[skymuster (Mike)]

Hi all,

I’m in the process of building a home-built roll-off roof observatory and recently purchased the excellent Skyshed ROR plans. I’ve converted these plans into metric, using timber dimensions available here in Australia, and I’m now preparing to order materials.

The design calls for a garage door-style track with rollers (quite a few of them!). From the posts and videos I’ve seen, people seem happy with this design, especially compared to the alternative using a v-groove track on one side and a flat roller on the other.

The problem I’m running into is sourcing the garage door tracks locally. I’ve found many suppliers for the rollers and hinges, but the tracks themselves are proving difficult to find. I did manage to find one supplier, but their prices are extremely expensive—the cost for the tracks, rollers, and hinges is coming out at nearly $1000!

Has anyone here had experience sourcing this type of track locally? Any recommendations for suppliers or cost-effective alternatives? Alternatively, would I be better off redesigning the sliding mechanism with the v-groove/flat roller combo? It seems that v-groove hardware is easier to find (for example, through sliding gate suppliers) and might be cheaper.

I’d really appreciate any advice or insights you can share!