On our Standard Garage Door Torsion Springs page we include a special offer for free hardware or free winding bars.

Since we started this we have had a number of requests for substitutions.

For example, someone purchasing one of our torsion spring conversion kits will sometimes ask to deduct the value of the free hardware from the kit.

We have also had requests for part substitutions, for example offering the better Freeway brand end bearings which cost significantly more than the standard bearings that come pressed into the end bearing plates.

As much as we like to help customers get the parts they need, we regret that we are unable to substitute parts.

Over the years manufacturers have sought to build more safety into their products. In addition to warning labels, garage door manufacturers often powder coat products with red paint to alert technicians of potential danger.

Probably the most dangerous component is the winding cone on a garage door torsion spring. Many people have been injured by these because they did not have the correct information to do the work. Painting the heads of the set screws has helped prevent many injuries.

All the new Cable Drums come standard with the red set screws. Loosening setscrews on a cable drum can be extremely dangerous.

Manufacturers are also powder coating their spring anchor brackets red. I once fixed a door for a man who loosened one of these brackets because the wood to which it was attached was splitting. The bracket spun around numerous times, breaking his arm in 14 places and he almost died. He was in the hospital for a month.  Here is Raynor’s new residential bracket.

Raynor’s earlier commercial and industrial brackets were galvanized and silver colored, as you see in this older bracket.

The new Raynor Spring Anchor Brackets are red, and also longer on the bottom to provide for more torque on the springs.

Spring tension is transferred from the winding cone to the shaft, to the cable drum on each side, and down to the bottom of the door where the cable is attached to the bottom fixture, as you can see on this CHI garage door.

Because of the tension on the bottom fixture, removing the fixture without first removing the tension is extremely dangerous. One of my customers removed one of these and I think the doctor sewed up his head with about fifteen stitches.

Garage door work is dangerous, and we are thankful to all who are doing their part to make it safer.

Two of the greatest events in history:

Good Friday – Jesus died to forgive the sins of all who would believe in Him!

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:6-10, NKJV)

Resurrection Sunday – Jesus rose from the dead!

“Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’” (Luke 24:1-7 NKJV)

In 2016 we showed the critical wiring connections on our blog titled How to Install Omron E3JM Photo Eyes on Powermaster Operators.

In this blog, I’ll show how I installed the eyes on a job nearby.

I used a four strand wire. The emitter has two screws for power, and the receiver has four screws – two for power and two to reverse the operator travel. The black and white wires on terminals 1 & 2 go to the power, usually to the operator, but any other source will work. The green and red wires go from the receiver to the operator to reverse the door when an obstruction blocks the eyes.

Here are the installation directions.

Turn off the power to the operator before mounting the eyes or hooking up any of the wires.

Use angle or brackets to mount the eyes four to six inches from the floor, and point them toward each other. If the sun shines into the building mount the emitter so the sun shines on it. Sunshine on the receiver will often prevent the operator from closing the door. The eye with 2 screws is the emitter.

Secure a black and a white wire to the  #1 & #2 screws of the emitter. Run the wires up over the door and down to the receiver on the other side.

Here you will connect eight wires from two wiring harnesses. Twist the black and white wires from the emitter to the black and white wires going to the operator, and secure these wires to the same #1 & #2 screws of the receiver.

Notice on the right side of the receiver that there are three screws. The #3 above is not used.

In the wiring strand going to the operator are an additional green and red wire. Connect the red wire to #4 and green wire to #5.

Run all four wire strands to the operator terminal.

For power connect the black and white wires to terminals #11 and #12. When the power is turned on there should be 24 -28 volts on these two terminals. Connect the red and green wires to terminals #8, and #9.

Turn on the power to the operator and test the eyes.

Important: Running a jumper and shorting the #8 and #9 contacts will reverse the door when it is closing. It will also keep the door from closing. When power is going to the eyes these contacts are normally open. When there is no power, or when the eyes are blocked, the contacts from the receiver eye close and the door will not close, or the door will reverse when it is in the process of closing.

Our business is expanding and we’re looking for someone to help with outside sales. Some travel is required.

For the qualified individual, we are offering $6,000 per month plus commissions after a minimum sales figure has been reached. The job involves contacting commercial and industrial accounts.

The garage door industry is challenging, and a mechanical aptitude in the 99th percentile is a must. You can check yours by taking a preliminary mechanical aptitude test, copying the URL of the results, and emailing us the link through our contact page.

The qualified salesperson will be one of outstanding character and high moral values consistent with who we are.

Education, mechanical experience and knowledge of the door industry will also help.

DDM Garage Doors in West Chicago, Illinois is growing, and we need someone to help customers in the United States and around the world get parts for their garage doors and dock equipment.

Job Description

• Help customers get the parts they need via phone, email, fax and local purchases.
• Prepare and file written quotes including shipping over the road and international shipping.
• Provide technical support for mechanical, electric, and hydraulic equipment, as well as for weather seals.
• Provide solutions for parts used in special applications.
• Resolve customer complaints regarding orders, delivery, damage, and returns.
• Interface with operations, website production, purchasing, and warehouse.
• Help manage customer records.
• Help with a variety of tasks.

Qualifications

• High mechanical ability. You may have a high mechanical aptitude even if you have never fixed anything. We suggest you try this mechanical aptitude test. Just click the appropriate link.
• Curious about how things work
• Detailed and organized
• Honest
• Ability to follow instructions
• High school education
• Excellent speaking and writing skills
• Ability to manage emails and other communications
• Internet proficient
• Word and spreadsheet proficient
• Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced environment
• Hard working and motivated
• Ability to create solutions for a wide variety of applications

More information about our company is on our blog titled “Who are We?”

