Making a bolt for it
I have one of those up-and-over garage doors.
You know the ones? Yup. The ones that are always breaking.
I thought ours was a little on the stiff side and was getting harder to close, and sure enough, a couple of weeks ago there was a loud metallic bang and it collapsed.
Fuck!
Apparently what had happened was that a hinge got a tad rusty and was in fact solid. So instead of rotating with the door, it stayed still while the door moved. Anyone with a smattering of physics will tell you that immovable objects and irresistible forces donât mix very well, and in my case lead to metal fatigue and a broken hinge plate.
i gave the rusty hinge a few belts with a lump hammer and managed to get it working again, but now there was nothing to attach it to as the plate was mangled and in three pieces.
Fuck again!
I toyed with the idea of getting a new door, but they look expensive. I toyed with the ides of getting someone out to fix it, but who? I would have asked Spanner to have a look, but he is away for a short while [he should be back in a couple of weeks if the parole board are in good form]. Gone are the days when each village had a blacksmith, and the general solution to everything these days is to fuck it in the bin if itâs broken.
In the end, I decided to have a go myself. I bolted a lump of wood onto the inside of the door and bolted the hinge onto the lump of wood.
It doesnât look very elegant but it works. Not only does it work, but it works like a dream. Smooth as silk.
Total cost? A couple of yoyos for the bolts.
Total time? I didnât time myself, but less than an hour.
Total injuries? One burned finger. Itâs amazing how hot steel gets when you drill it.
Now all I have to do is find myself a wee slab of mild steel, so I can do a permanent job.
Who said that improvisation is dead?
Nice Do-it-yourself, GD. I think you should toddle off to the village pub and celebrate with a few pints.
Seeing as I have saved myself a few hundred, I think I deserve at least 50 pints?
You, my friend, are a testament to all manly men everywhere. And to cheapskates too. Cheers!
The slab of mild steel is to replace the burned finger?
projects are never done correctly till an injury or blood is present. nice job there!
What’s mild steel ? And is there a bitter version ?
Sixty – I like to do my bit for the side [ … or is it ‘do my bit on the side’? I can never remeber]
Ian – The slab of steel is for somewhere to put the spare bolts.
Cat – Thanks. And by your definition I am a top professional.
Paulo – Of course. And XXX, though I wouldn’t advise drinking that.
A great uncle of mind once spent an entire winter building a boat in the Granda’s garage. It was a lovely boat painted up with a stepped mast and everything.
Come the day to wheel her out to get her down to the harbour for the maiden voyage and dopey Great Uncle realised that it wouldn’t go out the door as it was too wide by the beam and my Granda wouldn’t let him take the roof of the garage to get it winched up and over.
It made a lovely pile a wood in the end. The dopey oul’ bollocks anyway. I read back in the 80’s of a man who got excited and paid 80,000 for a garage near Hampstead. Come the day when all the legalities were done his car wouldn’t fit in the door (a Rolls by the way).
There’s a book in this somewhere. ‘Of Garages and Men’ by Wrong Sizebud.
Paulo, high yield steel.
Thanks tt, now I just need to find out what high yield steel is, when it’s at home.
A wee squirt of WD40 now to ensure it lasts for another 50 years GD ?
Con – Strangely enough, I have a similar story – an uncle who built an ocean-going catamaran in his back garden. It was only when he came to finish the project that he discovered he couldn’t get it out. In the end, they had to fell a load of trees and get in an industrial crane to lift it over the house.
John – It is only dripping with the stuff!