Thursday, April 29, 2010

Coop door gravity-latch complete

Ahh, after a hardware run for some sleeves, nuts, and bolts, followed by some bandsaw work and time on the drill press, I've got a working door slide. Next step is to get the end-stop switches mounted and adjusted.

Here is the coop door about 1-1/4" from full close. Note the latch and puck positions:



Here is the coop door closed and latched:



Here is an overall view of what I have done so far:

5 comments:

Don Bangert said...

I built a version of this for my coop, sans the electric opener. Works reliably, but I had to add two blocks on either side of the disk to keep it centered under the latch arms.

SlowBro said...

Would you consider open source-ing the design? I am thinking of making and selling doors with an open source design so that anyone could build them if they want, or pay me to make it.

I think all you have to do is say this is copyleft and that's it. I'll look up the details if you're interested.

Unknown said...

It looks like there is plexiglass over the whole lock mechanism to meet everything aligned. This thing is genius I love it. I'm going to incorporate a synchronous 20 rom motor and a couple remote control outlet so I can open and close it from my porch the schematic will be simple enough if I use one outlet for open and one outlet for reverse polarity to close it.

Unknown said...

Take it on Shark Tank and you'll make a million dollars and save gazillions of chickens!

Anonymous said...

Looks like a terrific design but how will you ever train your chickens to raise the string when they wish to go outside?