Today, I finished installing my garage door opener! Hooray!
A task that most people can complete in a single afternoon, took ME an entire week to finish!
Wanna know my secret?
Well. Lets get to it!
First... I want to qualify the fact that time was a valued commodity for me. I only had a few hours each day to work on the project. ( 2-3 hours to be exact) So don't be thinking that I'm some brain-dead monkey with a hammer and a bag of Cheetos. I did what I could with the time that was allotted.
First thing I had to do was get the actual unit up and connected. I did that on day one. ( Monday!) I lucked out in having the day off because I went to Michigan for the funeral, and I happened to have that day off because I thought I would take a travel day in reserve. Anyway, I was able to contribute several hours to installing the unit.
But then I ran into a small problem. The instructions tell you to measure to the "largest height of the garage door." kind of vague... All of the videos mention this as well without any clarity on just where I should be measuring. I measures and thought I had the proper height all lined up.
Guess what... I measured wrong.
The proper height is actually 2-3 inched MORE than what you think will be the top most height of the garage door. So some adjustments had to be made.
Luckily, not much. I thought I could squeak by with cutting a small notch in the 2x4 that was blocking the belt trolly. But I discovered that that would probably cause it to become structurally unsound over time. And I also discovered that by giving support to the 2x4s with a short lifter board, I could avoid cutting a 2 inch notch out of each support. That little revelation took a day...
With the unit installed, I had to set up the wiring for the safety features. This took an additional day to complete. You might not thing that it would be that difficult, but there are wiring paths that have to be considered. And then there is the aesthetic to the whole thing. ( I want it to look good!) So.. on Thursday, I finished the on/off button and safety sensors that mark the edge of the garage door.
And then it was time for the wiring. I had to get power to the short power cable that is provided. I guess most modern houses have a random power outlet in the roof of their garage? Well mine didn't!
So I had to wire up something. ( Electricity 101 Recap!) Did I mention that this caused a number of other things that had to be done prior to the set up? Oh yes!
My brother and I managed to get power to the garage and lights. However.... I discovered that many of the "pre set lights:" were disastrously set up ( this coming from someone that is a first year apprentice electrician....) Sure, I might have passed Electricity 201.... But even I know when things are not as they should be.
All of these wires coming out of the junction box with no where to go. I spent an afternoon sorting out things and eliminating the redundancies. In the end I got down from 8 wires to 3. And I think I will reduce that even more at a later date!
With the wiring set up and unit installed. I had to run power to the drive motor. I had just enough cable from the previous job to set up an single double outlet near the ceiling. I ran the wire to the breaker box and hooked it up on a single circuit.
All things pointed to success! But I still had to program the unit to the door max height and close. Time to read the instructions!
A simple task. And eventually I got everything to work. I even programmed the Remote!. Time for celebration!
It is true that I may have celebrated a little early ... But I think few beers are called for when a project that was a week in the making is finally completed. That means that any follow up tasks are now in question... And I probably should double check any thing that I took on after. ( I say this knowing that I am inebriated enough to know that I am compromised in any decision making that may follow....)
So the garage door opener works! WooHoo! Something that seems so routine and ordinary. And that got me to thinking....
Every task and skill I acquire from this "University of Home Ownership" is one I will treasure. Not only does it give me something to blog about, but it also gives me basic knowledge that I think is in short supply these days.
The rest of the night was spent cleaning and organizing. I have other projects that I have to tackle, But those are best executed when I have a clean area and proper tools set up. (And a bit more sober mindset....) I am already thinking of how I want to set up my outlets for maximum efficiency.
So now I have to end this because the beer is effecting my typing... really bad! I just re-read it and there are a LOT of spelling mistakes. So.. I best call it for the night and prepare for tomorrow. And try to make every second count,
.jfif)
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