Sliding Door Rollers

[DHeckrotte]

There has been previous chatter about the sliding door tracks on out TTs but none I've seen about the rollers.

We've got two sliding Teak doors each with two brass/bronze casting roller carriers with steel wheels. They rolled on 'handmade' stainless steel track. The casting incorporates 'ears' that locate the door/roller on the track. The wheels are completely corroded. One of the two carriers is broken. These things are labeled on the back with Chinese characters but are as likely as everything else on the boat to be a knock-off of something once available here.

Short of gnawing new ones out of virgin stainless steel, has anyone sourced these?

 

[Avalanche]

On my looong list of things I want to do to the boat someday is to replace both doors. On of the POs built new ones but they are oak and poorly made, won't hold varnish.

My plan is to use UHMW for the rail and slides, one could easily DIY with a dado blade and tablesaw. UHMW is awesome stuff and it would be Maintenance free for almost forever, and would slide nicely as well. I use it for snowmobile sleds and hitches, nice stuff to work with. Tivar is another name for it.

When I do it, I think I will use Trex or Azek 1x lumber to build a new door. One less wood item to try to keep up with..

If your doors are good, you could built a new rail out of UHMW and same with the little sliding shoes.

 

[Propnut]

Just rebuilt mine. Drilled the hole out to 3/16 since mine were oblong. Went to Lowes and found 1" OD nylon bushing with a 3/8" ID. Then found a 3/16" to 3/8" bushing to fit inside the larger bushing. I used 3/16" s/s pins that I picked up at West Marine. Works fine so far.

 

[Propnut]

Now I look at your pictures.
Mine are identical to yours, except that all my housings were good. I'll be glad to look around a couple of the surplus places here and see if they have any of the housings that you need.

 

[Pack Mule]

Our doors were shot . The track and rollers were also shot. I made new teak doors and top and bottom teak tracks , grooved out the track and screwed in uhmw. Then we hung the track with stainless steel angle . The doors slide very easy now . You can even get some graphite impregnated uhmw for really slick surface .

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. DH. The rollers on one of our doors was essentially square from years of being jammed up and NOT rolling but wearing to a flat. Many flats actually. So when opened or closed it was akin to rolling on corduroy.

Upon disassembly, turns out the wheels were Bakelite rolling on a SS axle that was simply pinned in the door by teak plugs on either end of the axle.

1/4" SS axle about 1-3/8" long in a 1-7/8" door with 3/8" teak plugs (axle retainers essentially) at either end. The bore for the axle was 1/4" and the axle was a snug press fit. Bakelite wheel was about 1-1/4" diameter 1/4" thick with a 1/4" bore.

So, the wheel sat up in a pocket at the bottom of the door pretty well the same as yours but without the bronze casting. The door itself carried the axle.

My apologies for a poor description but I haven't done any technical writing in at least 15 years...

 

[fryedaze]

81-241 1-1/4"dia Stainless Steel Concave BB Wheel : SWISCO.com

 

[markpierce]

Sliding doors are a pain given my experience onshore. Thanks there are none on my boat.

 

[Benthic2]

would this work ??

source: http://www.swisco.com/Roller-Assembly-1-3-16-Steel/pd/Patio-Glass-Door-Single-Wheel-Rollers/81-246

 

[CaptTom]

would this work ??

source: 81-246 Roller Assembly, 1-3/16" Steel BB : SWISCO.com

Steel? I'd think you'd need stainless.

 

[what_barnacles]

Take a look at their double wheel rollers. They have some SS flange mount ones.

Patio Glass Door Double Wheel Roller Assemblies : SWISCO.com

CRL has SS rollers and SS wheels too.

http://www.crlaurence.com/crlapps/s...97&History=39325:3252:4632&ModelID=6097&pom=0

http://www.crlaurence.com/crlapps/s...79&History=39325:3252:4632&ModelID=6179&pom=0

 

[Capstan]

When I made the new doors and frames I was having an issue finding good quality rollers as well, so I decided I didn't need them. Used a thin piece of Starboard on the bottom of the door. It now just slides on the timber frame. Very smooth.
Works great.
Also it will stay where you leave it. No need to lock it in position or worry about fingers going missing!

 

[DHeckrotte]

I've stripped the finish off of the other sliding door and found that its rollers are intact but worn enough to allow the door to drag. I shimmed them down 1/16" or so and the door moves easily. I'll repair all four (two doors) rollers with new wheels and be done with it.

3/8" wide by (originally) 1" dia. Probably 1/8" dia axle which is riveted in place. Probably got ball bearings(!) inside the tire. The 'tire' appears to be some sort of sintered metal.

Whew!

 

[DHeckrotte]

Done!

