Sliding Pop Door

[enggass]

Can anybody show or explain to me how to go about making sliding Pop Doors? The ones everyone is making that can be pulled up and down by a rope? Pics would be a huge help.
Thanks,
Steve

 

[chfite]

Kind of a corny presentation, but this video shows the essentials of a pop door.

 

[Chucken]

This is how I ended up doing it.

I cut the door hole 12” wide X 12 ¾” high. The extra ¾” lets me install a door sill.

I then took the cut out panel and lined it up on a larger sheet of siding and cut out a 14” X 15” panel, after lining up the outside so the panel grooves would line up when the door was closed (esthetics).

I glued and nailed a 1” X 1” block to the inside top of the new door panel to stiffen it and to help prevent warping, and to have a solid surface to attach the screw eye for the 3/8” rope.

I then installed the track the full length of travel, to help prevent binding. I used a 1/8” shim to give me a little room for paint and expansion. I installed the tracks with screws in case I need to remove the tracks to get to the door. I attached stop blocks to the tracks to stop the door from traveling too far down.

After the tracks were installed, I drilled a 5/8” hole in the 2” X 4” directly above the pop door screw eye, and installed another screw eye to guide the 3/8” rope.

I screwed in another eye to guide the rope to the wall holes.

Where the rope exits the wall to the outside, I attached a micro block (sailing hardware) so the rope doesn’t chafe on any wood surface.

The rope then runs down to a cam cleat (also sailing hardware), that holds the rope in place when the door is open or closed.

So there you have it, door open. I don’t think the chickens will bump their pointy little heads on the stop blocks, but if this does pose a problem, I can reconfigure it.

 

[greenbottle27]

WOW. Is that a Prada pop door?!

 

[fireguy56]

Wow, Nice job. Well thought out and quality construction. Love it.
erik

 

[baldessariclan]

Here's how we set ours up -- the door is just a piece of flat board or plywood with a couple reinforcment/guide pieces attached. You can put on some nylon or teflon sliders to help adjust the gap and ease the sliding action of it gets a little sticky.

The side guides are narrow strips of wood with a slightly wider pieces attached on top of them. The brace at the bottom is open across the door opening, to help keep the bedding material from piling up and binding or holding the door open at the bottom.

The door's lower edge sits a ways below the bottom of the outside opening when closed, so that raccoons and other pests will have a hard time getting their paws under it to open the door from the outside.

The door also is raised up off the floor a few inches to allow for a layer of bedding inside the coop.

The rope is guided through some larger eye screws at the corners, and uses knots (that won't fit through eye screws) as stops to control the travel limits. A cleat is mounted outside to tie the rope off and hold it up -- can be opened and closed w/out having to enter the coop.

Some simple trim frames the hole on the outside.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

above is what our sliding doors look like. Just make sure at night when you close the door to have the light on or a flash light to check if anybody is sitting with their head out the door. Killed a silkie that way once.

Now I remember to check.

 

[enggass]

Quote:
Excellent tip! And thank you all for the pics... Very helpful!
Steve

 

[Mama Hen Chris]

This is what we came up with:


I suggested we use drawer sliders for the pop door.
DH bent conduit for the pull cable.

pull cable in place

before drywall

pop door open

pop door closed

pull and eye hook to keep door open

 

[catsew]

Wow, such great ideas a very detailed guide of how to do it. Thank you.