Gate Lock From a Spoon and Three Spokes

The old gate was rotting around the recessed lock, so when making a new, I decided on external mount.

Looking for a bar of spring-steel, my eyes passed a bag of old golf-clubs, and returned to land on the spoon which has a nice rounded head, suitable as a handle, so I instantly choose that one.

After looking for some hardware to fix it to the gate, I realized it would be faster with custom-built.

So I grabbed some spokes and started bending. You can bend them by hand over the shaft, but they will turn out slightly oval. If you want a tighter fit, fix the shaft in the workbench and jam the spoke against the shaft with a wedge before bending.

Two spokes are needed to keep the club in position, and one more for the stop near the top of the club.

So you start bending close to the handle, next in the middle, and finally at the top.

The holes you drill in the gateside to recieve the spokes has to be accurate, so they are best done with a drillpress. Trim the end of the spoke to make it pass the hole,

After inserting the lower spoke into its holes, cut off the superflouos parts.

Bend and hammer the remaining spokeends into the wood just like nails protruding from a surface.

I bent the ends halfways before cutting and then bent hooks before hammering into the wood.

The middle spoke has to be a little longer to allow for a wedge or a screw

between the shaft and the gate, thus creating a gap for the shaft to bend when in use,

else it is exactly the same procedure.

If you choose a screw, it has to be in position beforehand, but a wedge can be glued in afterwards.

With the spoon in position, put a screw under the handle to keep it there,

otherwise it will obey the law of gravity and slip down.

Next we will need a stop to hold the gate closed, and the third spoke is bent for that purpose.

Not having any special bending-tool, I just put a couple of screws in a cut-off board and slid the spoke in between. The resting position is where we already bent it, and there has to be a sloping part before that, to let the gate slide into locked position without any effort. Behind there has to be a more protruding part to stop the gate from passing. Furthermore we bend the ends to act as screwholes to fix it to the post, and then trim the ends.

I started with the stopper, and then the slope.

The result may not look quite as expected, but is easily corrected with some pliers unless it is out of bounds.

This gate-lock will communicate with the visitors.