Several weeks back, before the series on Magic Wands of Exotic Wood and
Extra ParaNormal Properties, charlie b and son chas were making a cabinet
in which to stash a semi-precious (to chas) collection of what we, in the
Internet Age would call 'content'. Other than the rather significant
depletion of Dad's fancy wood stash, the significant design discussion
placed before the wReck was one of hidden locking mechanisms. The idea was
to hide from casual view the means to access the contents of the cabinet.
A sliding magnetic latch, documented on charlie's web site was the eventual
outcome.
I now have a similar challenge facing my household. In an effort to
support the continued education of a talented daughter-in-law, who is also
the mother of our first, and so-far only grandchild, my wife has
volunteered to care for this young fellow. He's 15 months, in the healthy
body of normal 2 year old size, and has all of the immense curiousity you'd
want in a growing child.
But we really think he should be excluded from the contents of the
entertainment center/china cabinet. Not so much that I can't replace the
various crystal & glass bits which have accumulated over several
generations - he's just not ready to be running with the Mikasa vase his
grandmother took from him this morning.
The cabinet is a commercial one. My wife wasn't ready to wait for me to
build this this, and I didn't have the time or skills when we bought it.
Rockler sells some magnetic child locks, which have three negatives: They
look seriously cheesy. They don't look sturdy enough to slow this young
fellow down. And some (much) of the 'content' behind the cabinet doors is
on magnetic media. Rare earth magnets, as in charlie's design, would be a
bad thing (tm ms)
Any ideas? Any references? They can't be cheesy looking. They need to be
sturdy. It would help if grandparents didn't need to find the bifocals
before attempting to open the cabinet. It would also be really good if I
didn't have to tear apart the cabinet to mortise something into the edge of
a veneered door.
I went through the paper version of the Lee Valley catalog before sitting
down to petition the wReck,and didn't find anything that seemed to solve
the problem. And Robin, scanning your website seems to have a negative
effect on my accounts payable. ;-)
We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't want to
solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least not in the
front room.
Patriarch
patriarch < wrote:
> Mark & Juanita <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
> <snip>
>
>>Take a look at "Toys R Us", or "Babies R Us" or some similarly
>>child-oriented store. They sell plastic (gasp!) latches that go on the
>>inside of cabinet doors, aren't very visible and can be removed when
>>the little delinquent reaches college age :-) These latches allow
>>the door to open slightly, allowing an adult to push the latch down
>>with their finger to open the door the rest of the way (i.e. mount
>>above child height).
<snip>
>> Not exactly duct tape, it's not totally elegant, but it is more or
>> less reversible.
>
>
> Given that this one child is unlikely to be the only one of his generation,
> these may turn out not to be particularly temporary.
>
No, those little plastic latches are temporary; they only last for one
toddlerhood. They lose their flexibility, start to droop, and don't hold
the door/drawer closed. They have slots on the sides for vertical
adjustments, but now mine have to be up so far to lock that they prevent
the door from closing.
They worked fine for my first son, but now that he is out of
toddlerhood, my second son is starting. And I have to go around
replacing all the latches.
Aren't little ones fun? :-)
--
Christian Groth
If you want something done right,
do it yourself.
If you want something to take twice as long (at least),
cost twice as much(at least),
and still not get done, right or not,
get the government to do it.
On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 07:12:41 -0500, Conan the Librarian
<[email protected]> calmly ranted:
>Robert Bonomi wrote:
>
>> [on keeping the grand-rugrat out of the family heirlooms]
>>
>> Drawing on another recent discussion in this newsgroup, have you considered
>> an electric fence?
>
> POTM.
Seconded! Waisted cuffs and a leash at minimum, if not.
-
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened.
---
http://diversify.com Website Application Programming
Bill Rogers <[email protected]> wrote:
> No offense but there's not a parent in the world with that sort of
> abilty to ocncentrate on that single task, and definitely not a
> grandparent. Their speed at getting into trouble is Olympian.
> There is nothing wrong with due precaution. It also gives the parent
> more freedom, but still being watchful. You don't need advice here on
> that; just visit your local hospital emergency room, or police who
> have to deal with tragedy, and ask their opinion. Watching is still
> good advice.
As the parent of a 3 and 5 year old, I agree.
We used the little hidden magnetic locks on our cabinets (Tot Lok, I
believe they are called). They work reasonably well.
On a related topic: child safety near a woodworking shop. In my
shop, I don't have a master electrical breaker in the shop that I can
lock out positively. Instead, I found a product that consists of
small keyed locks that fit over the end of 110V plugs. They go on and
off in a second. In addition to supervision and training, it's nice
to have some extra peace of mind. Check out www.mcmastercarr.com,
item no 10715A19 for details. (I have no relation to this product
other than as a satisfied customer).
