I am in the process of designing and building a garage door opener for the shop. I can buy one but heck anyone could do that. Then there is the friends that say it cant be done so with my hard head one way or another its going to get done just because, I have a low clearance from ceiling to door in the shop. dont park in there so I wont need a remote so far I have gathered up a leeson 1 hp motor that can be ran in either direction and a worm gear and spur gear from a old gear reduction that is 10 to 1. I have asked the resident expert on garage door openers here on the forum sundance for advice since he is the guru on garage door openers now Im asking you all. what king of ratio does a garage door to motor usually have. and what kind of safety device can be built in to stop the door in case it gets hung up on the way up or down. this will be operated by a switch on the wall beneath the door and will be mounted on the wall below the torsion spring bar.