Doors

Everyone needs a hobby, right?  The door design is the kind of thing I come up with that I ask myself if I've gone overboard, but when it's working I'm happy with the result.  I wanted a way to lock my chickens in at night because I know my neighborhood has coyotes and bobcats roaming around at night.  I've also seen a few raccoons jump my fence with my own eyes, one neighbor lost her cat to a coyote and my next-door neighbor lost her a chicken to a bobcat, so the chickens need some security at night.  What I came up with is a sliding door design.  Check out this video to see how it works...

Project Components

2 x Arcade Buttons

The switches I used to detect the door being opened or closed are just regular arcade buttons you can easily find on eBay.  I figured they'd be relatively durable and stand up to a bit of abuse.

On the other end of the arcade button is a good-sized wood screw that I can screw in or out to adjust for the right switching.

24V DC Geared Motor 25 RPM

25 RPM turns out to be a good speed for this door.  Not fast enough to act like a chicken guillotine, and not slow enough to close absurdly slowly. These motors are also easily found on eBay searching for "24V DC 25 RPM".  The one I used has a 6mm shaft with a flat end.  You might wonder why I didn't use the more common 12V variety.  That is because I am also triggering a sprinkler system solenoid for the Water Bowl, and those are almost all 24V.  This way I only needed to purchase one power supply.

2 x 6mm #25 Gears

I purchased two gears that can take a 6mm shaft and fit #25 chain, but unfortunately, I can't find my receipt, so the best I can offer for this is to search Google for "#25 chain gears".

10' #25 Roller Chain

I looked around for a chain that would fit the gears and found Koch 7425100 Roller Chain, #25, 10 Feet on Amazon.

You'll probably also want the Koch 7725010 Roller Chain Breaker, #25 to #60 to break the chain to length.

And the Koch 7525040 Roller Chain Connector Link, 4-Pack, #25 to link it back together.

It's important that you have the chain length pretty exact or it could fall off of your gears.

Set of Sliding Door Hardware

I found a set of sliding door hardware that I cut up and put on the top and bottom of the door frame so that I had a track in both places.  You can find this at most hardware stores.  Just ask for Johnson Prod. 2200602D Sliding Door Hardware.

Other Bits

I used some angle aluminum and small machine screws to the chain.  Then took a flat piece of steel and bent it into an L to attach to the aluminum piece and run down to the door move it on the rail.  The black tape you see is just to give something for the top chain to easily slide on, instead of rubbing on the screws holding the chain.