I considered all sorts of ideas but ended up brazing the broken frame back together, replacing the axles with 316 Stainless Steel and the wheels with PTFE (generic Teflon). The original axle measured 5/32 in dia., about the same as 4 MM OD. I slipped them into 6 MM OD tubing (ID is 4 MM) to give more bearing area for the PTFE wheel. I riveted the wheel-axle assemblies back into the brass frames. McMaster-Carr for the materials.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Very well done!

L

 

[what_barnacles]

Our doors were shot . The track and rollers were also shot. I made new teak doors and top and bottom teak tracks , grooved out the track and screwed in uhmw. Then we hung the track with stainless steel angle . The doors slide very easy now . You can even get some graphite impregnated uhmw for really slick surface .

Late to comment on your post but man that door is really nice.

The absolute best material for using as a slider base is delrin. Its pretty amazing stuff, to your fingers it feels like oiled teflon. Ive seen 400 lb rack mount drawers (19") glide on it like they were on ice.

 

[Rufus]

Done!

I considered all sorts of ideas but ended up brazing the broken frame back together, replacing the axles with 316 Stainless Steel and the wheels with PTFE (generic Teflon). The original axle measured 5/32 in dia., about the same as 4 MM OD. I slipped them into 6 MM OD tubing (ID is 4 MM) to give more bearing area for the PTFE wheel. I riveted the wheel-axle assemblies back into the brass frames. McMaster-Carr for the materials.

DHeckrotte,

Does that PTFE "tube" come with the center hole already bored? Looks like a good solution.

By the way, the lower tracks that I had cut from a sheet of UHMW have both cracked again around the mounting screws after a few years. I found this stainless steel cap that I'm going to try as a fix (along with roller repair). SS914 - CRL Stainless Steel 3/8" U-Channel

Plan is to simply glue them over the plastic track with a screw at either end. Cheap fix (for the track) if it works.


Thanks

 

[DHeckrotte]

Rufus, the wheels were cut from the rod using a radial arm saw, then I drilled the holes with a drill press. You can't mark on PTFE, so I eyeballed the center. So far, so good. Time will tell if the PTFE is strong enough to not crack at the axle nor mush.

Check my post #1 and you'll see the tracks. A 3/8" square bar tack welded to a 1 1/4" wide strap. I'll be a long time wearing 'em out.

 

[Rufus]

Thanks. I had looked at pre-drilled/hollow tube on McM-Carr and couldn't find it with a small enough hole. I had guessed you probably fabricated them from scratch. Again, very nice work.

If the SS cap doesn't work for our lower track, I'll either have a bottom track welded up like yours, or try the UHMV against UHMV strips (no rollers) method. Our OA uses an upside down "L" shaped fiberglass sliding door with a large window for access from sundeck to cabin staircase and it's very, very heavy.

 

[senangsekali]

I used these on our sliding doors. Workg good so far. They are not stainless though.

 

[AZ2Loop]

One more way to tackle this....reverse top and bottom rollers

One of our two sliding salon doors needed some attention to the rollers as well. One day at anchor I decided I would pull the door off and see what rollers it took so I would know what parts to try to find. Our doors have tracks and rollers on both the top and bottom of the door. It was dragging a little (metal on metal) on the bottom track. I could see no way to adjust them, and as it turns out, they are not adjustable.

Once I took the door off and pulled the rollers, it occurred to me that only the bottom wheels/rollers were wearing out. Due to gravity, they are the rollers carrying the load. The top rollers act more as a guide than rollers bearing weight. Rather than waiting until we were on land, and then trying to order the right rollers or finding them in a hardware store, I found an easy solution.

We just removed all 4 rollers, then re-installed them with the bottom rollers on top, and the top rollers on the bottom. The top rollers (now the bottom) were practically as good as new. This also allowed me to reinstall the door the same day, still at anchor, with no time spent looking for parts.

I supposed new rollers all around would be a better fix, but the door glides very smoothly now. I would guess we took 20 years of wear off by simply reversing them, and if it works another 20 years then I would consider this a win. Anyway, I'm just throwing it out there in case anyone else reads these door roller threads and has a door with rollers on the top and bottom. If 2 of the 4 are good, then you can probably fix it today without hunting for new parts.

 

[Rufus]

...for the record, the wheels/castors depicted in the original post are now available from Ocean Alexander in Seattle.

I used modified UHMW track extrusions (as utilized on industrial conveyor systems). They look exactly like the inverted “T” in the OP‘s initial photos. “Machined” to fit on a table saw.

 

[Rufus]

Follow up. The UHMW track was from “8020 INC”. I used part number 40-6808, but it comes in various dimensions. As I said in previous post, it’s easy to machine on a table saw. Instead of drilling holes in the middle of the track, I put screws through the “wing” tabs.