What I did at my house today...

[phil]

Phil, for a rolling gate, rather than a chain, could you use a rotating gear and teeth? Sorry, I don't know what it's called.

the principle of gearing is fine but the thing is the standard garage door opener has the motor , the remote control, and a mechanism to make it stop and reverse if it hits something or binds. its designed to hit a stop on the chain and stop pulling. to slide a gate Its just mounted in a different orientation than a door but really it serves the same purpose. It needs a cover to keep rain out. extending the chain is easy. it needs to travel a little further but it really doesn't' need a bunch of modification.

If it was a swing gate, I could use a pneumatic cylinder, then if you stopped it mid travel it wouldn't cause damage, I'd need an air compressor to drive it. hydraulics could work too but then you need a hydraulic pack. in theory you can use a pressure switch to make it reverse if it meets resistance but designing all that is more complicated.
you can pick up a used garage door opener easily. I even have one sitting around.

my driveway has lots of cars so a sliding gate would give me more space to park unless I make it swing out , then it can block the alley.

[awomanwithahammer]

James, the door looks good.

I've done nothing on my reno house, but I did clean up the screen porch at my house so I can actually sit out and enjoy it while I practice physical distancing.

[Gothichome]

Yes, your door does look very nice. Bonnie, sitting and enjoying your porch is part of the old home fun.

[Manalto]

Originally, (according to the architectural drawings, anyway) the second floor room above the kitchen was a screened sleeping porch. Over the years, the room had been enclosed and also suffered fire and termite damage - it was by far the worst room in the house. Structural repairs have been made and the ceiling removed to the rafters. Today the 1950s steel casement windows went in.

[Gothichome]

You know James, that looks great. It gives those windows a great A&C look.

[Manalto]

Thanks, Ron. I was surprised to learn that this window profile (but not the crank-operating hardware) is period correct; this style of window became available in 1919.

[awomanwithahammer]

Oh, those look wonderful, James! I'm so pleased that thay worked out.

[A.Fox]

James, I’ve seen integral cranks on casement windows as early as 1940, but they may have existed earlier. Our wood casement windows from 1925 actually have a cranking mechanism, but there is only one crank for the entire house (ay least today). This seems to have been devised so that you could open the window without opening the interior screen.

The windows look great, and I like that they continue to tell the story of a porch that was later enclosed by being different from the rest of the house.

[Manalto]

Oh, those look wonderful, James! I'm so pleased that thay worked out.

Thanks to you. I hadn't even considered casements for that room because I supposed the historic district required 6/1 double hung. I got the casements as a compromise, because installation is simpler and because they matched the existing windows on the first floor. As it turns out, they're just right.

A. Fox, the crank design is clearly mid-century but hardly jarring.

[phil]

The windows look really great. Those cranks are good if it gets windy because they hold the window from flapping about. some of mine had nothign so I put ones with a rod so I can lock them open but the rod will be in the way of a mosquito screen so I'm not sure how Im going to avoid that being an issue. the rods slide freely in the hole wiht the lock that attaches to the sill but they seem to sort of stick and need to be coaxed as I open or close the window. If I didn't have anything the wind would surely break the window.

if you are stuck for a crank you might need to adapt a crank from somewhere else.

sometimes I have to fix broken stuff like that, so I walk around looking at different machines as they use different styles and sizes. If I can find a similar crank where the machine isn't obsolete then I can order it from whatever vendor sells the particular machine, then maybe adapt that to fit rather than having to machine the whole crank handle myself. we have an old mobile house-trailer, Its sort of funky maybe 1950 or so , It has cranks like that so if you were towing it, the windows couldn't slap around. all the cupboards have nice handles that latch in a positive way when they close for the same reason. maybe a crank off a high school pencil sharpener could be made to fit there? or something similar.