On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 04:31:27 GMT, patriarch
<<patriarch>[email protected]> wrote:
>Several weeks back, before the series on Magic Wands of Exotic Wood and
>Extra ParaNormal Properties, charlie b and son chas were making a cabinet
>in which to stash a semi-precious (to chas) collection of what we, in the
>Internet Age would call 'content'. Other than the rather significant
>depletion of Dad's fancy wood stash, the significant design discussion
>placed before the wReck was one of hidden locking mechanisms. The idea was
>to hide from casual view the means to access the contents of the cabinet.
>A sliding magnetic latch, documented on charlie's web site was the eventual
>outcome.
>
>I now have a similar challenge facing my household. In an effort to
>support the continued education of a talented daughter-in-law, who is also
>the mother of our first, and so-far only grandchild, my wife has
>volunteered to care for this young fellow. He's 15 months, in the healthy
>body of normal 2 year old size, and has all of the immense curiousity you'd
>want in a growing child.
>
>But we really think he should be excluded from the contents of the
>entertainment center/china cabinet. Not so much that I can't replace the
>various crystal & glass bits which have accumulated over several
>generations - he's just not ready to be running with the Mikasa vase his
>grandmother took from him this morning.
>
>The cabinet is a commercial one. My wife wasn't ready to wait for me to
>build this this, and I didn't have the time or skills when we bought it.
>
>Rockler sells some magnetic child locks, which have three negatives: They
>look seriously cheesy. They don't look sturdy enough to slow this young
>fellow down. And some (much) of the 'content' behind the cabinet doors is
>on magnetic media. Rare earth magnets, as in charlie's design, would be a
>bad thing (tm ms)
>
>Any ideas? Any references? They can't be cheesy looking. They need to be
>sturdy. It would help if grandparents didn't need to find the bifocals
>before attempting to open the cabinet. It would also be really good if I
>didn't have to tear apart the cabinet to mortise something into the edge of
>a veneered door.
>
>I went through the paper version of the Lee Valley catalog before sitting
>down to petition the wReck,and didn't find anything that seemed to solve
>the problem. And Robin, scanning your website seems to have a negative
>effect on my accounts payable. ;-)
>
>We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't want to
>solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least not in the
>front room.
>
>Patriarch
I don't have kids or grandkids, but my mom has both. what she does is
tie a string around a pair of knobs. it won't work on all kinds of
knobs, and it takes two doors together in a pair, but it does a pretty
good job of keeping those doors from being opened.
"Bill Thomas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Greetings,
>
> I had a similar problem with my parents display case. I solved it
> by buying the nicest brass chain Home Depot had and a small brass
> padlock. We loop the chain through the handles and locked it in place.
> If you did this, you might want to put the chain through some
> clear plastic tubing to prevent damage to the cabinet. The very
> small key went on the end of a length of bright ribbon, which we put
> where people don't look.
>
> If your wife does not like this idea, you can tell her it gives
> you time to do something really nice. In my parents case, they
> thought it looked very attractive since it blended with the other
> brass fittings and contrasted with the dark wood.
>
> Sincerely,
> Bill Thomas
That is a good idea Bill. I have observed a couple "chained cabinets"
myself.
I have also seen a wood version of the same thing. Only I think that cable
was inside the wood. It was highly finished and attractive wood that was
put together in segments and installed on a cabinet. Some kind of locking
mechanism was installed into the two mating peices of wood. A key was
produced if they wanted into the cabinet.
Or you could use short wood "links" with a link or two of brass chain
between them.
Mark & Juanita <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:
<snip>
> Take a look at "Toys R Us", or "Babies R Us" or some similarly
> child-oriented store. They sell plastic (gasp!) latches that go on the
> inside of cabinet doors, aren't very visible and can be removed when
> the little delinquent reaches college age :-) These latches allow
> the door to open slightly, allowing an adult to push the latch down
> with their finger to open the door the rest of the way (i.e. mount
> above child height).
Yeah, said daughter-in-law is learning 'tool independence' by installing
these in my wife's kitchen. If only they weren't so 'bright white'. Maybe
some brown ones exist.
Plastic isn't so awful. Some of my wife's favorite things are plastic. ;-)
>>We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't
>>want to solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least
>>not in the front room.
>
>
> Not exactly duct tape, it's not totally elegant, but it is more or
> less reversible.
