Lift-Up Door

Lift-Up Door BUILDINGS Miscellaneous 14-4-8 A pair of troublesome sliding doors on a machine shed owned by Roland Ulstad, Madison, Minn., were replaced by a 24-ft. wide, 14-ft. high hydraulically-operated "lift-up" door that raises straight out and up, parallel to the ground. Ulstad used a 3-phase, 2 hp electric motor to drive a hydraulic pump that powers a pair of 4-ft. long, 3 1/2-in. dia. cylinders. "I built it because I had problems with ice and snow building up on sliding doors and freezing them to the ground," says Ulstad, who uses the 52-ft. wide, 120-ft. long building as a combination shop and machinery shed. "I couldn't build a bifold door because my 14-ft. high doorway already was just barely high enough for my combine. Bifold doors need extra headroom space. The one-piece lift-up door stays in place more tightly than a sliding door, eliminating drafts that caused the shop to get cold in the winter." A Fargo, N.Dak. steel firm used 2 by 4-in. tubing and angle iron to build the door frame and bolted 16 ga. corrugated metal siding to it. Ulstad bolted lengths of 6-in. channel iron to posts on both sides of the door opening and mounted the hydraulic cylinders on the channel iron. Three hinges mount at the top of the doorway. Two windows in the door and two panels of translucent sheeting allow more light inside the building. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Roland Ulstad, Rt. 1, Box 38A, Madison, Minn. 56256 (ph 612 752-4767).

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