Where there's a mill there's a way

[A.K. Boomer]

Over the years iv used my mill for many dozens of home fix it projects, so just the other day had to do just that except it was for an x-girlfriend as her sliding door has been giving her grief for years now --- the internal plastic rail broke down, it's the thing that the rollers glide on, the rail does pull out with pliers and you would think very handy to replace but call home depot and a few other places like Ace and they all tell me the same thing,

They don't have anything even for the new stuff, and if it's over a decade old you will most likely not find it for that specific door as they are all different --- I say - so what should i do? answer - buy a new door and have it installed, How much I say? oh about 650.00 for entry level door and with installation over a grand... Wow - just like that...

so 15 minutes later the flexible rail is "kinda" clamped in my vise on my milling machine and im tearing out all the old center rail --- the pic actually shows an area of center rail what was good as it was at the other end that was barely ever used but you get the idea, so it left a nice valley;




Then all I had to do was plop down a 6 ft chunk of 3/8" galv. round in it - grease the rollers and bearings and she's back in business probably indefinitely...





Door glides like butter - she's extremely happy and that's important cuz this is the one that built a voo-doo doll of me complete with hair from my brush and stuff and when I started seeing another gal she did things like poke it with needles and held it's feet to a fire...
thing is - is im not sure if she ever got rid of the doll so she kinda has leverage on me... better to play it safe...

[Dan Dubeau]

Nice fix. You didn't happen to see a tiny model of her house complete with broken screen door when you were over there did you? You might get voodoo'd into fixing more of her broken stuff now.

[Bob Engelhardt]

... she's back in business probably indefinitely...
...

Not so fast ... I wouldn't be surprised if that in 30 or 40 years the galvanizing gets worn off, it rusts, and she doesn't like the rust. 😁😁 Good work!

[Dan Dubeau]

Not so fast ... I wouldn't be surprised if that in 30 or 40 years the galvanizing gets worn off, it rusts, and she doesn't like the rust. 😁😁 Good work!

Just tell her that every 25 years she needs to rotate the bar 27* counterclockwise and she should be safe.

[A.K. Boomer]

I did warn her of the rust factor after awhile and she's good with that as long as it rolls so should not be getting any bouts of severe indigestion (the pins) or athlete's feet (the holding them to the flame) two things that happened to me in the same era of the voo-doo doll torturing...

[Willy]

Great fix, have seen that problem a lot.
You could likely do a pretty good side business if news got out as I'm sure there's lots of demand for that repair.
We'll just keep it our little secret right here.

Wife yells down to her husband downstairs...Bob do you ever get a real sharp pain in your back like someone's got a voodoo doll and is poking it?
Bob yells back...no, never.
Wife yells back...how about now?

[old mart]

It's amazing how easy it is to get a workable slot like that by doing the milling section by section. One of these days, I am expecting to do a similar job on the door runner of a Vietnam war style Huey helicopter, the original is corroded and damaged and probably not easy to replace, especially in the UK.

[A.K. Boomer]

Wife yells down to her husband downstairs...Bob do you ever get a real sharp pain in your back like someone's got a voodoo doll and is poking it?
Bob yells back...no, never.
Wife yells back...how about now?

That's a keeper (the joke not the woman) lol nice to start the day with a laugh of that nature bravo...

[lynnl]

Years ago I was faced with a similar problem posed by excessive wear of the roller rail on a sliding patio door.
I found that what was called a "cap rail" was available for the purpose of fitting over the worn rail to form a new, smooth surface for the rollers.

From the pictures above that galvanized pipe/rod looks a bit large for those rollers. If those cap rails are still available and could be made to fit this application, that might be a good solution. Though the deed is done now.

[A.K. Boomer]

Years ago I was faced with a similar problem posed by excessive wear of the roller rail on a sliding patio door.
I found that what was called a "cap rail" was available for the purpose of fitting over the worn rail to form a new, smooth surface for the rollers.

From the pictures above that galvanized pipe/rod looks a bit large for those rollers. If those cap rails are still available and could be made to fit this application, that might be a good solution. Though the deed is done now.

If one installed one of these cap rails your talking about you never would have got the door back in the framework, even with worn rail and rollers adjusted all the way low I still had to shoe-horn the door out and then back in,,, also the existing rail was so butchered that im sure the new cap would have had lows and highs,,,

the rod is bigger than the roller guides - but if I went 1/4" it then would have not fit tight into the valley and that would have made the door have to be guided by the side frame and that too would have created extra drag... come to think of it - if I installed a cap rail it too would have been bigger than the roller guides -- and what plastic? not good...

the way things were --- I shoe horned the door back in WITHOUT the rod, then lifted one end of the door and slide the rod under at an angle - I did not have to bend it - it conformed and then went into place done deal...

Time will tell but I believe it's a good fix...

[Lew Hartswick]

Just tell her that every 25 years she needs to rotate the bar 27* counterclockwise and she should be safe.

For one of her "persuasion" I think the expression is widdershin or is that "clockwise". I forget the other term. It's been too long since "clocks" were invented. :-)
...lew...

[lbender]

I forget the other term.

Sunwise.

[I make chips]

Voodoo doll huh? Glad she's your ex.