Trying to make a spring latch for a recently finished gate. Gate needs to
swing both ways. I made a striker plate for the post. Striker has the
typical "ramp" on each side so when you swing the gate the "spring" will
slide along the ramp and come to a stop in the middle detent.

The "strike" or "keeper" is available at King Architectural Metals and other
ornamental metal sources. However the spring latch part is not. When I
talked to "King", they said "make your own".

Okay, spring will be a 3/4 inch strip with about 5-6 inches unsecured. The
unsecured part needs to spring about 1/2 inches back and forth. What gauge
metal should I use? ASCII drawing below.


|
|
| Springy part of spring (about 5 inches)
|
|
| Secured part of spring (about 2 inches)
|

All advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Ivan Vegvary