This is a quick fix idea or at least a temporary fix idea. My tumbler has four draw latches which keep the two door leaves securely closed. The have seen a great deal of use and one was damaged so that eventually the keeper tab over which the spring latch catches broke off.
Three properly functioning latches were enough to get along with until I could drag a welder into the area and weld on a new tab and eventually I’ll do that but right now the area is too crowded.
Then, I started to examine the problem from a new perspective - what would serve mechanically as a temporary fix. The first thing I tried was passing a loop of wire which would hold the handle down and preventing it from moving up to where it could unlatch. It didn’t require much force to keep the handle down and the wire worked fine but it was a nuisance to twist and untwist it for each run.
After a couple of days I noticed that it was possible to pass a 1/8” x 1/2” piece of flat bar over the handle and under the throw arm of the latch. I added a recurve “knock-out” bend at the end and it worked perfectly. I like the mechanism so well I may never get around to a weld repair.
This first image shown the undamaged keeper tab at the bottom left.
This drawing shows where the keeper broke off where it angles.
This is the 1/8" x 1/2" wedge driven into place.
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