Best way to repair badly designed gate

[Prof Wonmug]

We have a couple of wooden gates. The latches keep bnreakiong because the gates were badly designed so that all of the force of closing is borne by the latch. I would appreciate suggetsions for how to modify the gate to add some sort of "stop" to take the force off the latch.

I have uploaded several photos of the gate to this link:

01-02: The gate from the front, both closed and open.

03: The gate from the back.

04: The broken latch. This time, the latch got metal fatigue and broke. Other times, it has pulled the screws loose.

05: This shows that the gate has no stop other than the latch. If pushed closed without a latch, it will go well past fully shut. The latch takes the full force.

06: This shows that the side rail of the gate and the frame are the same width. One idea I had was to nail a length of 1/2" x 1/2" stock vertically onto the frame. The problem is that the gate will then not close fully. In addition to having to shim the latch, I will get grief from SWMBO because it doesn't align.

07: This shows the bottom of the gate. There is very little clearance. Another idea I had was to make a threshold with a stop similar to the idea above. The stop could be outside the frame, which would allow the gate to close fully. The downside to this is (a) the clearance and (b) it will be something to trip over.

Another idea is to fasten small "fingers" on the back side of the gate (parallel with the latch). I was thinking one at the top and one at the bottom. Maybe one in the middle. The downside of this is it is unattractive and they would be prone to stabbing someone.

My last idea is to fasten a piece of 1x5 to the front of the latch-side frame with about 1" protruding into the opening for the gate to bang against. This is minimally obtrusive and not likely to snag anyone.

Is there a better way?

PS: Sorry for cross-posting. I wasn't sure which group is the better fit.

[Oren]

Any reason I should DL a 13 MB Zip file?

Get a level, check and report back here.

[mm]

Especially when the download is limited to 80KB unless you upgrade to Max which costs 6 dollars a week and 100 dollars a year. Boing!!!

Other people find free places to post their pictures, at least that are free to us.

[Gary H]

I didn't even try because of the ridiculous requirement to enable scripts.

[RicodJour]

Post some pictures of your golf net so people will know you follow through. :)

R

[Oren]

It took me 4:26 to download Windows 7 at 202 KB speed - 3.5 GB.

Free until 2010. Found here:

[Andrew Erickson]

...snip...

My thoughts (but please don't take this as gospel!)

Is it necessary that the gate be latched closed, or merely that it stay closed? If the latter, perhaps a self-closing hinge of some sort--I'd probably choose a double-direction one if it were me--would be an ideal answer. No latch, no banging, no nothing. Lee Valley has such a "Double-Acting Hinge" in their Gate Hardware section.

If that won't work, I might be tempted to see about introducing some sort of buffer material in the hinges; a thin piece of leather, say, glued to one of the leaves. If it's in the middle of the hinge, I don't think it would tend to rip them off/apart all that much, and if sized right, it could provide some added dampening for the latch.

Another possibility might be a different style of latch, one that requires manual intervention to activate. One old design uses an offset vertical rod on the gate and a ring held captive in a handle-like piece on the post. To latch, the ring is lifted and slipped over the vertical rod of the gate, encircling it and the bit on the post. Another possibility is some kind of a trough arrangement that hinges down from the post over the top of the gate.

Of the ideas you posted, I think the doorstop ones (whether one built into the ground or a stop plank added on to the post) are the most practical. The stop plank may tend to work loose from the post or split and break from the banging of the gate if not sufficiently well sized or attached.

[Kerry Montgomery]

Post some pictures of your golf net so people will know you follow through. :)

R

-end of previous posts- R, Wouldn't he have to post a video of his swing so people could tell if he follows through? ;-) Kerry

[Prof Wonmug]

I've used that site many times in the past and no one has complained. I didn't realize that it required scripts. But I've only uploaded, never downloaded.

Do you know of a bettetr place to post the photos?

As for the size, each photo is almost 2MB. I uploaded 7 different views. I can set the camera for lower resolution and reshoot.

[J. Clarke]

Flickr.com is free (as long as you don't do too much volume) to both post and view, requires no registration or login or anything else to view, automatically creates thumbnails in several sizes, and once you have set up your account and installed their uploader software it's drag-and-drop convenient.

[Steve Turner]

I'll second the vote for flickr.com. The a.b.p.w newsgroup might otherwise be the obvious choice, but these days it seems most people no longer have access to the binary groups unless they're willing to pay extra for the service. flickr.com is free, easy to use, and has a lot of nice features.

[Doug Miller]

Absolutely unnecessary to make them that large.

Most folks won't bother downloading 14MB of still images of a gate. Stills of Jennifer Anniston, maybe....

There are numerous programs available, free, which can resize images to whatever size you want. IrfanView is one of the best.

[Mark Lloyd]

I block scripts too.

For may find it significant that I've been using computers since 1982 and have NEVER gotten a virus.

I have my own website, which I post photos too. Free websites are available to anyone.

I wouldn't need lower resolution, but there are people limited to POTS dial-up.

[Mark Lloyd]

I would be interested in seeing how it works to view something on Flickr.com . Do you have a link for viewing something?

[RicodJour]

I like IrfanView as well, but for most things Picasa is the simplest solution I've found. Unless I have something very specific to do where I need to use more than one application to do it, I use Picasa.

It imports your pictures automatically when you put the card in your computer (not just importing to a folder), the editing functions are fairly robust for a simple program (it's not Photoshop), all editing is reversible, it will upload to your free Picasa web albums, automatic resizing when uploading, etc., etc.

R

[J. Clarke]

[Lee Michaels]

WARNING, THIS IS AN ON TOPIC POST!!

I only saw one regular size post at abpw. What I saw among other things were a bungee cord, obviously a subsitute for the broken latch. And brick surface.

I am going to suggest something that worked for me. It may or may not work for you.

My gate was dragging on the ground. The gate was quite heavy. The post and hinges were very strong, albeit at a slight angle. And like you, I hade a gate latch that barely worked.

Being a farmboy, who used to make BIG gates as a kid, I used a little farmboy logic. I went to Ace Hardware and ordered a "Gate Caster (or Castor)". This is a hard rubber wheel that bolts to the gate. It lifts and supports the gate. It has a spring to adjust the tension. If you make the spring tight, the gate closes at about a tenth of the speed of it swinging freely. This was an unintended effect in my case. But still far superior to what existed before. And the reduced speed, slight extra effort to close the gate, may be just what you need.

I also bought the biggest, baddest gate latch they had. MUCH bigger and stronger than that little peice of junk hardware that you have on your gate. Back in the day, they did not make junk like that. Now you have to look for a beefy alternative or special order them. Again, I found both items ate Ace hardware.

Take some good measurements. You will need some big bolts to to fasten the gate caster. (And maybe a helping hand to mount it.) I used small latg screws to mount the heavy duty gate latch. It sloved my problem. I an foggy on the price, but is seemed to me that I paid about $40 - $50 for the everything. Make sure you have a drill bit long enough to drill the necessary holes. I used both locking washers and some kind of locking nut on the bolts. Be sure to drill pilot holes for your gate latch. And get extra long and BIGGER screws for the gate latch.

Remember, this ain't art. Just get the biggest, baddest stuff you can buy and mount it with beefy fasteners. You are big. You are bad. You are macho. Now go kick some ass!

After that, I feel tired. I think I will go take a nap.

[Steve Turner]

Follow the link in my sig for more examples.

[RicodJour]

Nice rocking chair, that honey locust is.

R

[Steve Turner]

Thanks! :-)