Wooden Gate Latch

When you think about it, the way we go about doing things now is completely alien to most of our history. We used to make everything ourselves and fix them, somehow now we think the first thing should be to buy the fix. 

And in the past most stuff was made out of wood, stone and little bits of metal. I know we used other materials, but there were so many jobs working wood in different ways it's unreal. 

Which brings me on to my latest temporary fix, the latch on the gate post to the apiary.  

The gate was a gift from my brother from a job he did about 15 years ago, the gate was spare and chucked in the barn at mum and dads. When dad and I put in the gate post we spaced it for a 10ft gate, but when I hung it I allowed for it to open the wrong way a little bit. 

That has meant that the gate has been tied shut every time. It has an old opener/handle on it, one you pull from above. And I know you can probably buy a latch for it, but I couldn't see one that would let the gate open both ways. 

I decided a bit of CAD (cardboard aided design) was needed. I took out a piece, a compass and a knife with me. I cut the shape in my head and then tested to see if it would work. 

Back in the workshop I found a scrap bit of timber and cut and sanded the same shape. This has "short" grain on it, that is likely to break, but I thought that if I used ply then it might delaminate and fall apart. 

I piloted the fixing holes so no chance of it splitting as I fixed it. 

Now we just have to see how long it'll last. If it breaks early then I'll go to my brother and get him to cut the same shape on the plasma CNC machine they have. 

So I'm hopeful that the minutes we spend messing with the string every time we go to the gate will be offset by the time I spent making this wooden latch. 

What simple fixes have you done lately?