Robert J. wrote:

I have a patio door in our house. It has two sliding glass doors
inside a larger frame.The doors (panels) are removable. It is an
older type made about 1960 ish. There are no lock parts available at
the local Lowes.

The problem is this. The glass in one of the double sliding doors
is slipping inside it's aluminum frame. I took the door down
yesterday and it appears that the bottom aluminum frame is wider at
the bottom than the top, which indicates it has slipped out of place
somewhere. There are what appears to be adjustment screws on the top
and bottom but the only seem to adjust the height of the door when in
the larger door frame. If I disassemble the frame for that one
panel, in order to secure the glass, will there be any surprises in
there ?

Nothing appears to be broken and it looks fine but it is apparently
coming apart. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
i am in a similar fix.. got a house i had built in 1971.. the plastic
spline that goes around the glass is similar to what goes around the
glass in the windows around the whole house, but its bigger in the patio
door.. i tried to get some to put in the area around the glass, but
cannot... i did get a lock(new handle with key lock in it) at home
depot.. i had to grind down the metal from a 1/2 in. thick piece to a
3/8 in. think piece... friend at work put it on a commerical grade floor
grinder and made it thinner, looked like it was made for the door after
he was finished with it... you might have to make some parts for the old
patio door if you need them and cannot find them on the net... do a
search for patio door glass, etc on www.google.com or www.yahoo.com
i went through alot of sites and finally gave up on the spline when a
local old time glass guy told me that he has it listed in his catalogs,
but cant get it as they dont make it anymore(the spline).. i hope he is
wrong,but i would like to prove it by finding it....

"jim" wrote in message ...
Robert J. wrote:

I have a patio door in our house. It has two sliding glass doors
inside a larger frame.The doors (panels) are removable. It is an
older type made about 1960 ish. There are no lock parts available at
the local Lowes.

The problem is this. The glass in one of the double sliding doors
is slipping inside it's aluminum frame. I took the door down
yesterday and it appears that the bottom aluminum frame is wider at
the bottom than the top, which indicates it has slipped out of place
somewhere. There are what appears to be adjustment screws on the top
and bottom but the only seem to adjust the height of the door when in
the larger door frame. If I disassemble the frame for that one
panel, in order to secure the glass, will there be any surprises in
there ?

Nothing appears to be broken and it looks fine but it is apparently
coming apart. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
i am in a similar fix.. got a house i had built in 1971.. the plastic
spline that goes around the glass is similar to what goes around the
glass in the windows around the whole house, but its bigger in the patio
door.. i tried to get some to put in the area around the glass, but
cannot... i did get a lock(new handle with key lock in it) at home
depot.. i had to grind down the metal from a 1/2 in. thick piece to a
3/8 in. think piece... friend at work put it on a commerical grade floor
grinder and made it thinner, looked like it was made for the door after
he was finished with it... you might have to make some parts for the old
patio door if you need them and cannot find them on the net... do a
search for patio door glass, etc on www.google.com or www.yahoo.com
i went through alot of sites and finally gave up on the spline when a
local old time glass guy told me that he has it listed in his catalogs,
but cant get it as they dont make it anymore(the spline).. i hope he is
wrong,but i would like to prove it by finding it....

I agree you may have to find or make parts for a door like that.
We have double-double sliding glass doors (that is two outer and two inner
doors in the same door box with a four inch space between.the two sets of
doors.
Each ,single thickness glass, door (four of them) are quite heavy and there
has been a problem (over 33 years) with, a) Wearing out of the wheels within
the base of the doors that run/slide on the tracks. Therefore the doors
would drop and would not align or mesh together properly. b) Snow, tree
leaves and other debris get caught in the tracks, where the doors enter into
the side parts of the door frame and mesh together in the middle. his also
caused wear and clogging. Constant cleaning out of the debris required. Also
maintenance/adjustment and on occasion making replacement wheel assemblies
and level adjustments have been required.
With ours it is possible to disassemble the door to get at the wheel
mechanisms and the edges of the glass to install new moulding that holds the
glass in place. It's tricky and the single piece of glass in each door is
heavy and has sharp edges. If one was to break the glass it would probably
cost $50 each, or more?
Also some of the original aluminum screws broke off (Ah!). Have used
stainless screws for all replacements.
Terry.