Thread: Sliding door closing mech

a cord, a pulley and a weight

Originally Posted by glenn k

We have a sliding door to our bath room/dunny and my wife is always complaining about the rest of us leaving the door open. Is there a mechanism to automatically close the door except for a spring that would smash it closed.

My suggestion is to contact a security door company who manufactures sliding security doors for residences with swimming pools particular where the door opens direct onto a swimming pool and where they must have a elf closing security door to suite regs. The sliding door mechanism they use consists of cord and weights system, the weights being enclosed in a tube which is filled with liquid ( water I think).
Check it out through Google.
Cheers
Mac

what echnidna said
les

Thanks very much fellas makes me think why didn't I think of that. Will be a bugga to fit though, cut a hole in door jam and stud; and plaster to add weight. Might be worth it to get me in the good books.

Another possibility might be to rerig the track with a slight incline so that you slide the door up the incline to open and it can close with gravity assistance. May not be practical if it's a cavity door.

Just had a look Malb and yes not practical but a good idea. A hole in the plaster a noggin and pully to get the rope out past the light switch and drill a hole in the jam for the rope seems possible. But I will have to remove the lower noggin so another hole in the plaster, a lot of effort to close a door.

You could use a trick they use on tape recorder doors and thats the greasy plate. You have a spring that gets wound on a roller like a tape measure etc on the side of the roller is a flat greasy plate and that is held on to anoter flat plate which is the bracket to hold the assembly. The grease holds the plates from spinning fast and its a nice quiet close

Mate built a mechanism for his workshop door that may work for you - it is a variation of the weight & string system.

You run a cord from the door over a pulley down to a counter weight that is in a piece of PVC pipe. That counter weight slides inside another, slightly larger PVC pipe with a cap on the bottom. Fill the larger pipe with a few litres of water and a cup of chlorine bleach (stops bugs in the water).

When you open the door it raises the counter weight and some of the water which flows down through the gap between the pipes. When you release the door, the counter weight sinks but is slowed by the water having to flow back up through the gap. The door closes smoothly & does not slam. If it closes too fast you can fit a suitable rubber washer to adjust the rate of water flow.

The main adjustment trick is finding the amount of water / length of outer pipe that gives adequate buffering of the closure without being so much that it goes all over the floor if the door is opened in a hurry

Originally Posted by bsrlee

Mate built a mechanism for his workshop door that may work for you - it is a variation of the weight & string system.

You run a cord from the door over a pulley down to a counter weight that is in a piece of PVC pipe. That counter weight slides inside another, slightly larger PVC pipe with a cap on the bottom. Fill the larger pipe with a few litres of water and a cup of chlorine bleach (stops bugs in the water).

When you open the door it raises the counter weight and some of the water which flows down through the gap between the pipes. When you release the door, the counter weight sinks but is slowed by the water having to flow back up through the gap. The door closes smoothly & does not slam. If it closes too fast you can fit a suitable rubber washer to adjust the rate of water flow.

The main adjustment trick is finding the amount of water / length of outer pipe that gives adequate buffering of the closure without being so much that it goes all over the floor if the door is opened in a hurry

This is the principal of the mechanism used on self closing security doors, the difference is the tube is aluminium extrusion, anodised finish. The appearance is quite neat.
I suppose you realise if you get this right to her satisfaction that next on her ajenda is insisting of making sure you leave the toilet seat down at all times. You may be doing a disservice to all us men folk
Mac

Bsrlee water is not a good idea near electrical wires but besides that I like it. Maybe a combination from rrobor tubes with grease?
Yea Mal the dunny lid problem, I have 3 sons so she is out numbered we win.

hey thanks for all the information i had the same problem . but in the cord and weight system can be even more smooth if oil or grease is used in the tube or pipe. more the viscosity of the liquid used more will be the smoothness .

Try here.

http://www.slidingdoorcloser.com.au/

Fitted a few over the years. Ugly as sin, but work well.

Originally Posted by Malcolm Eaton

This is the principal of the mechanism used on self closing security doors, the difference is the tube is aluminium extrusion, anodised finish. The appearance is quite neat.
I suppose you realise if you get this right to her satisfaction that next on her ajenda is insisting of making sure you leave the toilet seat down at all times. You may be doing a disservice to all us men folk
Mac

Further to the above sliding door closer as used for security doors and self closing doors to swimming pools, the brand is called "Inventco" sliding door closer, they have a web site so do a Google search. Alternate check out www.locksgalore.com.au they are a distributor.
Mac

I've seen a very basic spring and string system on a couple of sliding screen doors which I'm sure is an after market product - Bunnies etc should sell it - in the section with the build your own screen doors maybe? The only problem would be if your door is too heavy for the spring.