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- #91
I will try to keep the pictures to a minimum, but I think this will be a picture heavy post.
I have built sliding barn doors several times now. Most recently for the interior doors of our house. I built our home doors as described in the above post with different inserts, and built the hardware as described below.
On cost of the hardware, for the barn it was minimal. I purchased 12 feet of 1.5 x .25 flat bar for $1.10 per foot. I used a narrow bar, previously I used 2 or 2.25 in wide bar, but have minimal clearance on the barn so Ineeded to use a more narrow bar. My only purchase.
I already had the wheels because I previously purchased the incorrect size for my house doors. They are called v-groove cast iron wheels. here's the amazon link.
So at $40 for the wheels, and about $14 for the steel, a total of $55, compared to buying a kit, over $150.
For hardware, I used: 8 - 3/8×1.5, 4 - 3/8 x4 lag screws and 12 washers. The wheels already had lag bolts and lock nuts with them.
I started with cutting the metal down to the sizes I wanted. I used my grinder and a cut off wheel. I broke down and picked up a new grinder, btw... I burt the other one up when I was fabbing up some joist hangers for the house.
I cut 1 at 8 feet and 4 at 1 foot each. After they were cut, I cleaned up the edges with a flap disk. It's hard to catch the difference between a smooth cut versus a sharp one, but I gave it a shot.
The blue disk is the flap disk. If you ever do any metal work, using one can make your project look profesional versus junky.
With the metal cut, my next step was to drill holes in the steel. the 4, 12" pieces are the straps that will hold the wheel to the door, and the 8' piece is the track. If your inside this can get complicated, because your holes on the track need to fall on studs. I planned for this when I built the barn, and ran a purlin where my track would be. So on the track, I spaced out my 4 holes evenly. For the door straps, it's what ever you think looks best. In this case I didn't want the metal to extend past the top of the wheel because of clearance, so my holes for the wheels were 1.25" from the end.
.25" thick metal is tough to drill through. You cannot simply drill a 3/8 inch hole. The drill bit can't handle it, you'll burn up your bits if you try. For any hole larger than .25" you need to pilot first and then widen.
I pioleted with a .25" metal bit and then widened with a tapered bit ( not sure what it's called)
Hogging out metal is messy, wear gloves. Nothing feels quite a pleasant as a piece of metal shaving under your finger nail....
I used my drill press to do this, but a regular had drill could be used just as easily.
Now, your metal is cut and the holes are drilled. Let's get it mounted. Bolt on your wheels to the straps first with a lock nut. After they're assembled, bolt the straps to the doors. Need to be careful on the placement or the doors will hang unevenly. I spaced mine at 2 inches from the center of the v-groove to the top of the door. With my 1.5 inch track, this allows for a .5 inch of clearance between the top of the door and the bottom of the track.
Before you can hang the track, you have to cut a few spacers. The size of the spacers, will depend on the thickness of the door and the wheels, and the length of the bolts holding on the wheels. The space we are filling is between the door track and the wall. To figure it out measure the space between the v-groove and the back of the door. I needed a 1 an 1/8 inch spacer.
I used some 1.5 inch dowl I had laying around for my spacers. After I cut them, I drilled out a 1/2 hole. The hole needs to larger than the bolt.
With my spacers cut and drilled out, I was ready to hang the door track and put on the doors.
Next up is is how to keep the doors from moving all over the place. I just used little of this and a little of that, random junk laying around.
Could not be happier with the way this is looking...
I have built sliding barn doors several times now. Most recently for the interior doors of our house. I built our home doors as described in the above post with different inserts, and built the hardware as described below.
On cost of the hardware, for the barn it was minimal. I purchased 12 feet of 1.5 x .25 flat bar for $1.10 per foot. I used a narrow bar, previously I used 2 or 2.25 in wide bar, but have minimal clearance on the barn so Ineeded to use a more narrow bar. My only purchase.
I already had the wheels because I previously purchased the incorrect size for my house doors. They are called v-groove cast iron wheels. here's the amazon link.
So at $40 for the wheels, and about $14 for the steel, a total of $55, compared to buying a kit, over $150.
For hardware, I used: 8 - 3/8×1.5, 4 - 3/8 x4 lag screws and 12 washers. The wheels already had lag bolts and lock nuts with them.
I started with cutting the metal down to the sizes I wanted. I used my grinder and a cut off wheel. I broke down and picked up a new grinder, btw... I burt the other one up when I was fabbing up some joist hangers for the house.
I cut 1 at 8 feet and 4 at 1 foot each. After they were cut, I cleaned up the edges with a flap disk. It's hard to catch the difference between a smooth cut versus a sharp one, but I gave it a shot.
The blue disk is the flap disk. If you ever do any metal work, using one can make your project look profesional versus junky.
With the metal cut, my next step was to drill holes in the steel. the 4, 12" pieces are the straps that will hold the wheel to the door, and the 8' piece is the track. If your inside this can get complicated, because your holes on the track need to fall on studs. I planned for this when I built the barn, and ran a purlin where my track would be. So on the track, I spaced out my 4 holes evenly. For the door straps, it's what ever you think looks best. In this case I didn't want the metal to extend past the top of the wheel because of clearance, so my holes for the wheels were 1.25" from the end.
.25" thick metal is tough to drill through. You cannot simply drill a 3/8 inch hole. The drill bit can't handle it, you'll burn up your bits if you try. For any hole larger than .25" you need to pilot first and then widen.
I pioleted with a .25" metal bit and then widened with a tapered bit ( not sure what it's called)
Hogging out metal is messy, wear gloves. Nothing feels quite a pleasant as a piece of metal shaving under your finger nail....
I used my drill press to do this, but a regular had drill could be used just as easily.
Now, your metal is cut and the holes are drilled. Let's get it mounted. Bolt on your wheels to the straps first with a lock nut. After they're assembled, bolt the straps to the doors. Need to be careful on the placement or the doors will hang unevenly. I spaced mine at 2 inches from the center of the v-groove to the top of the door. With my 1.5 inch track, this allows for a .5 inch of clearance between the top of the door and the bottom of the track.
Before you can hang the track, you have to cut a few spacers. The size of the spacers, will depend on the thickness of the door and the wheels, and the length of the bolts holding on the wheels. The space we are filling is between the door track and the wall. To figure it out measure the space between the v-groove and the back of the door. I needed a 1 an 1/8 inch spacer.
I used some 1.5 inch dowl I had laying around for my spacers. After I cut them, I drilled out a 1/2 hole. The hole needs to larger than the bolt.
With my spacers cut and drilled out, I was ready to hang the door track and put on the doors.
Next up is is how to keep the doors from moving all over the place. I just used little of this and a little of that, random junk laying around.
Could not be happier with the way this is looking...
