DIY Slide gate opener?

[nandomart]

Has anyone made a slide gate opener from scratch. Would like one for the house but looking at the price it is . Figured someone on here has done this.

 

[warmpancakes]

use a power window motor

 

[nandomart]

 

[warmpancakes]

a power window motor from a car works like a scissor lift

 

[nandomart]

warm can you provide more details on this..have you tried it?

 

[warmpancakes]

slide as in like a secret door , I might have misunderstood for that you would need a linear actuator

 

[nandomart]

its actually a a 21ft gate..thats why when you mention a power window motor it made me

 

[bluebolt]

Thats a big gate. Actaully thinking about something similar. Put gate on two wheels and power one wheel with 12 volt reversing motor similar to golf car.

 

[bluebolt]

And run the motor with a battery mounted directly to gate and a solar battery charger.

 

[mtwaterguy]

How about a garage door opener?

 

[rsanter]

go get an chain drive garage door opener

throw away the rail system

install brackets on the gate to string a chain on it

fab a mount to attach the opener to that will then attach to the ground

run the chain over the sprocket and use 2 roller to keep tension such that the chain will not back off the sprocket

you will need to play with the limit switches or install remote limit switches so it stops where you want it to

bob

 

[NUTTSGT]

Have you checked out TSC. I saw some on there a while back and I didn't think they were that expensive.

 

[kbs2244]

rsanter has the idea.
Do some web crawling or go check out the gates at a trucking company for ideas.

Another idea to play with is a gate that pivots at one of the upper corners and opens vertically.
Think of a RR gate.
You will need to counter weight it.
But you will notice that a RR gate is pretty long without much on the short side.

I cannot get any PICs of it, but we have a guy around here that has a grill high telephone pole as a gate that works like a RR gate.

 

[Stuart in MN]

My neighbor built one using a regular chain drive garage door opener. He had to build a weather shield for the drive motor but it works great. His gate is a lot narrower than yours, though.

 

[Fireborn]

Sorry this is a old post, but wanted to know if you built it. If so did you have any problems with it tracking straight. mine keeps walking right and braking my limited switch?

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

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Run a wheel shaped like this on an angle iron laid down like so

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Zoro has quite a few

 

[Dutch01]

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Run a wheel shaped like this on an angle iron laid down like so

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Zoro has quite a few

Works better with round rod welded to the top of the angle iron. Contact area of the pulley wheel is less that way - less rolling friction and lesser effort to open/close

 

[toplessHO]

you can use a small tire like a wheel barrow one for a traction wheel
one on top and one on bottom,
one on bottom is the drive wheel.
tension is regulated by air pressure in the tires.

 

[Richard D]

I have one that was scratch built, about 20', no wheel on the ground. It has 4 rollers, nothing touches the ground, very heavy duty. Guy I bought my house from built it. Can take pictures if anyone is interested.

 

[My Old Tools]

go get an chain drive garage door opener

throw away the rail system

install brackets on the gate to string a chain on it

fab a mount to attach the opener to that will then attach to the ground

run the chain over the sprocket and use 2 roller to keep tension such that the chain will not back off the sprocket

you will need to play with the limit switches or install remote limit switches so it stops where you want it to

bob

That's pretty much what ours is except it is purpose built as a gate opener. Uses a continuous chain to pull the gate each way and few wheels (mounted rollers) for it roll on. Nothing on the ground except the posts that hold up the frame. I'm pretty sure its DoorKing.

 

[toplessHO]

what ever you get or build look real good at the logic board
seems to be alot of problems with the door kings,at least here in the lightning capital.
Using proper surge protection only solves the surge issues but had some on commercial apps that ate them like candy.