Make a One-Hand Gate Latch

By David Proudfoot
Published on May 9, 2014
article image
Photo by David Proudfoot
This reader-submitted design for a one-hand gate latch makes opening a gate much easier for the farmer with full hands.

My hands are often full when I’m doing work around my homestead, and opening a gate with one hand is tricky. I invented a one-handed gate latch that’s easy to make.

The gate-latch hardware includes a large cold shut, a lap link, a heavy-duty eye screw, a three-eighths-inch bolt and a short piece of chain. You could also substitute a chain link for the lap link, but it will cost you more. (If you don’t know these terms, ask for help at your local hardware store.)

Attach the cold shut to the end of the chain with the lap link, bolt the chain to your post or gate, and put the eye screw on the opposite gate. The cold shut, left open on the end of the chain, will drop into the eye screw and keep the gate shut, even when wind is blowing fiercely.

David Proudfoot
Belington, West Virginia

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