When I first got here bungee cords was how she was keeping her car doors closed!

This last year has been an exercise in tolerance and acceptance; but also a mission into myself!

Every day is an adventure: every day is new to her.

I’ve rebuilt everything already, replanted everything; we talk about how next Spring all the plants (she ignored) are going to be so lovely.


She doesn’t need a dog but insists on owning literally the least functional dog for her: she’s a 90 pound 81-year-old-woman who insists on walking a 110 pound 2-year-old Bull Mastiff. WTF? Not my choice, I’m hands-off.

And if you ever argued that with her she’d own you in a heartbeat: she loves her dog (don’t we?).

It’s a sweet dog who understands both English and Spanish and likes “butt-scritches”.


It’s just too big for her and I need a brilliantly engineered gate latch (that I can probably develop myself, but toss it out to the community, yo).

And I’ve materials I can use tomorrow to fix the problem. I just rebuilt half her fence and her driveway (post-tension, I’m an engineer) but as an engineer we tend to “eh-hem” over-think things.

Oh, boy, can I over-engineer any problem you’ve got. Yep, I can.

I’m a Ph.D. Chemist with a background in materials science, academia and physics.


I overthink shit daily. I’ve lost over half my friends by overthinking shit and the other half aren’t actually my friends.

I’m kidding, I have friends, but they’re fellow engineers and computer scientists.


I just don’t want to do what all my friends tell me not to do: Greg, stop over engineering everything. It’s a fucking gate.

And I can rig up things terribly.

Wondering about the gate, should the mechanism keep the both the dog and your friend from opening the gate? Maybe something with a weather proof combination lock might keep a latch down, or a metal rod with brackets to put it through and lock one end.

I'm sure that's all the amateur advice you'd want. Best of luck with a fix that works well! It's very nice of you to help out like that. Have a great evening!

You don’t have to be a physicist or an engineer to be my friend, but I’d like you to describe more fully your idea. I like it very much.

I will tell you that my friend Skye is not the one we need to keep inside the gate: she is a wonderful woman and Democrat who loves Kamala and called her “the president” (we have some cognitive issues here - she is 81..)

But the dog is the thing I need to keep under control. I really like the magnet idea: it’s kinda right up where I need to get this: it holds shit closed when shot needs to be closed but is super easy to open when shit needs to be opened.

I think it’s a perfect solution and I might use linear motors and a FOB. Linear motors cost a lot more in electricity, programming (but I can do a little G) but they’re strong as shit. As long as you have the FOB in proximal distance I can shut everything off.

While not cheap, it’s an awesome idea!

I mean, hey: “engineer”.

Let’s try to do this, yo.

I saw this though. Your friend Skye sounds awesome. I think the only thing I could add is maybe putting a second lock on the bottom that gets released by kicking it. It's simple to use. I just can't remember what it's called.

Electromagnets sound like fun though!

I hope you've gotten something you're happy with.

They make a micro velcro that is pretty hard to get apart.

Is probably not going to keep the dog in. Great idea, though!

Velcro was an absolutely wonderful idea that was carefully engineered and curated!

1 Why do you need her to not open the gate?
2 Is it her gate?

Those are great questions! Here are some quick answers: it’s her gate but she’s old and I’ve slowly been rebuilding things that have been in disrepair, priorized. She is a vulnerable elderly woman whom I look-after (sorry if that wasn’t clear) but a woman who can stand-up for herself and some days simply doesn’t need me to be around! I respect that about her (despite she hasn’t been able to cook her own food or n three years, but that’s besides the point…)

So she got a companion dog which is great, but when I first saw her walking her companion dog and realized it outweighed her by 80 fucking pounds and dragged her around the park and the poor woman was having her arm ripped out of its socket because she got the least appropriate dog to be her companion; I decided to be her companion and now, every day, the three of us walk together.

But it’s a HUGE dog that she cannot control: not my issue, I’m just a friend.

If I was her son (who assisted in choosing the dog, I woulda gone with something that coulda sat in her lap, but I’m not an 81-year-old woman And I like Newfies.

Still, all I’m looking for are ideas I don’t need to over engineer: otherwise I’ll be at the TIG for a few.

It sounds like the problem is not the gate you just don't want her to walk the dog without you so she doesn't get hurt. Would that be correct?

We walk the dog every day, for at least 90 minutes. It’s the gate and that she’s my elderly friend whom I spend some time with every day is important.

(Because unless you’re a cruel coward you know our elderly friends need us! Which I assume you’re not) so our elderly friends need us!!’

So, since you’re paying attention or maybe I’m not being clear:

I have an elderly friend whom I walk with daily with her companion dog (which, I believe is too big for her) and in addition to all those things I cook this lovely woman three meals a day, feed her ice cream (the joy of her life) and scratch her dog’s ass every night (the mutt loves “butt scritches”)

The problem is multitude: the gate sucks, which as an engineer I can fix in the most complex way possible: but what my post was revealing is “help me fix a simple, cheap way that doesn’t mean I go to CERN to overengineer a gate”. I can spend the next six weeks building a simple gate that NASA would go “WTF?” about. But I’m sick of overthinking, overspending and overengineering things that could take five minutes and five bucks. It’s a gate: originally I would have mate it a time portal. I just need to keep her doofus mutt inside for under $20.