Given that this one child is unlikely to be the only one of his generation,
these may turn out not to be particularly temporary.
Thanks, Mark.
Patriarch,
hoping for elegant, willing to settle.
Unisaw A100 <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:
>>We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't
>>want to solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least
>>not in the front room.
>
> 3M blue tape? T'would not look good but for a stop gap and
> it is easily removed (for company) and doesn't leave a
> residue.
>
> On a serious note though, we did the child gates as our
> layout lent itself and the gates were removed within a short
> (OK short as in a low number of years) period of time.
>
> UA100
>
My wife says that one of the more memorable, and happier days, in her role
as a mother, was the day that she realized, standing in the diaper aisle at
Safeway, that we didn't need any, ever again. After 10 years.
I built a child gate for the apartment where the kids live, to keep the
grandson from climbing stairs before he's ready. Basicly, a couple of
kitchen cabinet style doors, on Blum self-closing hinges, with a hotel-
style security flip latch on the back side. It worked well when he was
crawling. Now he's big enough to reach over the back. He's almost got the
operation figured out.
Our home is an open plan. The entrance to the front room is 8' wide, and
right at the front entrance to the house. Gates and/or doors aren't going
to work.
I did like the electric fence idea, though. ;-)
I'm working on a latch idea, using removeable dowel pins and plates. When
I get through this weekend (huge family party), I'll try to get a
drawing/prototype together which may work for this cabinet.
For today - blue tape.
Thanks, all!
Patriarch
[email protected] (Nate Perkins) wrote in
news:[email protected]:
> Bill Rogers <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> No offense but there's not a parent in the world with that sort of
>> abilty to ocncentrate on that single task, and definitely not a
>> grandparent. Their speed at getting into trouble is Olympian.
>> There is nothing wrong with due precaution. It also gives the parent
>> more freedom, but still being watchful. You don't need advice here on
>> that; just visit your local hospital emergency room, or police who
>> have to deal with tragedy, and ask their opinion. Watching is still
>> good advice.
>
> As the parent of a 3 and 5 year old, I agree.
>
> We used the little hidden magnetic locks on our cabinets (Tot Lok, I
> believe they are called). They work reasonably well.
>
> On a related topic: child safety near a woodworking shop. In my
> shop, I don't have a master electrical breaker in the shop that I can
> lock out positively. Instead, I found a product that consists of
> small keyed locks that fit over the end of 110V plugs. They go on and
> off in a second. In addition to supervision and training, it's nice
> to have some extra peace of mind. Check out www.mcmastercarr.com,
> item no 10715A19 for details. (I have no relation to this product
> other than as a satisfied customer).
I'm the original poster...
We've got the plastic locks in the kitchen, and everywhere else that needs
them. I was looking for ideas on what to do for something more like real
furniture.
The TOT LOK had two things against it, in my opinion. It didn't look
strong enough, and it did look really ugly, attached to edges of a mission
style front room cabinet & entertainment center.
What I've come up with is pretty simple, and is going to be used in
conjunction with the currently installed standard latches. My friendly
local independent hardware guru had some brass rod, and tube. I'll fasten
a short length of the brass rod (1/4" diameter) to the knob, and use that
to pin the door shut from above. The bottom cabinet will only be
accessible by opening the middle cabinet, which one will need to reach by
opening the upper cabinet, which will not be pinned. Small antique-brass
(the color, not the age) brackets will be mounted on the back of each door.
The tube will be epoxied into a hole drilled through the cabinet, to serve
as a liner and a guide. Turning the knobs should be the most challenging
part, and then, only if I do it myself, and not trade some nice wood to one
of my expert lathe-master friends....
As a comment, to all of those who indicated their concern with making sure
the child is well watched: We agree with all of those concerns, and are
doing our best to change this house to kid-safe. With our youngest at 24,
we rather got out of the habit.
BTW, my garage shop is deadbolted, and all the tools are on a master power
lockout. That's as much for my grown sons, and my own safety, as for
anyone else. It still isn't a safe place for small children.
Thanks for your ideas and comments. This place is always good for that.
Patriarch
Unisaw A100 <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> >We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't want to
> >solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least not in the
> >front room.
>
> 3M blue tape? T'would not look good but for a stop gap and
> it is easily removed (for company) and doesn't leave a
> residue.
>
> On a serious note though, we did the child gates as our
> layout lent itself and the gates were removed within a short
> (OK short as in a low number of years) period of time.
>
> UA100
I don't want to sound anti-latch-- anti-wood working or even
anti-tape, but whatever happened to just "watching" the little tyke
while he or she is about? The word (even though not politically
correct at this time) NO! might even be suggested to the caregiver.
