How to Fit a Ring-Gate Latch.
The gate ring latch is used, as the name implies, to securely close the gates when not in use; it’s a simple latch only (no locking option). When fitting to a pair of gates, the handle parts of the latch (Shown as A & B) fixes to the active gate (i.e. the gate without the dropbolt) which you open first for pedestrian access.The parts of the ring gate latch
A – Ring latch handle B – Ring handle
C – Spindle – This goes through the gate to connect the Ring
latch handle (A) and the Ring handle (B) D – Keep – This
keeps the latch bar in the correct position. E – Receiver –
Latch sits in receiver when gate is closed.
The round part of both the ring handle and ring latch handle is known as the
‘rose’.
Tools required to fit the ring gate latch to a wooden gate
The following tools will be needed to fit the ring gate latch to a wooden
gate: Drill 16mm drill bit with spur(for drilling spindle) 3 or 4mm drill bit
(for pre-drilling screw holes) Hacksaw (if needed for cutting spindle bar)
Pencil Rule or tape measure
Which side of the gate does the latch part go on?
The ring latch handle (Part A) can be fitted to the front or rear of the
gates, however, where you fit it to on YOUR gates depends on which way your
gates open.
If you’re facing your gates and looking at the front face of the gates and the
gate opens away from you (opens in), then the Ringlatch handle (A) must fit on
the rear of the gate. And likewise, if the gate opens towards you (when standing
looking at the front face of the gate) then the ringlatch handle fits on the
front of the gate. The ringlatch can be fitted to either a single gate or pair
of gates that
open in both directions
(i.e.
hung with fieldgate or wraparound hinges) – another words gates that can be opened towards you and away from you.
However, you will stop the gate with the ring latch handle attached from
swinging in both directions.
How to fit the ring gate latch
The ringlatch will need to be fitted to one of the gate rails; if the rails of the gates are either too high up or too low down, then you will need to fit a latch block to the rear of the gates at the height required. If fitting to a pair of gates, then fit the ringlatch handle to the gate that will open first (the active gate).
To start with, fit the ringlatch handle (A)
first as this is the main part of the latch. The first part of fitting this is
to mark and then drill the hole through the gate for the spindle bar; but
first, we need to position the ring gate latch handle where we intend to fix
it upon the gate. Place the ringlatch handle on the gate rail where you intend
to fit it, making sure you allow around 2″ (approx 50mm) of the latch bar
protruding from the gate you are fixing it to. In height, centre it upon the
rail; this is not really necessary, but it looks better!
Use a drill bit a couple of millimetres wider than that of the spindle (in our case, the spindle is 10mm wide so we’ll be using a 16mm drill bit).
Again, as with drilling our for the hinge bolts, do not drill right the way
through the gate from one side (you’ll burst out the opposite side with your
drill bit and risk splitting the face of the gate).
Using a drill bit with a spur, drill through the gate until the spur protrudes
through the opposite side of the gate, reverse the drill and go to other side
of the gate. Line the spur of the drill bit up with the small hole in the gate
and drill through. Drill through the gate until the spur (pointy bit) of the
drill bit starts to stick out on the other side of the gate
Click to enlarge image
Go to the other side of the gate, put the spur of your drill
bit into the small hole you’ve just made (when drilling from the other side of
the gate) and drill through. You should now have a hole right the way through
the gate (argh, I hear you cry!).
Slot the spindle bar into the ringlatch handle and reposition
the ringlatch handle on the gate rail, with the spindle bar going through the
gate.
Get the receiver (Part E) ready. Close the gate over if it’s
not already and sit the latch bar into the receiver. The receiver will fit on
to the other gate. Lift the latch bar so the bottom edge is approximately
horizontal. Mark the position of the two holes with a pencil and then
pre-drill them both.
You need to position the keep so that the latch bar sits within in it
,touching the bottom, and that when the gate closes, the bar lifts up when it
hits the receiver and drops into place; it’s a bit of trial and error doing
this! Slide the latch bar into the keep and position the keep on the gate so
the latch bar is horizontal. Now keeping the keep in position, slowly close
the gate; if the latch bar rises and drops into the receiver when the gate is
closed then the keep is positioned perfectly, if not, then lift the keep up
slightly and repeat the process until the latch bar rises and sits in the
receiver.
You’ll need to cut the spindle bar! Again, we’ve an easy way of knowing how
much to cut off the spindle bar. With the ring handle still in position, hold
it parallel to the face of the gate. Measure the distance from the face of the
gate to the back edge of the rose (round bit of the ring handle); this gives
you the measurement that needs cutting from the spindle so the ring handle
fits onto the gate.
Troubleshooting
The ring gate latch is pretty easy to fit, but once fitted, you may run into a couple of problems:Handles don’t turn
If either (or both!) the ring handle and ring latch handle are difficult (or
impossible) to turn, then in all likelihood, the spindle bar that goes through
the gate is too long and when you have screwed the ring handle (the last part)
on it has tightened the whole latch up. Firstly, test this by unscrewing the
ring handle from the gate, but don’t remove the handle from where it is
sitting. If it now moves freely, then the bar is too long; remove the handle
and spindle from the gate and give the end of the spindle bar a filing down,
then re-fit and see if the problem has gone; if not, repeat till it works.
File the spindle bar down to reduce the length
The handles turn, but the latch bar doesn’t lift
If you turn the RING HANDLE and the latch bar on the other side of the wooden gates doesn’t lift, then the spindle bar has been cut too short.
Fear not we can fix that with a great little cheat (keep this to yourself! 🙂
). Remove both the ring handle and spindle bar from the gates. Grab a piece of
card, (something like an old screw box is great for this) and tear a piece of
long and wide enough to wrap around one end of the spindle bar. Slot the
spindle bar back into the ring handle; you may have to compress the card a bit
for this, or even reduce the amount of card to get the bar back into the
handle. Slot the bar (with the ring handle attached) back through the gate so
that it locates into the ring latch handle.
Please click to enlarge either of the images below
Try turning the ring handle and the latch bar should now lift up! If it all
works, then the job is done and you’ve fitted your ring gate latch!
More gate fitting guides
2 thoughts on “how to fit a ring gate latch”
What height from the ground would you recommend for ring latch as per your movie. I have two horizontals to chose from on our six foot high wooden gates, one at about 3 foot and one about five foot from the ground?
Usually at a height that is comfortable to reach which bending or stretching, not really and right or wrong height!