May 2002
With the spring comes showers & flowers. (Not to mention mud slides, tornadoes and the like!)
Can I Change The Doors?
A school in Alabama wants to know if they can change the doors instead of changing the entire locker. It appears that the latching mechanisms are the only problems. Further investigation indicated that these lockers were manufactured by Medart about 20 years ago. The answer is no. Even if these lockers were still being made, it is highly unlikely that the current model door will fit on a model that is 29 years old.
Medart was one of the oldest locker manufacturers, originally from St. Louis, more recently from Greenwood Mississippi. They were acquired by Interior Steel of Cleveland Ohio, which was acquired by Penco of Oaks Pennsylvania (get the picture?)
The next best thing would be to change the door & frame assembly. Generally, it is relatively easy to change a door & frame assembly even if the new unit is not the same manufacturer as the old unit and at about 80% the cost of replacement. There are some exceptions, however. Medart & Interior Steel just happen to be that exception. Most major manufacturers have a growth factor of about 1/32" per frame. This means that 47 lockers that are listed as 12" wide, will actually take up 47' 1-15/32". The more lockers you have in a bank, the harder it will be to fit the new frames on. Additionally, both Medart & Interior have 1-1/2" top & bottom frame members, where most manufacturers have a 1" frame. This will necessitate trimming the top & the bottom.
There is a 3rd alternative to this dilemma. If the locker is in tact and the only thing not working is the latching mechanism, you might try replacing it with the LockerSaver® Handle. This unit replaces the existing protruding handle and bypasses the old, worn out latching mechanism at about 30% the cost of replacement.
This brings us into the discussion of gauges and why you should try to keep your old lockers for as long as you can.
What Gauge is it?
Ever wonder why your lockers appear to be much heavier than what is being offered in the market today? Most lockers manufactured before the early 70s were made with domestic steel. In fact, two of the major locker manufacturers were owned by steel companies (Republic & Penco). The standard of measurement was US Standard. After the oil embargo, the standard of measurement became the International Standard. Foreign steel flooded the market because it was just too expensive to make steel in the good old US of A. The result was that 16 gauge International was no where near to the old 16 gauge US.
In the 90s, the locker manufacturers attempted to correct this injustice by offering 14 gauge doors which are almost equivalent to the old 16 gauge US. Of course, this "option" increases the price somewhat. (What a bargain!)
Sometimes, old is better!
Rusted Out Bottoms
A school in New Jersey has lockers in a swimming pool changing area and the bottoms have completely rusted through because the kids keep on tossing their wet bathing suits, you know where. They want to change their bottoms without having to remove the lockers. As most of you figured out by now, the bolts that fasten the bottoms are below the locker.
There are 2 ways to skin this cat (apologies to animal lovers). You can take a bottom and trim off the return on the front lip. Slide it in, upside down, making sure to fit the front under the return on the lower frame. Drill the sides so that you can fasten with nuts & bolts and voila!
If your bottom is basically in tact, but it has a giant hole in the center, try this trick. Take a bottom and trim off the front edge as described above. Assuming that this bottom is made by the same manufacturer as your original lockers, "V" notch all the bolt holes. Slide the front edge of the bottom under the return of the bottom frame. Apply pressure to slide the new bottom down over the old bottom. Don't worry, once you get it down, no one will ever get it back up, so no need to screw it down.
Lets face it, if you are a perfectionist and you tried to remove the lockers to change the bottoms, the chances are that you will not be able to remove the bolts without damaging the parts because they are so unbelievably corroded.
Questions, Questions, Questions
Your part is obsolete? We have the largest selection of reconditioned parts.
Don't know what to do about your lockers? We will be happy to visit your facility and design a program that will fit your budget (or lack of).
Until next month, keep your doors hinged and your nuts tight.