Shopsmith Forums

I started the next project for the house which will entail building six carriage doors for both garage door openings. The large double wide will have four doors and the smaller opening will be two doors. For the larger opening the doors will be bifold in two pairs. The smaller opening will be just two doors. The openings are about 16’ and 8’ wide so each door panel will be about 48” wide. I am using poplar and double laminating all jambs, rails and stiles for better stability and using 3/4” dowels. The center panels will be 1/2” MDO board. It will all be paint grade. The doweling went well using the SS in both horizontal and vertical mode. I glued up the first one today all went pretty well. Now on with the other five.
Paul

I love the look of carriage doors. Swing-out space would seem to be the main downside. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the bifold doors work out.

Paul,

I like the idea and the doors look great so far. Question though, I noticed you have added insulation to your existing garage doors and that you live in a hot climate like I do. Are you planning to insulate on the inside of the carriage doors? You'll have to adjust the garage door spring for the new door weight, or add a new spring. I have done this myself in the past, but I always feel like I am taking my life into my own hands when I adjust one of those springs...so I prefer to call someone now for adjusting them.

Hey, was that your story board for the project on the far left of the 2nd photo you posted?

The carriage doors are being put into the jamb space which is exterior to the vertical roll up doors and won’t interfere with their operation. I plan to leave the insulated roll ups in place as an added heat barrier. The insulation did not add enough weight to the roll ups to cause an issue so I have not had to adjust the springs.
Paul

The bifold door thing is an issue I have been wrestling with Dennis. The weight factor for on the hinges for both doors will be an issue. At this point I am planning on using four heavy duty ball bearing hinges on each door. The jambs I made are 1 1/2” thick laminated poplar and the plan is to use long screws (5”) to go all the way into the framing structure on the outboard hinges. If that doesn’t work I will have to revert to heavy duty continuous piano hinges which are very expensive. For six it will be several thousand dollars.
Paul

Would it be possible to add small wheels opposite the hinge and at the fold to help with the weight? I know that large gates use wheels for that purpose and for ease of opening/closing.

The driveway has a fair slope so the wheel idea probably won’t work.
Paul

masonsailor2 wrote:The carriage doors are being put into the jamb space which is exterior to the vertical roll up doors and won’t interfere with their operation. I plan to leave the insulated roll ups in place as an added heat barrier. The insulation did not add enough weight to the roll ups to cause an issue so I have not had to adjust the springs.
Paul

Paul,

So, these wooden carriage doors will be on the exterior of the steel garage doors in the picture? Like a storm door for the garage door? So, how will these carriage doors open? I mean will these carriage doors roll up above the steel garage doors, or how does this work. I thought you were replacing the steel garage doors, but now I am curious how these will be installed and used. It sounds interesting like an interesting project...

masonsailor2 wrote:The driveway has a fair slope so the wheel idea probably won’t work.
Paul

Some of the gate wheels utilize a spring system to support the gate over uneven and sloping ground. Distance of travel for the spring system wheels vary depending on model so there may be one that will work for you.

Long day today. Got two of the doors and the jamb for the smaller door finished and the moulding made for the panels. I decided to finish off the smaller door completely before starting the larger second one. I used the Shaper Origin to mortise the hinges. It was my first time using it to mortise hinges and it worked very well but had quite a learning curve.
Paul