Designs for simple wooden door catches

[usenet]

Can anyone suggest where I might find some ideas for simple wooden door latches? Just pictures would probably do, I'm not aiming to make anything sophisticated or beautiful, they're just for holding verious doors closed on a hen house.

They thus need to be reasonably secure against meddling animals but easy for us to open and close. They are in various different positions and hold different types of door - an ordinary hinged door (except that it closes against the sides rather than into a frame), two horizontally hinged flaps and a vertical sliding door. I think there will probably need to be more than one type of latch for the different doors and positions.

It doesn't matter too much if they're bought latches or I need to make them myself.

Currently all the hinged doors have Screwfix toggle catches:-

are OK but not really quite robust enough for the big vertically hinged door and I feel they need a locating clip (which they're designed for) to guarantee they don't pop open.

[BigWallop]

2'' X 1'' timber. Cut one piece 30mm long and one piece 70mm long to make your boss. Cut another piece 300mm long to make your drop latch.

Lay the 70mm piece on top of the 30mm bit making sure that the end of the top piece lines up with the end of the bottom piece. Drill two holes straight through them so you can fix them to the door frame with the 40mm overhang at the top. This makes the boss to receive the drop latch.

Offer the 300mm length up to the boss and keep it horizontal along the door. The bit that sits inside the boss need only be enough to keep it held tightly in place when the door is locked. Keeping the drop latch horizontal, mark and drill a hole through the end away from the boss so that the latch swivels up and out of the boss to open the door.

Near the boss end of the drop latch screw a nail in to use as a knob for lifting the latch out of the boss. About 100mm above the nail you drill a hole through the door and push through a bit of rope or thick string and tie it to the nail leaving the other end hanging out through the hole so you can pull the string and lift the latch from the other side of the door.

One simple strong latch.

[Michael Mcneil]

Whatever happened to baler twine in the farmers world? Has everything spoiled or what? A few strings with knots and a couple of nails per string and that's them safe for the night.

If you really wanted to push the ark out, you could splash out on some metal hooks and eyes.

[usenet]

I'll have to go away and read that carefully, but it sounds like the sort of thing I want for the big door, thanks.

[usenet]

We have enough baler twine to last us till the next millenium, it's from the hay and straw we buy for the horses. However I always think that resorting to baler twine for mending fences and holding doors shut is the beginning of the end! :-)

[jacob]

What about a traditional turnkey latch - piece of wood with hole in middle nailed to door frame (or screwed with a cup washer if you want to be posh) which you turn from vertical to horizontal to keep the door shut.

cheers

Jacob

[usenet]

I could do that but I'd need to make additions to the door and/or sides. Currently the door is simply a sheet of 1/2" plywood hinged to one edge of a box also made of 1/2" plywood. One of the aims of my design was to keep the inside as smooth as possible to easy cleaning. I suppose I could arrange the above all outside the henhouse.