DIY motorized roll-up door?

[nine4gmc]

Anyone motorized their 10'x10' roll up door? I've been tossing around ideas with a bicycle sprocket and DC motor to open/close my doors and wanted to know who has done it, what they used and if it worked or not to prevent a lot of unnecessary trial and error.

 

[kbs2244]

By roll up do you mean the typical sectional panel door or the narrow slat type that go around an axel?

I have imagined a shaft rotation setup, like the store bought ones, using the motor from a garage sale, chain drive opener and a bicycle sprocket.
But I do not have anything to take PICs of yet.

 

[nine4gmc]

Like this kind

 

[chrisbowles]

Would be nice to have some kind of limit switch to keep from binding the door

 

[rsanter]

Don't reinvent the wheel. There are a couple manufacturers that make those. Look at what they did and copy their design

If it was me I think I would go with a small low HP motor connected to a right angle drive.
You can place a limit switch at the bottom and at the top to stop the thing or just manually operate the switch if you want to be cheap but carefull.


Bob

 

[racingtadpole]

Can be done, one of the guys that taught me my trade many moons ago built one using a windscreen wiper motor and some bike sprockets. He got it working smoothly in the end, but he did admit that it would have been much easier and most likely cheaper to buy a commercial unit.
If you have a crack at it, dont forget to put a fuse or circuit breaker in the power feed to the motor in case the door jams and stalls the motor.

 

[Rookie2]

It was a PITA, would not do it again.
Liftmaster 8500 is a better choice but will take a little work to adapt it.

 

[nine4gmc]

I planned momentary switches to raise/lower and limit switches top/bottom to prevent jamming, probably a safety sensor too, like a normal garage door that knows when something is in the way.
I thought a DC motor because they are easy to control speed/direction and I happen to have a couple DC deck lift motors from a treadmill that have lots of torque. I also have several AC motors that are reversible along with two gear reduction boxes(40:1&30:1) so I could go that route as well..

Rookie, any more info on yours?

 

[mdbeck1]

I think that Shopnut did this as well over on the Asylum thread. He usually has a pretty good write up.

I took a quick look and am not finding it. I did find a picture of his drum doors with the motors on them so he's done the modification. Shoot him a PM and I'll bet he can tell you how to do it on the cheap.

 

[Rookie2]

I planned momentary switches to raise/lower and limit switches top/bottom to prevent jamming, probably a safety sensor too, like a normal garage door that knows when something is in the way.
I thought a DC motor because they are easy to control speed/direction and I happen to have a couple DC deck lift motors from a treadmill that have lots of torque. I also have several AC motors that are reversible along with two gear reduction boxes(40:1&30:1) so I could go that route as well..

Rookie, any more info on yours?

Mine is an old overhead chain dragger. Your idea to keep it simple is better as long as you don't want to mak it automatic with remote you'll do fine.