Curved Lath to Hold Door Half Open: simple, but it works!

[profdant139]

This is a device to hold the door open halfway in breezy conditions. (It will not work in a high wind, but it works most of the time.) We need to hold the door open when we are cooking, in order to ventilate the trailer. (The fan is noisy and uses electricity -- we usually boondock.) We often do not want to open the door all the way -- too cold! So this does the job without letting in too much cold air.

It is just a curved piece of oak lath (steam bent), with strong magnets at each end. (I made an earlier version of this out of metal -- it was clunky and hard to deploy.) It's curved in order to approximate the arc of the door jamb as it swings open -- a straight piece of wood would not do the job. (I tried it already.)

The magnets are on opposite sides of the lath. One magnet sticks to the strike plate on the door frame, and the other sticks to the metal plate on the door that surrounds the bolt. The magnets are taken from old computer hard drives. The mounting plates already had screw holes, but I enlarged them slightly.

Here is the curved lath:


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This shows how the magnets are attached to the lath. The screws are very short -- about a quarter inch. Note the green tape -- the ends are color-coded for convenience:


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This is the inside end, which makes contact at the strike plate on the door frame -- note the red tape:


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This is a view of the holder from the inside of the trailer:


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And this is a view of the holder from the outside:


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When not in use, the holder sticks to a small metal plate on the wall of the trailer, just inside the door.

[Almot]

Heavy wind... tested?

[profdant139]

Turnthe Page, that is a good idea! Unfortunately, the screen door on my trailer is so light and flimsy that I would be hesitant to add any weight to it. There is already a lexan panel in the area of the latch, but it does not accomplish much.

[TurnThePage]

That is indeed clever!

Have you ever considered making your screen door into a storm door with lexan or acrylic panels? Great way to allow some light (or a little air) in. The "storm door" on my trailer keeps it much warmer at night too, adding an extra barrier between the poorly sealed door and door frame. Just a thought. 🙂

[AllegroD]

Very ingenious.

[ScottG]

Very ingenious!

[Tom_M1]

That's a great idea for reusing something already on hand.

I use a magnetic door stop. It holds the door in the fully open position. Available at Home Depot:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Richelieu-Hardware-3-in-Brushed-Nickel-Magnetic-Door-Stop-67NBR/20220606...

[DrewE]

Very nice and clever idea, and I entirely believe it works well.

Don't store this near credit cards, though. Those magnets are strong. (Actually, once the US goes all the way to using chipped cards, this caution would become outdated.)

[Matt_Colie]

Very Clever.

Matt

[mmccray100]

Nice... I can see a project in my future!