was still in the garage waiting for the garage
door to close before opening the door to the house, a strategy I have to
employ to keep our stupid cat from escaping. The BANG was enough to
rattle my teeth, and as the break was at the back end, the spring flung
forward and knocked a hole in the drywall above the door.

That's when I learned about the safety cables which our builder failed
to take care of having installed. When I replaced the tension springs on
that door I added safety cables through the centers of both springs to
restrain them the next time one breaks. Premade safety cable sets were
so cheap at Sears that I didn't even bother to DIY them myself with wire
cable and clamps.

I heartily encourage taking a peek at those tension springs if your
door(s) use them and adding safety cables if needed. For all I know they
may be code required some places, as I think they should be.

Oh, BTW, a tip which might help someone needing to replace garage door
tension springs themselves. I didn't know what strength springs to buy,
and had to measure the downforce weight of the garage door when nearly
fully closed.

I only had a bathroom scale and it bottomed out when placed under the
door. I grabbed a hunk of 2 by 4, a brick and a yardstick and quickly
set up a 1:3 lever system so the scale received only 1/3 of the force of
the door pressing down on the 2 by 4 at a point 1/3 of the distance from
the brick to the scale. That worked as Archemedies would have predicted,
as did the springs I bought based on multiplying the scale's reading by 3.

I wrote the spring ratings on the inside of the door to save me or the
next owner of the place from having to go through that exercise again. G

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."