Happy Birthday and Garage Door Springs

First, I'd like to thank everyone for wishing me a Happy Birthday.

Thanks to my wife and kids - we enjoyed a lovely day together at the Idaho Gem and Fossil show.
Thank to my Mom and Dad for the cards and gift.
Thanks to Tammy's Mom and Dad for the cards and gift.
Thanks to my brother for calling me up and chatting.
Thanks to the Cash family for the nice home-made card.
Thanks to Kevin for taking me out for lunch - a very nice suprise!
Thanks to Christine for the funny e-card.
Thanks to Mindy and Bailey for the home-made card.
Thanks to Teen group at church for the card.
Thanks to the following people for sending me a facebook message:
Corey, Jason, Sunny and Steve, Mario, Alexa, Enid, Kathy and Nick, Kevin and Shannon, and Kelly.

So... after a most pleasant day at the Idaho Gem and Fossil show I spent Saturday night reading about garage door springs. Exciting huh? We have a rental home and it has a large torsion spring over the garage door that broke. I knew that if I could change it out myself, it'd save me about $100. So I had to attempt it.

In all my readings about changing the springs one thing had become very apparent - they are dangerous! And replacing them is a dangerous job. If you look on the Internet you will find lots of warnings and stories of people getting stitches, losing a finger, etc... I did it anyway and it went well, but I did learn a few things. If anyone attempts to install a torsion-style garage door spring here are a few pointers.

• Take it slow and think about every action you do - twice.


• Safety glasses or face shield for safety.


• Get winding bars - they are simply 1/2 inch round steel bars used for winding and unwinding the spring. You need two - about 18inches long each. Do not use a screwdriver as you can break the winding cone when it is under pressure and really bad things will happen.


• Do not unlock the wheels at the end of the main shaft when a torsion spring is under pressure as the main shaft will slide left and right on you (the spring gets longer as you unwind the spring).


• Take your old broken spring into a local shop to get a new one. I wouldn't try measuring and all that jazz - just take in the old one when you buy the new one.


• It helped me to position myself directly under the end of the spring so that I could apply pressure directly up on the winding bars. My head was just right of the winding cone away from the spring - this was the best leverage point and I could tell that it was very important to safely insert the rods fully into the cone each time. If your standing away from the cone and have to reach it becomes exponentially more difficult to get the next bar in the further you are away from the cone.


• If you have all your ducks in a row and you take your time, the job should take about an hour.


• This site is probably the best read for the job... http://ddmgaragedoors.com/diy-instructions/replace-garage-door-torsion-springs.php