Converting standard overhead door opener to side mount.

Рет қаралды 27,855

5 жыл бұрын

Overhead opener wouldn’t work with a vehicle lift in my garage. Used the same garage door opener and and a timing chain set from a Ford Explorer. Worked great.
I have since had the garage door replaced and couldn't re-use this setup.

Пікірлер: 33

@1hicksonfamilybcle1 4 жыл бұрын

Awesome!!! Thank you for your video!! Getting ready to start on this project.

@radfahtit 2 жыл бұрын

i was thinking of this years ago when my opener crapped out.

@jaythegaragedoorman 4 жыл бұрын

It would also be best to slope your horizontal tracks a little. Just unbolt the ends from the back hangs and move them up 2-3 inches, if you have the room. Shouldn't need to do anything with the front of the tracks, you can usually get enough play to move them just by unbolting from the back. That would add a little more gravity and be a little more insurance against the cables coming off

@CurmudgeonExtraordinaire 2 жыл бұрын

One thing to note is that with the newer garage doors, the activation switch is not just a simple electrical connection where you can just touch the wires together or use any old generic momentary switch, but rather a circuit board that sends a particular message to the opener tell it what to do. That is how they have a single pair of wires be able to control multiple functions on the opener (e.g. opening and closing multiple doors independently, turning on/off lights, etc). When I replaced my garage door opener a couple of years ago, I discovered this fact because the switches that I had in the garage and house would no longer work and neither would the Arduino automation system that I had designed for the door. At one point, they differentiated between the various functions by using different resistances for the various functions... This is easy enough to reverse engineer and make work with DIY circuit / Arduino, but they changed it to a proprietary message based protocol at some point and the manufacturer will not give you any information on it so you are stuck having to buy whatever the manufacturer decides to offer.

@scottwillis5434 2 жыл бұрын

Or, opening up a remote and hooking small-signal relays across the switch contacts. Will probably want gold-flashed contacts, so they won't tarnish and stop working.

@CurmudgeonExtraordinaire 2 жыл бұрын

@@scottwillis5434 -- That might be possible with the wired remote since it's large enough to actually solder on, but the wireless remotes require microsurgery to solder on... My old eyes can't deal with that even with a magnifying viewer...

@paulmccullough3157 3 жыл бұрын

Great job! I did the same type setup and works well on one door but the other I'm having the cables unspool. When the door is all the way up and starts to go down it sort of drops a foot and then goes smooth. Did you detention the spring a quarter turn or both spools?

@peterfaggella3120 3 жыл бұрын

Yes I did. And that worked. For a month and the 50+ year old door didn't like to be jerked by the machine and it basically turned into a parallelogram and fell down. I had the door replaced with a taller door, so there was no room to mount the motor to the new one.

@Krummin 2 жыл бұрын

Does the 2:1 ratio on the chain drive hold-up. Would you recommend a different ratio? I grabbed some #41 chain and 21 or 22 tooth sprocket to experiment. Great video! Thanks

@peterfaggella3120 2 жыл бұрын

Hello. I think the 2:1 drive was perfect. The motor didn't have to work too hard and I was able to dial it in very well. It wasn't too "jerky" when stopping and starting. Unfortunately this didn't last too long as the old door had to be replaced and I ended up with a larger one with no room to put a motor.

@Liftmaster-sw2zy 4 жыл бұрын

Is setup still the same after replacing the door? If so, can we get an updated video? Thanks

@peterfaggella3120 4 жыл бұрын

Nope. The replacement door is 6" taller (modified the header to fit) and there was no more room for the same motor setup. Perhaps sometime I'll be able to figure something out.

@donl3381 5 жыл бұрын

Looks like you know what you're doing. I'm trying to convert my garage door opener to a side mount as well but also need to reconfigure my tracks so my garage door can run higher when it's open. (I need the extra clearance so I can fully operate my car lift to the highest level). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Not sure if I can use my current garage door motor for the side mount setup.

@peterfaggella3120 5 жыл бұрын

I had two totally different openers used on this thing (a Craftsman Professional and an ooold Lynx cheapy one) and both worked very similarly internally. I had to replace my door about a month after this. I'm not sure exactly why but what happened was the motor being on one side I think would twist the bar in a way that one side got a little more torque than the other and I had a catastrophic failure about a month later where it fell off the track, the windows smashed, etc. I ended up having the whole door replaced. How wide is your door? This one was 16ft wide. I could have probably adjusted the spring on the left side so it was wound a little tighter than the right side. Granted, the door was very heavy (solid wood) and everything was probably 50 years old.

@donl3381 5 жыл бұрын

@@peterfaggella3120 OH wow! My garage door is the standard length.. Should I replace the spring with something a little stronger? I need to go twice the height since I need the clearance for my lift to properly raise all the way up. That's crazy how yours twisted. It looked properly secured / bolted down. Did you install any side mount motor when you got your new garage door?

