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We have a new kitchen made of old parts. Between the kitchen and mudroom there is a sliding pocket door. The door is a very old solid wood five panel door. The sliding track is modern, aluminum, lightweight materials. It is clearly made for hollow core doors.
The pocket door is constantly breaking. Most commonly the screws that hold the traveler assembly to the top of the door pull out. Other things go wrong too.
I cut an access hole to repair it, then I had to cut a bigger access hole.
It is clear to me I need to simply tear out the wall and replace the track and traveler with something more suitable for a heavy door. The problems is, they do not seem to make anything.
I found some heavy iron barn door slider assemblies where the traveler unit attaches to the side of the door rather than the top, and it is attached with bolts that go clear though the door. This appears likely to be sturdy enough, but it is made to be mounted to the outside of a wall, not inside t wall like a pocket door.
Does anyone know if these barn door slider assemblies can be made to work for a pocket door? I would hate to but one, tear out the wall and then figure out it will nto work in a pocket door situation.
Alternately, does anyone know of a pocket door system that is sturdy and does not attach tot he top of the door with screws? I am reasonably good at finding things on the internet, and while I found some beefier systems that might work, they still attach the door via screws into the top of the door. These are doomed to pull out eventually.
I do not know the answer to your question. Honestly I’d contact a good carpenter to find out.
I love the idea of a modern kitchen made from old parts. But I want to respectfully suggest that you could replace the old pocket door for a new pocket door and save yourself a lot of aggravation. Sometimes we have to make peace with things we see as not ideal.
Of course I haven't seen your particular installation.
Just off the top of my head I'd probably use garage door track and adapt garage door rollers to mount to a door. I'm thinking a piece of 3/16 steel plate, set into a rabbet on the surface of the door, secured to the door by flat head screws (countersunk into the steel plate and threaded into T nuts on the other side of the door). Then machine slots in the plate, maybe 1/4" or 5/16", probably four, to mount four rollers. Use shoulder bolts of an appropriate length and thread size, to secure the rollers to the plate; use a spacer to lift the rollers up off the plate; secure the shoulder bolts to the plate with some nuts and washers. Use (I'm thinking here) garage door track for the rollers to roll on. Adjusting the height of the rollers will be a bit of a pain but you'll only have to do it once, because unlike sliders with patent adjustment mechanisms, the big honkin' shoulder bolt with a nut and hardened washer tightened to by-golly-tight ain't gonna slip.
The steel plate mounted to the door might hang down a bit from the slot in the header, but you can paint it to match the door and no one will ever notice.
Re-reading your post, if you think there exists something pre-made that would be strong enough except that you're worried about screwing wood screws into the end grain at the top of a door, you have several options.
1) You can rout a pocket in the door and use a bolt and nut with the nut (and a washer) in the pocket, then close off the pocket with a small sheet metal cover.
2) You could fit a piece of steel L to the top of the door, the thickest L you can find, and recess the door to make it flush. Then you secure the L to the door with screws running horizontally (those aren't going to pull out) and drill and tap the other leg of the L for machine screws to attach the equipment.
3) You could cut off the top say 1" of the door, cut a piece of good quality wood with the grain running horizontally, put T nuts on the bottom of it, and secure the new piece to the newly cut top of the old door with a bunch of screws and epoxy glue.
You do realize that only the end stiles of the door present end grain to the top, right? The whole middle of the door the grain runs horizontally so if you use enough screws of a good size they won't pull out. I mean, I can't imagine you pulling out 12 #10 or #12 3" deck screws.
We have a new kitchen made of old parts. Between the kitchen and mudroom there is a sliding pocket door. The door is a very old solid wood five panel door. The sliding track is modern, aluminum, lightweight materials. It is clearly made for hollow core doors.
The pocket door is constantly breaking. Most commonly the screws that hold the traveler assembly to the top of the door pull out. Other things go wrong too.
I cut an access hole to repair it, then I had to cut a bigger access hole.
It is clear to me I need to simply tear out the wall and replace the track and traveler with something more suitable for a heavy door. The problems is, they do not seem to make anything.
I found some heavy iron barn door slider assemblies where the traveler unit attaches to the side of the door rather than the top, and it is attached with bolts that go clear though the door. This appears likely to be sturdy enough, but it is made to be mounted to the outside of a wall, not inside t wall like a pocket door.
Does anyone know if these barn door slider assemblies can be made to work for a pocket door? I would hate to but one, tear out the wall and then figure out it will nto work in a pocket door situation.
Alternately, does anyone know of a pocket door system that is sturdy and does not attach tot he top of the door with screws? I am reasonably good at finding things on the internet, and while I found some beefier systems that might work, they still attach the door via screws into the top of the door. These are doomed to pull out eventually.
Thanks.
So you have an architectural salvage around you?
We have an old turn lock deadbolt on our back door and the idiots who broke into our house had no idea how to open the door with, so they took a hammer to the lock and broke it up.
We went to one of our local architectural salvage yards and picked up the exact same lockset for 5 bucks. It’ll last another 100 years.
The pocket door is constantly breaking. Most commonly the screws that hold the traveler assembly to the top of the door pull out. Other things go wrong too.
Shouldn't pull out if its hardwood. Maybe its a softwood like pine? My first thought would be to use a 3" or 4" screw to attach the assembly to the top of the door. Pre-drill the hole. Lets see it try to get loose with those.
and while I found some beefier systems that might work, they still attach the door via screws into the top of the door. These are doomed to pull out eventually.
Am I missing something here, it's a solid door? Put a longer screw in it, the screws with unthreaded section near the top can also help. That gives you friction similar to a nail preventing the screw from coming loose. If you want to get really nuts use a small nail to force some adhesive into the hole before screwing.
Still not satisfactory? Get a 1/8 inch pice of steel, attach the dorr hardware to that. Attach the steel to the top of the door with a lot of screws.
I used the kit from Stanley to put our pocket door in, biggest issue I've seen with some of the other kits is bad wheels. The Stanley kit comes with softer nylon wheels with a nice set of sealed bearings, basically mini roller blade wheels which should last indefinitely.
Last edited by thecoalman; 10-14-2018 at 04:52 AM..
...garage door track(?)
That's absolutely funny as Hell!!!
Honest question here. Why not garage door track? Do you think it's too thin and would be prone to twisting?
I haven't done this job, although a friend of mine did something like this some years ago. I was just combining what I could remember of his setup with some general thinking - and I have not looked at catalog items to see what could be used, either. I was just tossing ideas out in the hope of inspiring a thought process in the OP's mind.
Actually as I was driving home after posting that I also remembered the V groove rollers with sealed bearings that we used to use on something or other in assembly equipment design, and I was thinking that some of those, running on a flat bar set on edge (as you know, the edges of hot rolled strip are more like a full radius) might be a stiffer and more adjustable design.
Obviously if something pre-made and satisfactory exists, that's easiest; but a lot of the hardware I see for things like sliding doors is rather flimsy. I haven't done pocket doors, as I said, but I have done some installation of sliding closet doors and the support mechanisms I designed and built myself from proper industrial components held up much better than the standard items they replaced.
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Solly says — Be nice!
