Shopsmith Forums

Below are pictures of the new doge door should save me dealing with lettering the dog out. After I installed the insert and proudly showed my wife her first question was "How do we lock the patio door". I hate to admit it but she was r---t there is no way to lock it. Suggestions would be helpful.

When I was a boy, mother never trusted the lock on our sliding patio door. So she devised her own locking system. It couldn’t be simpler. Just size a small board to fit inside the bottom door track, cut it to length, and place it in the track such that it prevents the operating door from opening (i.e. just inside of the fixed door panel, between the operating door and the door frame).

It was a bit of a pain to bend over and remove the board when we wanted to go out on the deck, though. To solve that problem, perhaps you could hinge the board and add a lifting cord to it.

The other obvious downside: You can’t unlock the door from the outside.

Drill a small hole through the sliding door's top rail and with the door in closed position continue the hole into the other panel. Then to lock the door get a pin the exact size of the holes attach it to the door with a retainer that allows you enough space to insert the pin in the holes. When you want to lock the door slide the pin into the holes ( is locked). To open pull pin and let it hang on the door until needed to lock it again.

Drill the holes fairly high in the rails as most doors have the glass in the rail about 1/2 or so.

My doors are aluminum and I drilled into the frame then into the door rails. This prevents a burglar from lifting the door swinging out the bottom and opening a 8 foot wide hole to come and go.

How secure do you want it? They make metal blocks that fit over the sliding door rail with a thumbscrew that you tighten to hold it in place. These won't defeat a motivated burglar but will stop many of them from going farther. These are relatively easy to take on/off from the inside, but of course you have no entry from outside with them. Should be able to find these at just about any retailer (Wally World, etc.). Another really hard way to defeat a sliding door is to put a length of stout dowel rod there in the track behind the sliding door. Same idea that Dennis mentioned but with a dowel instead...just has to be cut to length.

They make replacement sliding door latch systems that you could install on the insert. This is the way commercial ones are set up. They also want you to pin the insert in place by drilling a hole in the top of the door frame and insert a metal pin through the frame into the insert frame. Had a store bought insert years ago.

Most sliding doors have some slop in the vertical. A burglar just lifts the bottom of door so it clears the track and opens it right up. To stop break ins you need to prevent the door from moving both horizontally and vertically. The easiest way to prevent both horizontal and vertical movement is to pin the door to the frame.

BuckeyeDennis wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 7:41 am When I was a boy, mother never trusted the lock on our sliding patio door. So she devised her own locking system. It couldn’t be simpler. Just size a small board to fit inside the bottom door track, cut it to length, and place it in the track such that it prevents the operating door from opening (i.e. just inside of the fixed door panel, between the operating door and the door frame).

It was a bit of a pain to bend over and remove the board when we wanted to go out on the deck, though. To solve that problem, perhaps you could hinge the board and add a lifting cord to it.

The other obvious downside: You can’t unlock the door from the outside.

Have done this on double wide doors.
Bob

Thank everybody for the excellent suggestions.

Ed in Tampa wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 4:51 pm Most sliding doors have some slop in the vertical. A burglar just lifts the bottom of door so it clears the track and opens it right up. To stop break ins you need to prevent the door from moving both horizontally and vertically. The easiest way to prevent both horizontal and vertical movement is to pin the door to the frame.

Excellent solution, I just happen to have two 1/4 pins with knobs in my you never know collection.

(PS) I am not a hoarder I just have an eclectic collection of you never know things.

Thanks for the answers in the thread; it’s really useful. I want to make something like this for my patio. I have already installed the interior doors from https://doordesignlab.com/interior-doors.html inside the house. And I want something special on the outside. Thanks for the advice about securing the door. I will try them. The one about a board between the door and the door panel is particularly interesting because it does not involve drilling or cutting.