simple sliding pop door idea (and a short story)

[aiwetir]

i've seen a few posts here recently from people without the tools or knowledge, trying to figure out how to make a sliding door, either guillotine or sideways moving.

well today i was trying to find out how large an opening i need and took one of my 8x10 frames outside to see if the girls would all fit through it.

of course i couldn't get them to get near the evil chicken eating picture frame monster, but eventually i put them in the run then put the frame in their way a bit later when i decided to let them out. they all went through it, no problem, then i took it to my friend's house and same deal (his girls are older than mine) so after determining that 8x10 is fine for fully grown standard hens (i'm actually going to go 10x12 or so) i realized that a wooden picture frame is nearly exactly what is needed for a sliding door. it's got the dado cut into it that any door of the proper size should slide in. just get a 'panoramic' frame, aaron brothers carries 12x18 frames made of an ash like wood that would make a 9x12 opening. well you get the idea, hopefully.

so cut a hole a bit smaller than half the size of the frame, cut a door half the size of the frame and nail/screw the frame over the opening and voila!

hth

 

[Texas ChickenZ]

Great idea. I tell you what I did with mine. I wanted a door I could open and close from outside the coop/run and not have to latch it to keep predators out. Instead of a sliding door, I installed a hydraulic pull from a storm door to hold the door closed. It works great. I have it attached to a cable/pulley that I hang on a nail outside to keep it open during the day. It's strong enough to keep any critter that makes it into the run from being able to open it, but not to strong to pull open with a cable and pulley. Just have to make sure the girls are out of the way and let the door down gently when closing to make sure no one gets "trapped" during closing.