I think the magnet solution is perfect.

Old paint stirrer? Screw it into the post so it can turn to stop the door. Two screws and a hair-tie. Smash a aluminum can and screw one side to the post so it can rotate to keep it closed. Budweiser can to go all redneck. Yuengling to support the north. 1 screw and a stiff piece of rubber like a bike tire. Even a large zip tie and two screws.

She had been piling bricks in front of the gate. I was hoping for something a bit more elegant, but I’m not judging.

I don’t want her to need to bend, twist or lift anything and I thought her mutt (no disrespect, Cedar, you’ll get butt scritches in the morning) should be effortlessly secure.

Can I say, simply, that AI rewriting every single one of my sentences is really starting to piss me off! It makes me mutter under my breath and I’m a very tolerant and patient guy, but go eat a bowl of dicks, AI.

And to make my case, AI re-spelled the bowl of dicks I want it to go eat as a “bowl of ducks”

Pinche puta. AI doesn’t seem to speak Spanish yet.

That said the magnets seem to be the best option for you besides just a spring.

as well as the need to go out the fence in an emergency. Stopping her from getting out could have legal problems as well as block a possible route to leave in a emergency. Sorry for asking so many questions.

Moral or legal problems here. It’s mostly a friendly neighborhood where everyone knows everyone: but not everyone is nice: we have one or two really bad drug addicts that we can’t get rid of, but they mostly spend their days face-down on the lawn.

We just want to keep our dogs to stop peeing on them while they snore.

I wish I was even sort-of kidding.

(Don’t come to Tacoma, WA)

Some strong magnets would be hard for her to just overpower. Not sure about the dog but would stop him if he didn’t throw all his weight on it. But you could put them on a pull open gate. You know how hard it is to separate to magnets that are touching each other. Mount them in a way that you could slide one down to break the connection.

But it can’t be simple magnets: not even rare Earth magnets would keep the gate closed.

Hmmm…but I can build a simple electromagnet that keeps the gate closed and is both strong enough to keep the dog inside yet weak enough to allow her the latitude to come and go as she pleases.

Great ideas, folks!

Last edited Sat Aug 31, 2024, 12:44 AM - Edit history (1)

Keep it sloppy with room for ground expansion and uprights movement. Have two large knobs on each side to help her grip. Maybe use a rubber coating on them also.

Parts:

1/2” by 1/2” pieces of wood
1” by 4”
Aluminum or other metal 1-3” wide by 3/8” thick bar.
2 2” wood balls or something similar.
Rod or all thread to glue inside holes you drilled into the balls. A old doorknob may also work if you have one.

Make a slot in the gate and 1 by 4 whatever length you need. Put 1/2 by 1/2 top and bottom of 1” by 4” onto gate leaving the gap for metal. Main thing is you want the bar to slide easily. Drill through bar and attach balls or doorknobs. Make loose fitting socket for bar to go into fixed side.

Edit: goofed up on directions.

Also according to what you need or have already you can change it around.

You’re addressing not only her age but abilities as well. Hmm…I’ll update later after I consider everyone’s ideas and engineer a solution.

I knew I could count on you guys!

Instead of bar stock you can get what’s called a mending brace at any hardware store. It’s just a bar with holes predrilled. Cheaper than buying straight bar stock. I’m sure you could find one the right size without having to cut.

Right?

But I love the way you think! I bet you and I could rebuild something that was built properly the first time. It’s okay, I’m in recovery.

(And that only sounds like an excuse if you don’t overengineer things to begin with).

Do you do blackstone metalwork? Tinbending? Do you have your own CNC or know RC circuits?

But took welding in school, did welding, and worked with all sorts of metal. Offshore you had to be a jack of all.

I did something similar with scrap I had around the house. Except some 1/2 round bar, 3/16 316L stainless steel tig welding rod as the handle , and a tube from an old wind chime.

Zen simple, many different ways to Fab it up!

Zen is a good descriptor for this simple mechanism.

spring tension, hydraulic, etc. Search self-closing 'dog and pool' gates

One would have to push the button and wait. A long enough delay may cause a person with memory difficulties to reset the delay timer with each repeated push. It could be as simple as a 'd-shaped' cam on a small motor. The motor (or gear reduction) would make one complete turn and the size and placement of the open part of the disc would serve as the timer. Think of it like a rotary valve in a 2-stroke motor.

When my dad had alzhiemers, he keep leaving via the front door. We got a print of a bookcase and covered the door with it. He never opened it again.

In the OP you state "it's not the dog so much, it's my friend."
Then in your response number 14 you state "but the dog is the thing I need to keep under control."

Is it a gate or a latch we're discussing? Does it need to keep the dog from opening it or the woman? Or both?

Just put a latch on it and use a clevis pin to hold the latch. I'd get one of the clevis pins that have the retainer attached. Put it inside the fence or outside. It's not a lock so in an unforseen event anyone could manipulate it if needed.