Repairs101's video: Rat Trap Automatic Door Closer

How to save money on your heating bill by keeping doors closed using a repurposed rat trap as an automatic door closer. Perfect as a doggy door - keeps weather out but lets Fido in! Transcript provided for the hearing impaired: Alright so today on Repairs101 I’ve got one you’re going to want to see: I take an ordinary rat trap and re-purpose it into an Automatic Door Closer. Don’t forget- you saw it here first. About a year ago I got a puppy and I made her a play area out of the back porch but she was always leaving the door wide open and it’s kind of a drag in the winter. Now I’ve heard YouTubers are a pretty smart group so I’m just going to assume you all know what a door is and how it works and I’m just going to skip over that part of the tutorial. Alright the first thing I did was remove the hold–down bar and the catch. Now this next part’s a bit sketchy – I’m sure you can find a better way to do this. Seriously, if you’re not a hundred percent confident with power tools or if you’re at all litigious I suggest you look away for the next few seconds. Now I admit I picked kind of a lousy place to install it. It’s too close to the fire extinguisher but I wanted it high enough to be away from the dog and low enough to be clear of the blinds and to give a more or less centralized push on the door itself. So after I removed a small piece of door trim I eyeballed the door closer’s kick plate into place. And then yeah I did the unthinkable again – I used power tools on a loaded spring trap. So I don’t know. Just look away. So afer that all I had to do was cut away the tape that was holding down the spring and my Rat Trap Automatic Door Closer is in action. And it works terrific! (WHISTLES) Alright thanks for watching and don’t forget to subscribe and if you like today’s episode - please share it with your friends!