# How Can I Model a Steel Door?



## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

I'm building a new passenger station for the CCRR. At one end, similar to some fairly modern Amtrak stations I've seen, I want to have a "steel door". The roll-up kind. Opening is about 3" square. And I don't have a clue where to start.

Anybody have a clue?

JackM


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## BigRedOne (Dec 13, 2012)

How about using a food can, flattened out?


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

Cosmetic or working? 

Plastic or metal?

Panel (like a residential garage) or tambour / tambor / corrugated (continuous roll like a roll up desk) type? The latter also called a can type roll up door)?

Any glass panels?


Google Search on the following terms and select "images" option at the top off the results page. The image pages will give you thousands, maybe millions of choices, pick one.

Roll up doors
Roll up door types
Roll up door texture

As an example; if the door you wish is to be plastic, corrugated, industrial type then, given the variety of types and textures, I'd think it could be made from a sheet of polystyrene with thin flat strips added to create the high and low segments. Again the look could be changed depending on the width of the strips added. Or use round strips for more texture. They could be either half round or full rounds again depending on the look you are trying to achieve,

Good luck.


Disclaimer;
I know nothing about this type of modeling. This is just some musings from somewhere that appeared as a vision in the early morning fog. I was just curious so I said to myself, self... If it seems delusional, well there you are.


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

Jack, if you are only trying to simulate a standard industrial roll up door, an aluminum can run through the Fiskars corrugation tool will work.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Piko make them for their various kits. Maybe you can just buy the door, its frame, and the simulated "rolled" section that goes over the opening.


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

Guess I left out a few details. I already ruled out the Fiskars corrugated look. That would create alternating convex and concave surfaces. Not the look I'm looking for.

What Todd shows as the door from Piko kits is in the neighborhood, but I've never seen a metal door with thin slats like that. I'm looking for the kind with "slats" that are 4 - 6 inches wide. Such a 7' door would have 15 or 16 flat horizontal slats.

To give proper depth, I can only see trying to glue plastic strips perfectly parallel with tiny spacing, then gluing.......hmmm.....take a piece of plastic bigger than the door opening and, using pins for spacing, glue on the horizontal plastic strips. Whoops....paint the back plastic darker to give depth before gluing on the slats. Yeah, that's gonna work.

I love how this works. You ask a question, get some thoughts on how to accomplish your goal, the thoughts don't seem to be what you need but they start you thinking along paths your tiny little mind couldn't find and, voila, you see the doable solution.

Thanks guys!

JackM


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Jack,
Take a look at page two of this post string. About half way down there is a photo of a door that might interest you. Maybe if you contact Daniel Peck he could help you out.
http://forums.mylargescale.com/15-model-making/28346-new-building-i-working.html


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Does the door need to work?

If so, glue strips to a piece of cloth.

If not, cut a sheet of plastic to size and make uniform score lines across it with a "V" shaped tool to simulate the sections.


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

Paul - Yup, that's exactly the door I'm thinking of. Let's see, the cost of a 3D printer plus get my engineering degree..... (Is that building beautiful, or what?)

Mr. Steam - Door doesn't need to work. Scribing the plastic sounds good, but I've never managed to scribe a straight line without it going awry. Perhaps I'll try it on one side, then flip it over if I do it in my usual sloppy manner.

Thanks for the suggestions.

JackM


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Jack,
Here is what one of those freight stations that Daniel built looks finished. 
http://forums.mylargescale.com/15-model-making/30497-finished-freight-station-daniel-peck.html


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## dieseldude (Apr 21, 2009)

Jack, Jack, Jack- Many moons ago I made just the door your looking for. I used a piece of corroplast (you know- that plastic stuff they make all the election signs out of), placed sideways. There is a picture of it on my sawmill here (I can't figure out how to upload or post pics, anymore)-

http://forums.mylargescale.com/14-buildings/18734-saw-mill-iron-island-rr-3.html

The top portion is made from a large diameter dowel that I split in half. Hope this helps.


-Kevin.

Oh, and if you want, you can check it out in person at our next open house. That is, of course, when the snow goes away! See you soon!


