DDM Garage Doors Blog - Page 16 of 24 -

How to Install Omron E3JM Photo Eyes on Powermaster Operators

Friday, January 29th, 2016 at 2:12 pm by Dan Musick

The most difficult part of installing the Omron E3JM Photo Eyes on older PowerMaster operators is knowing how to run the wires. This image should help. Additional instructions for running the wires are on our blog titled, “Omron Photo Eye Installation,” or on our YouTube channel.…

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High Lift – How High Can I Go?

Monday, January 11th, 2016 at 1:09 pm by Dan Musick

High lift is defined as the dimension from the top of the garage door to the center line of the horizontal tracks. Most residential doors with 12″ radius tracks have 4 3/4″ of high lift, and doors with 15″ radius tracks have 7 1/2″ of high lift.…

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High Lift Assembly Modifications

Monday, December 21st, 2015 at 9:41 am by Dan Musick

Since we first posted our custom High Lift Garage Door Conversion instructions several years ago, we have noticed a few things that need to be improved through assembly modifications.

One was the alignment of the horizontal and vertical angles in step 7.11.…

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Crawford Garage Door Spring Conversions

Friday, December 18th, 2015 at 6:25 pm by Dan Musick

When converting the older Crawford garage doors with outside lift cable drums and bottom fixtures to standard torsion spring systems, or when replacing springs on low headroom doors with outside lift hardware, you will need to make the following changes that differ from replacing standard garage door torsion springs.

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How Many Turns do You Wind a Torsion Spring?

Friday, December 11th, 2015 at 9:58 am by Dan Musick

Most residential sectional garage doors use standard lift tracking and standard torsion hardware. However, commercial and industrial garage doors frequently use vertical lift tracking. Therefore, determining how to wind a torsion spring depends on many factors, including what kind of garage door you have and the width of your cable drums.…

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Rough Edges on High Lift Drums

Monday, November 16th, 2015 at 12:24 pm by Dan Musick

In recent months we have received emails from customers who installed high lift kits, and now one of their cables is fraying or unraveling due to rough edges on the drums.

IMG_0290

This appears to be a problem with the foundry where the OMI 4-54 HL LD cable drums are made.…

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Common High Lift Problems

Thursday, November 12th, 2015 at 12:22 pm by Dan Musick

Without first seeking professional help, the most common problem do-it-yourselfers encounter when adding vertical track and raising their garage doors a foot or more is that the door doesn’t balance correctly. This is a common high lift problem.

In order to get the door to work at all, you need to install longer cables.…

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A Balanced Garage Door

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015 at 11:23 am by Dan Musick
An image showing how garage door counterbalance works.

At DDM Garage Doors, we go to great lengths to help our customers select the correct springs. Sometimes customers order the wrong springs, the garage door doesn’t balance, and they contact us for help.

On standard lift and industrial vertical lift garage doors like you find in businesses and homes, there are three common scenarios.…

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Dock Leveler Hinge Lubrication

Friday, October 30th, 2015 at 12:19 pm by Dan Musick

A customer emailed us today regarding a frozen dock leveler hinge. The lip on his Serco mechanical dock leveler will not go up or down. In our professional opinion, the dock leveler hinge probably needs lubrication.

An image of a frozen dock leveler hinge.

He asked if he should replace the hinge pin.…

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Limit Sprocket Replacement on Raynor, Allister & Allstar openers

Tuesday, October 20th, 2015 at 2:23 pm by Dan Musick
Garage Door Opener Limit Sprocket For use with Raynor and Allstar garage door openers.

A customer recently wrote asking for instructions on limit sprocket replacement on their Raynor, Allister, or Allstar opener.

Here is the procedure.

  1. Unplug the power cord and disengage the door from the opener.
  2. Afterward, loosen the two nuts that secure the chain tension bolt to the trolley.


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Huge inventory of torsion springs for same or next day shipping! Here you will find all you need in the most common sizes of 1 3/4," 2," 2 1/4," and 2 5/8" inside diameter springs. Larger 3 3/4" and 6" inside diameter commercial and industrial springs may require a day or two to ship. You'll also find TorqueMaster Springs, Extension Springs, Self-Storage door springs, steel rolling door springs and springs for one piece single panel doors.

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