r/oddlysatisfying • u/tomsloat • 16h ago
1970’s pressure pad operated automatic doors, still working.
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u/unknowname 16h ago
I know that hospitals has seen some shit.
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u/Patient-Dance-1 15h ago
Imagine the amount of standard issue brown vinyl briefoand 70s nurses clogs that have stomped on those pads.
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u/CaioDaily 15h ago
The fact that this has worked for half a century is more satisfying than the door itself.
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u/tomsloat 15h ago
That was my thought. The building opened in 1977, I’m guessing they date from then.
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u/CaioDaily 15h ago
If they’re original, nearly 50 years of daily use is impressive. I wonder how much maintenance they’ve needed.
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u/JackHershel 2h ago
Sometimes i feel like most of the stuff would still work from the 70s rather than the 2010s
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u/Frumplefugly 16h ago
not if youre tryin to keep zombies out
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u/Salty_McShaft 15h ago
Everyone knows you only put the pressure plates on ths inside of your Minecraft house for this very reason.
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u/Connect_Sun_5721 16h ago
Needs wd-40! Ahhh!
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u/FBI_Open_Up_Now 16h ago
If you were to use we-40, you would want to use the lithium grease or a silicone spray. Traditional wd-40 would just dry up and gunk up the doors.
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u/screamoftruth 14h ago edited 14h ago
This. However, you could also use multi-purpose lithium grease. It's cheaper and will last longer as well in my experience.
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u/FBI_Open_Up_Now 14h ago
Oh yeah, I never have used WD-40’s brand of lithium grease, but I just get whatever looks good at Home Depot. Never have to touch stuff up often. Usually it’s because I can’t remember where I put the last one I bought lol.
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u/AbleCryptographer317 14h ago
This myth always gets upvoted for some reason. WD-40 is a fantastic short-term lubricant and it doesn't "gunk up" up anything. The reason it's not a good long term lubricant is because the compounds in it are so light that they evaporate quickly and there's nothing left after a few days/weeks. No oil, no gunk, nothing.
For door hinges you want a high viscosity oil or light grease so the lubricant compounds stay in place for years. And a really neat trick is to combine WD-40 with oil or grease: the WD-40 dissolves the oil/grease so it penetrates the machinery really thoroughly, then the WD-40 evaporates leaving the oil/grease behind in its place... exactly where you want it.
I'll still probably get downvoted to shit, but WD-40 even debunk the myth on their website:
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u/Miqo_Nekomancer 14h ago
There's always graphite instead of oil if you instead put in new hardware.
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u/SomeGuysFarm 12h ago edited 12h ago
I see no debunking of that "myth" on their web site, and I've certainly seen plenty of sticky tools that were sprayed with WD-40 for protection, where the layer of sticky varnish on the surface would like to disagree with your assertion that it all goes away.
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u/Cheezeball25 12h ago
It's not that it can't lubraicate, but most of it will evaporate away. If you actually want to lubricate something properly, use the correct lube. Id presume for a commercially made door like this, there will be a manufacturer spec for it.
Also don't trust the WD-40 website, they're job is to sell you a product, not inform you of the reality of cheap short term use chemistry.
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u/AerionNightfyre52 15h ago
That sound is probably part of the original safety system. The door announces its arrival like an ancient mechanical beast so nobody can claim they didn’t hear it opening.
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u/Davethephotoguy 14h ago
Automatic door repairman here. Fuck activation mats. I used to have to replace them in grocery stores and man, fuck that shit. All the mat trim was nasty and every single bolt holding them in place was rusted to oblivion and would break if you tried to remove them. Underneath the mats was a witches brew of decades of spilt product (milk, soda…etc), dirt, mud and bugs. Im so glad the industry has switched to overhead sensors. Floor mats can get fucked.
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u/thatonemikeguy 15h ago
I'd almost forgot about those, they were everywhere in the 90's and early 2000's.
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u/HateTheVillanelle 15h ago
That's what I was thinking too. A working one from the 70's is still pretty damn cool.
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u/toiletsurprise 11h ago
I definitely did until now. Now I remember that the Hy-Vee in town had them and I was mesmerized by them as a kid. Good times.