If interested, please contact us.

Many years ago I learned an important lesson about life: “When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade.”  A similar expression I heard elsewhere is that “opportunities often come disguised as problems.” The lemon – or the problem – is the change in shipping lengths for garage door parts, in particular, our garage door seals.

On our other blog titled “A New Day in Shipping 🙁” I explained the extra cost of shipping packages over 96 inches. Until this year a higher cost was attached to packages over 108 inches, but now a much higher cost is applied to packages with lengths from 96 to 108 inches.

In the door industry, many of our products are eight feet long and the extra half inch or so of cardboard padding multiplies the shipping cost five or six-fold.

I ran this by Andrew, our sales manager /operations coordinator a few months ago and together we have come up with a solution for homeowners so they don’t have to pay the exorbitant shipping fees for eight foot or longer products, in particular, the weatherstripping. The solution is cutting and gluing.

Super glue is super for garage door seals. Many of our seals are made with a hard PVC that can bond in less than a minute. We recommend the gel type because it stays where you squirt it. It will also bond the flexible part of the seal, but it does tend to stiffen. That won’t normally be a problem, but if it does we recommend the E6000 glue.

The E6000 glue bonds the vinyl well, especially on the soft twin contact bottom seals. The major consideration with this glue is that it can take a day or so to dry and bond. You will need to leave your garage door partially open for up to two days.

Here is an example of how the products look when they have been glued. On the lighter color, a little calk or filler might help with aesthetics.

It appears that UPS and FedEx no longer want to ship boxes that are over eight feet long.

As of January 2018 boxes that are eight feet or longer have surcharges attached to the shipping costs.

The following is an example of the exorbitant surcharges. If a 4″ X 4″ box weighing 10 pounds is shipped by UPS from our zip code to one of our suppliers at 43447, and if the dimension is 96″ long, or eight feet even, the cost is $24.36.

If we increase the length one inch, shipping for the 10-pound box is billed at the 90-pound rate of $154.35, which is more than six times the amount just for the extra inch.

WOW! What an unprecedented opportunity for smart entrepreneurs to step up and cash in on this market niche. Please call us when you get your business up and running!

We had hit a quagmire in synchronizing our shopping cart with FedEx website. I told our customer service rep, Kevin Kedzior, about the problem. It seemed insurmountable. In just a few days he brought over two of FedEx’s top software guns, Justin Cagney and Ed Cohen. An hour later all the pieces of the puzzle were aligned.

Just as the best vioinists make their performances seem effortless, so Kevin and his associates made the impossible look like a cake walk. That’s the mark of true professionals.

Way to go, Kevin! Keep up the superb work!

The gospel of John opens with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In verse 14 John continues: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John writes these words after having 60 or so years to reflect on Who Jesus was. To showcase the eternal Deity of our beloved Christmas baby, John parallels his opening words with the opening words of Scripture: “In the beginning God . . .” and here, “In the beginning was the Word . . .”

Both God and the Word are eternal; they have existed from the beginning. Moses writes in Psalm 90:2, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”

In verse one John distinguishes the Word from God: “the Word was with God.”

But he also equates the two: “the Word was God.”

What is the relationship between the Word and God?

John provides the answer in verse 14: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We see here that Jesus is “the only begotten of the Father.” Jesus was begotten from the beginning, before time.

But we also see here in verse 14 that Jesus, the Word, eternal God – “became flesh.” This is the incarnation, this is Christmas!

The angel Gabriel had told Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35) In Matthew we read that He is also called Immanuel, God with us. (Matthew 1:23)

Jesus was begotten of God before time, and in time he was begotten of the virgin Mary.

These truths are reflected in our historic creeds and in our church’s statement of faith.

In the documents of Nicaea (325) we read: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by Whom all things were made.”

The later Creed of Chalcedon (451) builds on the story of Mary’s visit with Elizabeth to help define Christ’s human and divine natures. When visiting Mary, Elizabeth correctly recognized that the baby she was carrying in her womb was God. Elizabeth asks: “But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43) A favorite Christmas song asks, “Mary did you know?” But from Scripture we know what Mary knew. She begins with these words: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” Question: was Mary looking up to heaven in praise to God, or was she looking down?

Here are some of the words from the Creed of Chalcedon that distinguish us as Christians: “We declare that in His Divinity, He was begotten of the Father before time, and in His humanity He was begotten in this last age of Mary, the virgin, the mother of God, for us and our salvation. We declare that the one selfsame Christ, only begotten Son and Lord, must be acknowledged in two natures, without any co-mingling, or change or division or separation, that the distinction between their natures is in no way removed by their union, but rather, that the specific character of each nature is preserved, and they are united in one person.”

In the Creed of Athanasius, the Trinitarian Creed, we read: “The Father is not made by anyone, nor created by anyone, nor generated by anyone. The Son is not made nor created, but he is generated by the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is not made nor created nor generated, but proceeds from the Father and the Son. . .” And the words continue: “We believe and profess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and man. As God He was begotten of the substance of the Father before time; as man He was born in time of the substance of His Mother.”

In my church’s statement of faith we affirm:

“We believe that the eternally existent Word of God, Jesus Christ, is God’s only begotten Son, The Second Person of the Trinity, and who was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, performed miracles and His teachings are truth. He is fully God and fully man, possessing both deity and humanity united in one person, without division of the person or confusion of the two natures.”

God assumed a human body. The infinite, transcendent, omnipotent, creator God became a finite, helpless, creature without ceasing in any way to remain fully God: omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.

What a Child This is!!!

(All scripture references are from the NKJV)