How To Make A Secure Self Latching Cabinet For Computers Or Other Important Things

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I'll show you how to make a cabinet that locks automatically when you close it.
A simple way to make sure a cabinet door always stays closed. 

I don't like to have to remember to close things or latch things or bungee cord things before I hit the road with my camper. So I designed and made a quick and dirty self-latching cabinet. And here's how I did it.

Here is the latch in action:

You can get a nice self-latching catch, which to be honest, if I had found it when I was looking, I would have just bought this LOL

but since I didn't find it in time, I made my own.

Most of my cabinets don't come open when we travel, but I have some bungee cords on a few of them.

The computer storage was originally over the bed so if it fell off I didn't worry about it. When we moved it, I wanted to make sure that the cabinet was ALWAYS secure and couldn't open by accident while traveling. I don't always remember all the little bungee cords I'm supposed to hook up before we start moving.

I built two narrow shelves in one of our overhead cabinets that will hold my our computers and the top shelf holds all the peripheral stuff.

I wanted a latch that would keep the door from opening no matter what. The butterfly latches aren't strong enough, and the kid proof latches are a pain in the butt to deal with.

So, I made a latch that automatically secures the cabinet without me having to remember to do anything. It's very simple to do, I used some pieces of an old cutting board, but you could use wood.

You will need some small pieces of wood or thick plastic, some screws and two mending plates. I used one with four holes and one with two holes that I had in my shop. They actually make much nicer looking ones.

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First cut a piece of wood or plastic that looks something like this hook shape. If you use wood, you will have to sand it really well. It needs to be smooth enough for the latch to slide over it easily.

If you have a 2 hole mending plate, this is where you can use it. Screw the mending plate to the hook using bottom hole.

The next piece needs to be on a longer piece of metal preferably three to four inches long.

I used a 4 hole mending plate

You can make another little piece of wood or plastic to be a handle for this piece, or you can actually attach a knob that you purchase somewhere. I used more of the cutting board because I like the look.

This is how it is mounted on the inside of the cabinet door. To the right is the handle, which will drop down as it is opened. The stop on the upper left keeps the handle from dropping too far down. The screw in the middle is the pivot. The weight needs to be more to the handle side so that it drops down when the door is opened.

Oops, I drew it backwards. The stop should be on the left and the handle should be on the right, but I'm not drawing it over. If you install it like this the latch will be on the right hand side of the cabinet door instead of the left hand side as I show it in the photos.  Either way it will work.

As you close the door of the handle will slide up over the latch and then drop down into the space behind it. To open the door, you just lift the latch and pull it up.

Or you can just get this LOL

Either way, you won't have to worry about that cabinet coming open!.

Please check out my other mods and ideas, you will find some really interesting things here. I have only posted things I have not seen anywhere else. Let me know if you use any of my ideas.