Hah!

.

Our gate is a long sad story. Either the post moves up and down, or the gate sags more or less. Or both, I suppose.

The latch is supposed to work by itself when the gate closes. And over the last 20+ years, it has. About 5% of the time. Or less.

When they built our new garage a couple of years ago they put in new fence posts, but this is our same old gate.

As you can see, the latch is strrrrrrrrrrrrrrraining. The gate is too low. Opening the latch is possible but not easy, and closing it is impossible unless you seriously lift the gate.

Not good.




Naturally the helpful and efficient carpenter used The Best screws to put the latch part onto the new post. Did we have a Robertson screwdriver (as I am told the square-headed kind is called)? Nope.

Digression for rant on Lack of Standards. Standards ROCK. Standards RULE. Lack of standards is a sad and pathetic state.

I don't give a rat's tail what sort of screwdrivers we use (well, I do, I'd like to see us use the best kind that is least likely to strip the screws!), but I really Really REALLY do not like having to run out and buy a tool. Really. Do. Not.

End of digression.

You will have gathered that I bought the Robertson. And the bend-around-the-corner bracey thing. The poor old gate has been screwed so many times that it is full of old metal. The wood is trying to hold together, but...............

Today I tackled the repair. I was able to remove all the old screws without much trouble. I note with annoyance and sadness that this sort of work is starting to make my hands hurt...........

Then came the dithering. Where to put the two halves of the latch so they can happily meet for the longest period of time. Which screws to use to put it all back together. I was disinclined to run back to the hardware store, so I decided to use screws I already had.

I determined that the screws used by the carpenter, which were very long and had some *serious* threads, were overkill. Especially for holding on the actual latch (as opposed to the side on the gate which is the go-into-the-latch thingy. The latch itself should not experience stress (until the gate goes up or down and the latch has to strrrrrrain to fit). Nothing is trying to rip that latch off the post. It just needs to sit there. So I used very wimpy screws indeed, compared to what was there.

I used more serious screws on the gate itself, but the Robertson screws used by the carpenter were so long they were going to run into other hardware in the gate from other attempts at repair. So the screws I used for that are much more impressive than the ones holding the latch to the post, but still wimpy in comparison to the Robertsons.

(Too bad I didn't think to take pics of all the screws!).

However. Wimpy screws or not, it is FIXED. For the nonce.





Here is the proof of the pudding:



Tragically this camera does not record sound --you can't hear my resounding "HAH!" as it gently and firmly snicks shut.

HAH!


It only took me the better part of two hours. Not including my trip to the hardware store on Friday, but including rearranging the little chest with all the little drawers full of nails and screws, so that all the nails would be together and all the screws would be together, and all the "not nails or screws" would be together.... The dithering, and the getting this sort of screwdriver and *that* sort of screwdriver, and the drill, and oh, yeah, the safety glasses, all took up far more time than a reasonable person might predict.

But it WORKS.

We learn from history that it won't, for long, so we'll enjoy it while it does.

Hah!

.