"NO!" does not wear out over time, nor does it leave sticky residue on
the furniture. It also doesn't require cutting into furniture.
However, an equal amount of hugging while snatching the child away
from a prized posession might be in order.
Just my humble opinion.
Phil
Phil wrote:
> Unisaw A100 <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
>>>We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't want to
>>>solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least not in the
>>>front room.
>>
>>3M blue tape? T'would not look good but for a stop gap and
>>it is easily removed (for company) and doesn't leave a
>>residue.
>>
>>On a serious note though, we did the child gates as our
>>layout lent itself and the gates were removed within a short
>>(OK short as in a low number of years) period of time.
>>
>>UA100
>
>
> I don't want to sound anti-latch-- anti-wood working or even
> anti-tape, but whatever happened to just "watching" the little tyke
> while he or she is about? The word (even though not politically
> correct at this time) NO! might even be suggested to the caregiver.
> "NO!" does not wear out over time, nor does it leave sticky residue on
> the furniture. It also doesn't require cutting into furniture.
> However, an equal amount of hugging while snatching the child away
> from a prized posession might be in order.
> Just my humble opinion.
>
> Phil
They do watch him. They caught him with a vase. Sometimes you have to
blink your eyes, answer the phone, use the facilities. At his age,
he does not need much time to get into something.
On 27 Aug 2004 14:08:12 -0700, [email protected] (Phil) wrote:
No offense but there's not a parent in the world with that sort of
abilty to ocncentrate on that single task, and definitely not a
grandparent. Their speed at getting into trouble is Olympian.
There is nothing wrong with due precaution. It also gives the parent
more freedom, but still being watchful. You don't need advice here on
that; just visit your local hospital emergency room, or police who
have to deal with tragedy, and ask their opinion. Watching is still
good advice.
Bill.
>I don't want to sound anti-latch-- anti-wood working or even
>anti-tape, but whatever happened to just "watching" the little tyke
>while he or she is about? The word (even though not politically
>correct at this time) NO! might even be suggested to the caregiver.
>"NO!" does not wear out over time, nor does it leave sticky residue on
>the furniture. It also doesn't require cutting into furniture.
>However, an equal amount of hugging while snatching the child away
>from a prized posession might be in order.
>Just my humble opinion.
In article <[email protected]>,
patriarch <<patriarch> wrote:
[[.. munch ..]]
>I now have a similar challenge facing my household. In an effort to
>support the continued education of a talented daughter-in-law, who is also
>the mother of our first, and so-far only grandchild, my wife has
>volunteered to care for this young fellow. He's 15 months, in the healthy
>body of normal 2 year old size, and has all of the immense curiousity you'd
>want in a growing child.
>
>But we really think he should be excluded from the contents of the
>entertainment center/china cabinet. Not so much that I can't replace the
>various crystal & glass bits which have accumulated over several
>generations - he's just not ready to be running with the Mikasa vase his
>grandmother took from him this morning.
[[.. munch ..]]
>We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't want to
>solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least not in the
>front room.
Drawing on another recent discussion in this newsgroup, have you considered
an electric fence?
On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 05:05:26 GMT, patriarch
<<patriarch>[email protected]> wrote:
> If only they weren't so 'bright white'. Maybe
>some brown ones exist.
If they're nylon, they'll dye with fabric dyes.
On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 07:12:41 -0500, Conan the Librarian
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Robert Bonomi wrote:
>
>> [on keeping the grand-rugrat out of the family heirlooms]
>>
>> Drawing on another recent discussion in this newsgroup, have you considered
>> an electric fence?
>
> POTM.
>
>
> Chuck Vance
Post Of The Month?
On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 04:31:27 GMT, patriarch
<<patriarch>[email protected]> wrote:
... snip
>
>I now have a similar challenge facing my household. In an effort to
>support the continued education of a talented daughter-in-law, who is also
>the mother of our first, and so-far only grandchild, my wife has
>volunteered to care for this young fellow. He's 15 months, in the healthy
>body of normal 2 year old size, and has all of the immense curiousity you'd
>want in a growing child.
>
>But we really think he should be excluded from the contents of the
>entertainment center/china cabinet. Not so much that I can't replace the
>various crystal & glass bits which have accumulated over several
>generations - he's just not ready to be running with the Mikasa vase his
>grandmother took from him this morning.
>
>The cabinet is a commercial one. My wife wasn't ready to wait for me to
>build this this, and I didn't have the time or skills when we bought it.