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## redbeard (Jan 2, 2008)




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## Mike Paterson (Dec 27, 2007)

Do you have access to plastastrut (sp) product? They make scribed styrene in a variety of scales and also scribe widths. I would expect you could find something there and not have to worry about straight scribes.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Also..just to compliment the ideas here..

Many industrial roll up doors... roll up indoors!
Build a door jam the thickness of your perceived wall...and glue a piece of coroplast on the inside....

Just a jam n door...no roll up 1/2 round part to model...
.... still an accurate door for a warehouse setting..

Keep building!!

Dirk


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## MikeMcL (Apr 25, 2013)

JackM said:


> Scribing the plastic sounds good, but I've never managed to scribe a straight line without it going awry.


Evergreen makes v-groove Styrene in various spacing. I have used the 0.250" spacing, works out to about 6" in 1:24 scale. About $5-6 for 6" x 12" sheet. 

http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/Sheets.htm#V-Groove Siding


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

And....the coroplast used to run about $7 - $8 for a full 4' x 8' sheet - 1/8" thick..


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

Kevin - The snow will go away before we know it and half of my projects will be done: half of this one, half of that one, half of....(rim shot)

Corroplast sounds like what your doctor uses on your broken arm. (rim shot)

I have some of that Evergreen stuff, except mine runs up and down. Do you have to special-order the sideways kind? (rim shot)

But seriously folks. 

Plastruct and/or Evegreen makes a nice variety of shapes, too (K, L, U, T, Z, etc.) I have some of each. The L is handy for an edge around a doorway (especially if you didn't cut it evenly) and to add depth for an inside door as Dirk suggested. 

I don't know what size would look best for the roll-up top, but I have a good selection of random pieces of PVC and CPVC pipe and I'll bet one of 'em will cut down just right. Although, you don't have to worry about the roll-up part if the door is INSIDE! I think I have saved myself another expenditure of effort.

JackM

I'll be here all week; try the veal, and don't forget to tip your waiter.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Have not had veal for many years...non make it better than My grandmother did...and her mash potatoes...that I smooooshed for her tired hands....Aah.!!!

;-)


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## Michael Glavin (Jan 2, 2009)

Ya'll know, the door rolls up on the inside right? Nothing is seen from the exterior with regard to the roll up drum and mechanism.

Michael


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

I'm working under the assumption that there are two kinds of roll-up doors. The inside type glides up the track that goes horizontal into the building (like ours do in our home garages in the Northeast) and the outside type that curls up into the roundy thing at the top of the door opening. No? If not, then what's that roundy thing for?

JackM

I love learning things.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I have seen all three types...

I have the usual overhead door that moves up on a track to be horizontal on the inside of the garage above where I park the car.

I have seen a type that the door actually curls into a tube/roll above the door. These are often used where the ceiling is so low that there is no room for the door to open, either because the panels will hit the ceiling in the transition between closed and open or just so low that there is no room for it to sit in the horizontal position and get a vehicle to pass below it.

Some of those that form a roll do so on the inside of the building, so nothing is seen on the outside to tell what kind it is, other than that the door is composed of narrow slats instead of wider panels.

I have also seen this type with the roll on the outside of the building where there was such an extra low ceiling in the building that there was no room to put the roll above the door opening on the inside.


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## Michael Glavin (Jan 2, 2009)

I don't recall ever seeing a roll-up door that was mounted on the exterior of a building. Minimal interior ceiling height would certainly dictate the need for exterior mounted doors. 

That said a Google search suggests they in fact exist. So something to keep in mind when modeling an exterior mounted door is the door, track and drum and such are all surface mounted on the outside of the building.

From a modeling perspective, I'd suggest the door modeled would coincide with building exterior elevations and or documentation depicting the type of door utilized. To that end in my mind, a door hung on the exterior would be less secure than one mounted on the inside. And more likely than not require the operator to physically push the door up and pull it down verses the atypical interior door being either electrically operated via motor drive or the more common looped/continuous chain drop manipulated by the operator to raise and lower the door from the inside. I suppose an exterior mounted door could also be operated electrically with a drive mechanism under the exterior hood too. 

Michael


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