Lock strike construction

Abstract

A lock strike construction is for use with a wall having at least a cripple in the framing thereof and adjacent to a door casing side rail separated from the cripple by an intervening space. A door panel cooperates with the casing and has a lock with a bolt engageable with a strike on the door casing in a deeply recessed mortise. A planar elongated plate, symmetrical about a vertical axis, is in the mortise. An elongated bolt opening and a pair of screw clearance holes go through the planar plate on the axis. Also in the planar plate is a pair of screw rod holes, both disposed on one side of the axis. These receive a pair of screw rods extending through the intervening space and into the cripple as cantilever beams. The usual strike plate overlies the planar plate, its bolt opening registering with the bolt opening in the plate and its screw openings substantially registering with the screw clearance holes. Screw fasteners extend through the screw clearance holes in the strike plate and through the similar holes in the planar plate to engage the door casing side rail.

I claim: 
     
       1. A lock strike construction for use with a wall having an upright structural cripple and an upright door casing side rail parallel to and separated from said cripple by an intervening space comprising an elongated planar plate having a longitudinal axis, means defining an elongated bolt opening .[.entirely enclosed.]. in said planar plate and extending along and substantially symmetrical with said axis, means forming a pair of screw-receiving circular holes in said planar plate on said axis and on opposite ends of said bolt opening, means forming a pair of screw rod holes in said planar plate both on one side of said axis and on opposite ends of said bolt opening, a pair of screw rods in said screw rod holes and extending through said side rail and through said space and into said cripple, .Iadd.said planar plate including means on the door-opening side thereof forming a continuous web between said screw rod holes toward the direction of door opening, .Iaddend.a strike plate abutting said planar plate and said screw rods and in substantial registry with said planar plate, means defining a bolt opening and screw openings in said strike plate substantially registering with said elongated bolt opening and said screw receiving holes, and screw fasteners disposed in said screw receiving holes in said strike plate freely passing through said screw receiving circular holes in said planar plate and laterally engagable by both said strike plate and said planar plate. 
     
     
       2. A construction as in claim 1 in which said screw openings in said strike plate are conical and have a predetermined large diameter and in which said screw rod holes in said planar plate are conical and have a predetermined minimum diameter greater than said predetermined large diameter. 
     
     
       3. A construction as in claim 1 in which said strike plate is solid all around said bolt opening therein and in portions adapted to overlie and register with said screw rod holes in said planar plate and in which said planar plate is solid all around said bolt opening therein. 
     
     
       4. A construction as in claim 1 in which said planar plate and said strike plate are substantially congruent as to the peripheries thereof and as to said bolt openings. 
     
     
       5. A construction as in claim 1 in which said screw rods are for the most part engaged with said cripple and extend therefrom across said space and through said side rail and said planar plate as cantilever beams.