How to make a simple self-closing latch for utility room doors or gates

You don’t have to spend money on buying latches for utility room doors at home or at your summer cottage. They are easy to make with your own hands from waste metal, and this does not require special knowledge and skills.

Will need

Materials:

pieces of sheet metal or strips;
short sleeve;
bolt and nut;
round rod or rod;
mounting screws.

Tools: bench vice, electric drill, pliers, welding equipment, etc.

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The process of making a door latch from scrap metal with your own hands

You will need a steel plate with rounded corners measuring 15x4 cm and two fragments of the same metal 2x4 cm.

We drill a hole in the bushing to the required size.

In two 2x4 cm fragments, we drill holes of the required diameter closer to one edge in two entries.

We sequentially put one fragment, a bushing, a second fragment onto the bolt and screw on the nut.

We bend a round bar in the shape of the letter L, place a sleeve transversely to the long end, removing it from the previous assembly, and apply a small fragment from the same bar as the L-shaped part to it on the opposite side. Moreover, its short part should be directed vertically upward. We connect the parts into one whole using welding.

We assemble the assembly in the same sequence as in the first case, but now an L-shaped part is welded to the bushing on one side, and a short fragment of a round rod on the other.

We install the assembly with its “legs” on a plate with rounded corners so that the short part of the L-shaped part rests its end against the plate. Then we weld the “legs” to the plate. Moreover, the L-shaped part should freely rotate around the bolt rod 180 degrees in both directions.

Place a piece of round rod on a small rectangular plate with rounded corners in the center, aligning its end with the edge of the plate. The other end of the rod should protrude beyond the edge of the plate by the calculated amount.

We drill holes in the four corners of the large plate and two in the small one. All that remains is to secure the parts of the latch on the door in the places intended for them.

Using four screws, we attach the large plate to the vertical post of the door frame, aligning the inner edges of the plate and the frame. Moreover, the short part of the L-shaped part should be at the bottom.

We attach the short plate to the door leaf with two screws so that the rod welded to it is located between the end of the long part of the L-shaped part and the large plate. In this position the latch is closed.

If you pull the bottom of the L-shaped part, the latch will open, because its short end, turning, will release the transverse rod.When the door leaf slams, the transverse rod presses on the top of the long part of the L-shaped part, which, turning around its axis, passes the transverse rod and returns to its original position. As a result, the door leaf is closed.