weatherstrip bypass wood garage doors
I am building bypass, sliding garage doors for an old carriage house. I am making them out of Alaskan yellow cedar. The frame is mortise and (loose) tenon joinery with the styles and rails 2 1/2″x6″-to 9″. 2 doors, 8′ to 9′ square each. I will be anchoring a 3″ wide aluminum U channel for a guide track under the doors(one vertical leg grooved into each door bottom). They are hung from overhead tracks. there is a 1/2″ gap (inside to outside) between the doors. I have some thoughts on how to do some of the edges but would welcome any input from the woodworkers here. I tried search, looked at all the weatherstripping questions and checked out the link to Zero intl. and Conservation tech. but bypass, sliding wooden doors are a rare breed, especially with the dimensions I am using. If anyone knows of a site or sites that deal specifically with old carriage houses that would/could be helpful. Thanks for looking and any thoughts gratefully appreciated.
Urge
Replies
Probably the best approach would be some sort of moving weatherstrip that is actuated by, eg, a roller running on a track above the door. A wedge in the track profile pushes the roller out and twists the weatherstrip towards the other door. Trick is getting it reliable -- stiff enough that it won't be constantly getting sprung out of shape.
A loooong time ago I had a screen door with the best weatherstripping idea. Too bad it was so cheaply made.
At any rate, when the door closed, there was a little lever that actually cammed the weatherstripping down against the threshhold. I could see a similar device on the door. The weatherstrip would be mounted on a slide, and held up with a spring. When the door shut, a lever would force the weatherstrip down.
(Too bad I no longer have drafting software; I could have designed something quickly.)
Use something like these.
http://www.pemko.com/index.cfm?event=products.productListing&searchName=Search+by+Category&openFilter=loadCategorySearch&ratingIds=&categoryId=893&subcategoryId=919&productMaterialId=
5/8" long brush will rub against the face of the doors and touch each other if mounted on the edge of the door.
Well, I wrote the initial post almost a year ago and since then I have installed the doors but have not come up with a total solution to weatherstripping them. I have weatherstripping for the sides, bottom and top (although I am not totally happy with half of the solution for the top). My dilemma is with the 1/2" gap between the doors and the intersection between the top of the doors and the tracks and the bottom of the doors with the aluminum U channel. I have uploaded drawings I made (sorry, I'm a noob at Paint) of the top and bottom of the doors. Due to both doors being able to move completely across the 17 amd a half foot opening sealing the gap between them at the top and bottom is proving to be problem. I was planning on putting weatherstripping at the top on the outside of one door and the inside of the other but that leaves a wind tunnel between the doors. So, I was thinking about some kind of pulley system so that one side could be manually opened and closed but that has issues too if you want to be able to open and close the doors from both inside and outside (I do). I am probably not describing this very well but maybe the drawings will make it clearer, just remember that both doors move left to right (and vice versa) across the entire opening and that they overlap. I will check in frequently to answer any questions.
Urge
Where the two doors meet put brush weatherstripping on the inside door and attach a "rib" of some sort on the inside of the outside door, so that the the rib will contact the brush when the doors are closed. (This presumes you want the better appearance on the outside door.) When opening there will be no drag since the two pieces part company as soon as the doors have moved an inch or two.
DanH wrote...
"Where the
DanH wrote...
"Where the two doors meet put brush weatherstripping on the inside door and attach a "rib" of some sort on the inside of the outside door, so that the the rib will contact the brush when the doors are closed."
I did this. The roller tracks drawing shows this although I didn't include the wood strip that the weatherstripping brushes against in the drawing. I am happy with the weatherstripping on all the verticle interfaces, it is at the top where the doors have that 1/2" gap that is the problem. On the bottom I am still thinking on it but I am leaning towards putting some solid foam inside the aluminum U channel and trying to configure a brush on the edge of one or both doors.
DanH wrote...
"Probably the best approach would be some sort of moving weatherstrip that is actuated by, eg, a roller running on a track above the door. A wedge in the track profile pushes the roller out and twists the weatherstrip towards the other door. Trick is getting it reliable -- stiff enough that it won't be constantly getting sprung out of shape."
I am not getting a mental picture of what you are saying here?
Urge
A piece of weatherstripping that is essentially hinged or on a slide, and actuated by a sort of cam on the door. Several different ways it could be configured. For your current concern (the three-way joint at the top) it could be a piece that is pushed upward from the edge of the door, or perhaps pushed down from the ceiling.