DIY Barn Door Track

Okay friends, it’s finally here – our DIY Barn Door track tutorial.  When we say tutorial we just want you to keep in mind that this track was my husbands creation from start to finish.  I slipped out to the garage and snagged a few pictures, but not in our typical tutorial fashion with a clean and bright background.  I was in his DIY world for this one and I literally had to set him aside to walk me through what he did and all the parts he used before attempting this post.  We are hoping you can make some sense out of it and take what you can from it. 🙂  Okay, now that our disclaimer is in place, here goes!

Here’s what you need to make a DIY Barn Door track like ours:

We bought everything from The Home Depot.

• Two 6 ft. by 2 inch Steel Flat Plates ($13.99 each)
• Four 1 1/2 inch steel spacers (about $6)
• Two 4 inch pulleys ($4.78 each)
• Four 1 inch fender washers
• Two Nylon locking nuts
• Two toilet bolts
• Four 3 1/2 inch lag bolts

The steel plates come in 6 foot lengths at The Home Depot, which happened to be exactly the length we needed.  If you need a track longer than 6 feet you may need to get it from a metal supply store.  One 6 foot length will be the actual track, the other steel plate will attach to the door.  Use a Porta-band  saw to cut the plate to the right lengths.  Jay cut ours into 30 inch lengths.

Next he used a blow torch to heat the steel plate so he could bend it.  (It will go up over the pulley wheel.)

He built a make shift jig out of a pallet we have laying around and a scrap piece of wood.  He made the bend about 5 inches from one end of the steel plate.  

With the steel plate still on the “jig” he drilled a hole through both sides of it.  

Now for the pulley, all we’re using is the actual wheel from the pulley.  It goes in the bend of the steel plate as in the picture below. Are you starting to understand the need for our disclaimer?  Ha!  (A drill bit is what’s holding this all in place just for picture purposes.)

I failed to take pictures of the actual assembly of the track.  But I think these will do.

First, attach the pulley wheel in the bend of the steel plate.  This is what Jay used the toilet bolts for.  They happened to be the perfect size and they are flat on the front which he thought looked good.  

Then bolt the steel plate pieces to the door.  Be sure to measure, measure, measure to mount them exactly the same height.  As far as how high and how long they come down on the door, that’s all a matter of personal preference.  Ours are about 24 inches from just above the wheel to the end.

Here is a picture of the backside of the door.  He used Nylon locking nuts and countersunk them so they don’t stick out.

Next, attach the track to the wall using the 1 inch fender washer against the wall.  Use the steel spacer between the wall and the steel plate, screw the lag bolt through.  Be sure to mount the bolts on studs in the wall.  Originally, we spaced the bolts nice and evenly but had to use a sheet rock anchor for one.  It didn’t work…….we could see the bolt starting to pull away from the wall after just a few days.  We drilled a new hole through the track so all 4 would be in studs.  Also, be sure to measure your door, and take into account how high the bent steel pieces goes above your door, then measure again.  We had to patch some big holes in the wall from mounting the track too high the first go around. 

Here’s a view from the top with labels one more time. 🙂

 Once the track is securely mounted to the wall and the hardware is all attached to the door, simply set the pulley wheels on the track.  Then stand back and admire. 🙂  

We did claim this track was around $30 in the barn door post,  my memory failed me.  After looking up the supplies again, I realized it was closer to $50 with everything needed for the track.  Sorry about that!  Still $50 compared to the $180+ for a pre-fab track is a killer deal!

To see the tutorial for the Barn Door click HERE.

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