my garage-jinxed or haunted?

[working on it]

Just another occurrence in a 20 year span (ever since I drove the Chevelle home)...Today, as I was finishing the electrical, lighting, and A/C installations, I was feeling sorta good about the build nearing completion (last step-windows! to come). I was testing both the 110v and 12v systems. Fans, lights, A/C, stereo.... I showed my wife, then as she left the garage, I sealed the doors of the trailer, to see what the sound system was like. Tuned to my satisfaction, I attempted egress. No go. A few months ago, I made sliding bars that fit into rectangular tubing on the doors and doorframe. I worked on them for two weekends to make sure that they worked and sealed with enough play for the seals to fit, and easy enough for my wife to slide them in and out. Worked great. I've been locking and unlocking them daily since then, no problem. Even yesterday, both sets worked fine. Then today, I was sealed in. Fortunately, I had a hammer with me, so I tried to tap the bars back a bit...no go. I had to resort to my MacGyver tool to disassemble the locking bars. Once apart, I tested both sets for fit and finish. Bars and receivers were straight and smooth...I even sanded them some more with 150 grit. The aluminum sliding bars no longer would slide in and out, no matter how smooth and straight they were. If I didn't know better, I would guess that the bars enlarged and the receptacles shrank. I'm re-engineering, switching to Oak dowels as bars, and installing a folding saw in the cabin, just in case. My Chevelle has been sitting since 2008, and the Poltergeist that came with it must be ticked that I've been putting off my return to racing due to a long build on the trailer. Believe in it or not, just another occurrence in my ??? garage.

[Shadow Catcher]

My question would be, did one or more of the attachment points shift through wood shrinking or expansion? Too tight tolerances could be a problem.

[Dale M.]

Or stress angles changed with your weight in cabin ....

I'm not sure what you are referring to as "sliding bars" but sounds like it may be a problem in future, probably need to consider some way to have a "emergency" release mechanism on them ... Having a egress problem ** once** already may be a harbinger of things to come...

Dale

[Kevin & Sandy]

I have a garage like that.

There has been a bike hung upside down over where I park the car for two years. It is hung upside down and has been fine the entire time, but when I parked the car about two months ago, the drink bottle fell out of the holder on the bike, YES, it hit the center of the hood of the car and YES the bottle (unknowingly) was full of water that had frozen solid !!! Nice little ding right in the center...

Vibrations from the garage door opener??

[suckerpunched]

I'd spend some time on the chevelle if I were you.....

[suckerpunched]

I know my neglected harley is gonna somehow jinx me,,,,,,,,

[S. Heisley]

Do you suppose that your Chevelle is related to that possessed car that played in the movie: Christine? Ooooooo!

[working on it]

My question would be, did one or more of the attachment points shift through wood shrinking or expansion? Too tight tolerances could be a problem.

Poltergeist aside, I suspect that the aluminum 3/4" square tube slide bars never had that much "wiggle room" sliding thru the aluminum rectangular tubing (3/4" inside). I had filed and sanded both for minimal clearance, but that was during colder weather. Now, the inside of the trailer was much warmer, and the coefficient of expansion of the different aluminum pieces may have taken away the previously sufficient clearances. I wanted a tight fit, but not that tight! I don't think that the wood surrounding the area suddenly shrank or shifted, nor that there is twist in the structure with me inside (3/4" ply with oak bracing as well as metal reinforcements make it very torsionally stiff). Although I'm going to modify the mechanism to prevent another lock-in, as outlined before, I like to think that my "garage spirit" was warning me of a potentially disastrous problem...much as a similar occurrence years before pointed me to a damaged brake hose prior to a drag race the next day (single master cylinder would totally fail with the busted hose).

[pchast]

Just wait until those cool summers you have and then adjust it again?

Or is it possible to change your design to allow a different method of adjusting to the temperature changes in the length and thickness of the material?

[doug hodder]

Wouldn't a barrel latch from the hardware store worked easier, just seems like a lot of latch for a door that size.

[bobhenry]

National hardware makes a nice brass sliding lock.

It key locks open so you can't get pranked by someone outside sliding the lock and locking you in.

It also key locks closed for security while out hiking

or it can be left as a simple slide bolt.

They also make a companion slide only lock that is very similar in appearance. I place the lockable ones on the outside of several of my trailers and used the simpler companion bolt as a night lock while inside.

Here is an 08 picture of the interior slide lock. The oval knob is a positive stop so the lock will not simply vibrate open..



Here is a poor shot of the exterior key lock......

[Jiminsav]

I would reckon a guess and say that with you sitting inside the cabin, the body of the tear may have twisted just enough to put a bind on the mechinism.

[Bogo]

I would reckon a guess and say that with you sitting inside the cabin, the body of the tear may have twisted just enough to put a bind on the mechinism.

X2...

[Roo Dog]

Definitely haunted !

RD

[pmowers]

.... I showed my wife, then as she left the garage, ....

You thought!
My first thought was that she was jealous of all the time you had been spending with the new love of your life.