>
>Rockler sells some magnetic child locks, which have three negatives: They
>look seriously cheesy. They don't look sturdy enough to slow this young
>fellow down. And some (much) of the 'content' behind the cabinet doors is
>on magnetic media. Rare earth magnets, as in charlie's design, would be a
>bad thing (tm ms)
>
>Any ideas? Any references? They can't be cheesy looking. They need to be
>sturdy. It would help if grandparents didn't need to find the bifocals
>before attempting to open the cabinet. It would also be really good if I
>didn't have to tear apart the cabinet to mortise something into the edge of
>a veneered door.
>
>I went through the paper version of the Lee Valley catalog before sitting
>down to petition the wReck,and didn't find anything that seemed to solve
>the problem. And Robin, scanning your website seems to have a negative
>effect on my accounts payable. ;-)
>
Take a look at "Toys R Us", or "Babies R Us" or some similarly
child-oriented store. They sell plastic (gasp!) latches that go on the
inside of cabinet doors, aren't very visible and can be removed when the
little delinquent reaches college age :-) These latches allow the door
to open slightly, allowing an adult to push the latch down with their
finger to open the door the rest of the way (i.e. mount above child
height).
>We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't want to
>solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least not in the
>front room.
Not exactly duct tape, it's not totally elegant, but it is more or less
reversible.
>
>Patriarch
>We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't want to
>solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least not in the
>front room.
3M blue tape? T'would not look good but for a stop gap and
it is easily removed (for company) and doesn't leave a
residue.
On a serious note though, we did the child gates as our
layout lent itself and the gates were removed within a short
(OK short as in a low number of years) period of time.
UA100
Greetings,
I had a similar problem with my parents display case. I solved it
by buying the nicest brass chain Home Depot had and a small brass
padlock. We loop the chain through the handles and locked it in place.
If you did this, you might want to put the chain through some
clear plastic tubing to prevent damage to the cabinet. The very
small key went on the end of a length of bright ribbon, which we put
where people don't look.
If your wife does not like this idea, you can tell her it gives
you time to do something really nice. In my parents case, they
thought it looked very attractive since it blended with the other
brass fittings and contrasted with the dark wood.
Sincerely,
Bill Thomas
Try NOT using the duct tape on the furniture and instead use it on the young
one.... <grin>
"patriarch [email protected]>" <<patriarch> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Several weeks back, before the series on Magic Wands of Exotic Wood and
> Extra ParaNormal Properties, charlie b and son chas were making a cabinet
> in which to stash a semi-precious (to chas) collection of what we, in the
> Internet Age would call 'content'. Other than the rather significant
> depletion of Dad's fancy wood stash, the significant design discussion
> placed before the wReck was one of hidden locking mechanisms. The idea
was
> to hide from casual view the means to access the contents of the cabinet.
> A sliding magnetic latch, documented on charlie's web site was the
eventual
> outcome.
>
> I now have a similar challenge facing my household. In an effort to
> support the continued education of a talented daughter-in-law, who is also
> the mother of our first, and so-far only grandchild, my wife has
> volunteered to care for this young fellow. He's 15 months, in the healthy
> body of normal 2 year old size, and has all of the immense curiousity
you'd
> want in a growing child.
>
> But we really think he should be excluded from the contents of the
> entertainment center/china cabinet. Not so much that I can't replace the
> various crystal & glass bits which have accumulated over several
> generations - he's just not ready to be running with the Mikasa vase his
> grandmother took from him this morning.
>
> The cabinet is a commercial one. My wife wasn't ready to wait for me to
> build this this, and I didn't have the time or skills when we bought it.
>
> Rockler sells some magnetic child locks, which have three negatives: They
> look seriously cheesy. They don't look sturdy enough to slow this young
> fellow down. And some (much) of the 'content' behind the cabinet doors is
> on magnetic media. Rare earth magnets, as in charlie's design, would be a
> bad thing (tm ms)
>
> Any ideas? Any references? They can't be cheesy looking. They need to
be
> sturdy. It would help if grandparents didn't need to find the bifocals
> before attempting to open the cabinet. It would also be really good if I
> didn't have to tear apart the cabinet to mortise something into the edge
of
> a veneered door.
>
> I went through the paper version of the Lee Valley catalog before sitting
> down to petition the wReck,and didn't find anything that seemed to solve
> the problem. And Robin, scanning your website seems to have a negative
> effect on my accounts payable. ;-)
>
> We're certainly not the first to have this problem. I know I don't want
to
> solve it as Red Green would, with duct tape. Well, at least not in the
> front room.
>
> Patriarch