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u/tread52 15h ago
It would be more surprising if stuff built in the 70’s and 80’s wasn’t working. Consumerism hadn’t hit the point of defrauding the public to make extra money yet.
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u/beerandfishtanks 15h ago
It’s just survivor bias. Companies have always made worthless trash to some extent. A small percentage will always survive and make people think the good old days were better. If that were really true then the old things would never have been replaced en masse.
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u/tread52 14h ago
Apple came out publicly said they were purposely causing their phones to break down so you’re forced to buy a new one. Quality and craftsmanship are no longer a thing, but back then they were.
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u/Goaway96 8h ago
All fun and games until buzz and the gang aren’t able to open the door cause they don’t weigh enough
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u/SnorkinOrkin 14h ago
Ohhh! This brings back memories of my sister and I playing "keep the door open" at Thriftimart (L.A.), to the great annoyance of the store managers! 😄
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u/Durahl 12h ago
Reminds me of the time I worked in Security ( nothing fancy, the typical low stakes kind ) and was tasked with guarding a to be serviced 1-Person Lock people had to go trough and identify themselves in before they could move into a High Security Server Area 🤔
Being technically interested ( hella bored, and tasked to watch it anyways ) I took great interest in the operation of replacing the touch sensitive flooring of the Cell meant to ensure only one person and nothing / no one else would be situated inside it at the same time - Essentially there was a small square you had to stand on and anything touching outside would trigger an alarm.
The Company that installed it was quite in-depth explaining to me how the operation was supposed to happen... Which they obviously tested for Errors including standing outside the square... And which did NOT trigger when it should have.
Then it was time for the Head of Security to have a look with everyone still around saying nothing about the issue despite ALL of them knowing about it ( you could smell the fear ). He stepped inside and had it pass since he didn't test for the outside Area.
Everyone else clearly relieved... With me wondering at which point they'd come clear!?
So while everyone else was packing up the Head of Security informed me my service would thus be concluded prompting me to if he was familiar with how the System was supposed to operate ( which he confirmed much in detail ) leading me to ask if he tested it by NOT standing in the center which gave him a moment of pause...
You could literally see how he popped a vein once he put 1+1 together... As I was leaving the area I could only hear him essentially going full Columbo with "One more thing..." ( not quite but you get the idea 🤣 )
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u/blitz350 10h ago
Oh man... this triggered a memory of what these doors on the local grocery stores used to sound like. They had this really deep industrial sound like gears and a hydraulic pump when they opened. Like it should have been a big vault door or something.
Loved that sound.
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u/Amazingprojectionist 10h ago
We need this back on our UK trains.
Dropping baggage to press a button between carriages is asf.
Intercity 125 used to have this pressure pad function
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u/Double-Efficiency538 9h ago
My grandpa designed a hydraulic pump that was used in some of the first automatic doors or so the story goes.
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u/turtle_mekb 8h ago
if anyone wants their own one of these, you can make them using four stone blocks and six wooden planks
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u/LucyLilium92 7h ago
This means the toys in Toy Story were just older and didn't know about motion sensors
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u/krielc 6h ago
Functions but with much squeaking of protest.
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u/Effective-Raisin4837 7h ago
My local hospital uses large switches on the wall with a disinfectant bottle next to them, and it’s a pretty modern hospital. This does seem like a so much better solution.
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u/gibgod 16h ago
How do they work?
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u/wxnfx 16h ago
You step on them and the door opens. Really high quality grocery store technology. The belts and scanners remain.
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u/gibgod 16h ago
But how do they work? I’m guessing it’s not electricity, is it like an air pump system or something?
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u/tomsloat 16h ago
Yeah, pneumatic signal to a pressure switch.
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u/CanIDevIt 16h ago
I think that's true for the tubes across roads ones, but for these I think more common to just be two conductive layers separated by something spongy.
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u/DancesWithTauntauns 14h ago
Loved playing with these at the local grocery store as a kid, felt like I was entering my own little Indiana Jones adventure
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u/Stunning_Coffee6624 16h ago
Oh yeah, I am old enough to remember the switch from pressure plate doors to motion detectors. It was kind of fun the first few times- like they were magic