Making Pocket Doors Work. WHOEE!

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Thanks to the AMAZING Stephen, Justin, Scott, and I were able to remove a pair of pocket doors!!!!!!!! Incredible! I am gobsmacked!

 

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The newly revealed Coburn Mechanisms. I had thought there were two pair of wheels on each door, but there are eight wheels per door! The wheels are fibre, and, as the image shows, they are in APPALLING condition! Appalling! I am shocked! The two wheels to the left have not turned in who-knows-how-long, but were simply dragged along in the tracks. No wonder the doors were so hard to open close!

 

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Geez. Geez!

 

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And more geez This just makes my eyes bug out.

 

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Both doors out. After Stephen conveyed the Secret Ancient Codes of Removal, the doors came out quite easily. Justin, Scott, and I just stood looking at each other, a surprised/gleeful/awestruck grin on our faces. Two days ago it seemed that I might have to demolish the walls to get them out. My elation is GREAT!

 

For two years I have been pondering how to make my beautiful pockets doors effortlessly open/close. Every time I tried, I would give up, frustrated. HOW was I ever going to get the doors right????????

Then Stephen, God love ’em, saved the day.

For two years I worried that the pocket doors might never be right. Tonight, I am 100% confident that the beautiful doors will all soon glide with exquisite ease. Incredible. Wow!!!!!!!! It seems a miracle.

Now, I am breathless with anticipation about how to get new wheels!

 

A REQUEST

I hope everybody reading this post will close their eyes, smile wide, and send Stephen magical thoughts.

 

 

11 Comments

  1. Tiffaney on March 27, 2016 at 6:11 pm

    St Stephen and St Bo, patron saints of the Cross House.

  2. Carla Windsor Brown on March 27, 2016 at 6:20 pm

    Awesomeness!!! That is all I have!

  3. Ken on March 27, 2016 at 6:47 pm

    Glad it was not a huge task taking them out. Does the pocket door guy you talked about in an earlier post know the answer for replacing the wheels.

  4. Travis on March 28, 2016 at 2:25 pm

    I am very happy to see that you avoided demo. Maybe McMaster-Carr has some rollers that might work. Hopefully the little axles didn’t get damaged. I think you’ll find something.

  5. kerri on March 28, 2016 at 6:10 pm

    Would love to see a video of how they came off the track!

  6. Derek W on March 31, 2016 at 10:02 am

    That is really great! It is fun to go down these rabbit-holes on the internet to find solutions. Great work!

  7. Rachael on January 5, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    Ross- thanks to this post, you helped to save our doors too.

    • Ross on January 5, 2017 at 9:31 pm

      I am SOOOOOOOOOO excited for you! Thanks for letting me know.

      But Stephen is the real hero! The man is a national treasure!

  8. Kirsten on April 25, 2017 at 12:43 pm

    I am binge-reading this saga from beginning-to-current and am certain that you have long-since put this project to rest (I’ll probably read all about it in the next post!). But I felt that I needed to comment and share with you my father’s approach to restoring a set of pocket doors- he rigged up a new track system, and harvested new wheels from his rollerblades! (Why yes, this was the 90’s- thanks for asking) Certainly an approach nowhere near suitable for the magnificent Cross House, but the doors really do roll smooth to this day 🙂

    • Ross on April 25, 2017 at 6:07 pm

      Hi Kirsten!

      Yes! Please keep reading. You will be delighted with the outcome!

      Ross

  9. Chelsea on April 27, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    This post is exactly what I needed to finally fix the pocket doors in the 1920s apartment I rent. My place has been not-so-lovingly maintained by the landlord over the years–think layers and layers of paint over gorgeous original hardware (sob). I think I have the exact same track system and similarly ruined wheels. It looks like from the post two back that I just have to remove the lower part of the track to get the doors off. Thank you to you, and thank you to Stephen!

    Can I ask how you got replacement rollers? As mentioned, this is a rental so I’m hoping there will be a cost-effective part that will work!

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