@peterfaggella3120 5 жыл бұрын

it was very well secured. I think the center bar twisted - I can't verify that but that's what I speculate and the only thing that really makes sense. I had to decrease the tension on the springs a little because the door would want to hang open on its own (as a normal door would), but as the motor went to turn the drums the cables would come off the spool because the weight of the door wasn't keeping tension on them. I hope that makes sense, I can explain it further if you need. I don't think you need a stronger spring, but I'm not sure what you mean by you need it to go twice the height. I shut the door in order to lift a car more than a couple feet. Works OK for me so my neighbors dont get too nosy. @@donl3381

@donl3381 5 жыл бұрын

@@peterfaggella3120 OH ok... I have a car lift in my garage but can't raise it high enough because my motor is mounted overhead. (I have a high ceiling so the clearance is there but I need to run extra rails for the door to open and sit higher up. That way I'll be able to have a car on the lift and one under it (for storage). Hence why I'm trying to side mount my garage motor.

@peterfaggella3120 5 жыл бұрын

Totally not a pro at this but I don't know if that is possible without really going nuts. The coiled springs are only made to lift the door up 7-8 feet, however tall the door is. I don't think you could wind the springs enough to get it to pull the door open much further than that. I bet a roll-up door would be your best option in that case.

@ParkerTheGarageDoorGuy 3 жыл бұрын

I would just get a LiftMaster 8500 setting force and limits with screws does not feel good

@TheAllenPride 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for taking the time to post and share your experience. Happened to land here in my own research on the topic. I Did have a question about the springs, What tools/bars did you use to reduce the tension? Ok maybe a couple questions or more :-) Did you adjust both springs at the same time? Looking at doing something different, and I think a jackshaft conversion like this just might work, but my guess is I am going to need to increase tension so as to take the load off the spindle/cable/gears/chain/motor and use the tension of the springs do the bulk of the lifting. That's why I am asking though. Trying to understand how the spring tension play a roll. - Thanks again and do hope you get a moment to share a little knowledge. At the very least you got to put fire to metal and melt it!! Plus you populated a few more braincells, including mine.

@peterfaggella3120 3 жыл бұрын

Hey. You will probably have to decrease tension on the springs. I think I mentioned this in the video, if the door wants to "Hang open" (as most garage doors do when they're fully opened"), as soon as you tell the motor to close the door, the door won't immediately move and the cabless will unwind from the drum and it will be a mess to put back together. I took about 1/4 turn of tension off of each spring to mitigate that. Every garage door I have worked on (and I'm up to 3 at this point) have had a hole that perfectly fits a 3/8" ratchet extension into. You will need two extensions, the longest you can find. I have a pair that are 18" and 24". There is a lot of tension and you need to be super careful. I tensioned both springs equally. It will make more sense when you see it. Let me know if you have any other questions :)

@claudebieniek7272 2 жыл бұрын

Quit fn around with your door before you get hurt. You call my company for help, I would just walk away.

@manny7684 Жыл бұрын

@@claudebieniek7272 how dare he work on his own home he should have to pay you. Your obviously super intelligent! Or you could shut the f up and mind your own.

@claudebieniek7272 Жыл бұрын

@@manny7684 I have no idea what you are talking about, where did this reply come from. This obviously has to do with a garage door video. FYI I have 22 yrs experience. How much do you have? I’m all for people working on their own stuff as long as they do it right but most of all safely. I see a lot of people doing things half assed or setting people up for failure. Your garage door is the largest moving object on your house, and is inherently dangerous. I’ve had to stop watching yt videos on garage doors, because most of them are just people trying to make money. Garage door training school is the biggest scam and idiot out there. Sorry calling it as I see it.

@havox112 2 жыл бұрын

I guess it works 😂

@localguy9816 2 жыл бұрын

How did you handle locking the door? With that system, couldn't a person just lift the door while the cables unraveled into a rat's nest around the spools? Note: There are a few videos on commercial and home-made automatic solenoid-operated deadbolts.

@peterfaggella3120 2 жыл бұрын

The original door slide-lock worked just fine.

@localguy9816 2 жыл бұрын

@@peterfaggella3120 - But the slide locks are manual, defeating the purpose of having a garage door opener in the first place.

@peterfaggella3120 2 жыл бұрын

@@localguy9816 I'm in and out of it 20 times a day as I work out of it. I only need to lock it at night. I'm sure you could use a wireless actuator with a fob (super cheap on amazon) to lock it if you needed to.

@localguy9816 2 жыл бұрын

@@peterfaggella3120 - the DIY solenoid-operated deadbolts I mentioned in my first reply are a better option. Simple, inexpensive, etc. But if you're in and out all day, and work right out of the building, you don't have nearly the concern of theft a lot of people might want to consider in their builds.