Searching for information on single-piece garage door mechanism

[thevillageinn]

I wonder if anyone can help me with the geometry or some plans, in english, for a single piece garage door mechanism like in this video?

I am a tenant in a building where the front entry area needs to be replaced. I would like to install a single piece overhead door like shown, add a hinged walk through door to it as well for ease of use - my opening is approximately 7' wide by about 8' tall. I'd prefer not to have lots of greasy track running up and extending inside the building. I also like the way this door sticks out partially creating a little overhang to stand under.

Many thanks for any assistance you can provide-
-Dan

[dwbachor]

(https://www.homedepot.com/p/E900-Uni...00-R/205510959) Pretty reasonable to buy. Not sure if it is worth trying to build. Still would probably have to order springs anyway.

[IAMSatisfied]

Whatever you do, you'll definitely want to build a scale mock-up, and just doing that and playing with the pivot positions on both arms will make it clear what direction you need to go with the pivots. Similar to the mock-up that this fellow did:

In the video that you posted, the spring arm looks to be the same height as the man. Assuming he's 6' tall, I'd say the door is about 7'-7.5' tall, and the pivot on the spring arm looks to be about 4' 9" high, or so. You could use those proportions as a starting point in your mock-up and play with it to fine tune it. Once you get those proportions right, then the length of the upper arm (with the gas lift) will be pretty straightforward.

Regards,
Bryan

[thevillageinn]

Many thanks to both of you. I wasn't even really getting anywhere with my searches because my terminology wasn't exactly correct.

Making a mock-up seems like a good plan.

[janders1957]

Awesome idea. Need to do something about my door, think I'll do something with this.
Regarding working out the details, there's a free program at www.linkagesimulator.com
I installed it, but never really played with it as I didn't have a need. But going to see if
I can work out dimensions for my door with it.

[thevillageinn]

Hmmm. that's a very interesting program.
Thanks for sharing the link (no pun intended)!

[olderdan]

Thanks for the program link I have downloaded it and it looks very useful for many applications, just takes a bit of time to get used to the way it works.