Big Steel Gate

Projects don’t have to be high-tech, they have to be practical and solve a problem.

In this instance, that meant having a big sturdy gate at the back yard with a simple, but effective latch.

A million wheelbarrows with sand

When we moved homes a couple of years ago, our backyard was a open, muddy place.

Neighbours dogs would do their business there, but worse than that, the kids couldn’t play there without constant supervision.

That had to change.

So I took a wheelbarrow, a lot of sand, a pole drill, poles and fence posts and made a fence around the property.

There was still one problem, It still needed a gate.

For the gate is where some old-skool engineering came into place.

I had a barn-style gate, but it needed hinges. I had old rusty ones, but they had too much play and you could lift out the gate.

So I patched up the old hinges, but made new ones as well.

The new ones had threaded ends, so I could secure the gate with nuts so it couldn’t be lifted off the hinges as easily.

Not the cleanest looking welds I’ve ever done, but the penetration is good and it will hold for a long time.

After a protective coat, it was time to hang up the gate.

Best part of a project is seeing it all come together.

This latch was made from some leftover steel stock, based on a model I found on youtube.

Dead simple, very effective.

It consist of just 3 parts:

After welding the locking plate to the gate, the parts got painted and then assembled on the gate.

Finally the locking chain was attached to the pole and the gate could easily be closed, and locked.

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