I love that you're using regular hardware for a baby toy. But are you sure you want her learning how door latches work so young?

nice work Chocolatl! Zen's posted my first thought... heehee.. I doubt you're giving her anything she wouldn't get on her own. Abstinence only as strategy is a dismal failure. Better she should use her capacity to understand a door latch to also comprehend "No, no, no." than to live in fear of the day she inevitably figures it out.

what a cool toy!

Thanks guys! We don't have bolts or latches on anything in the house, so I don't need to worry about her applying her newfound knowledge in every day life. It should be good fine motor practice! It'll also take her some time to grow in to -- for now, we're leaving the little doors unlocked. As she gets older, smarter, and more nimble fingered, we'll start locking them. My hope is to get a lot of mileage out of this thing!

AARRRGGHH. Was just reading about all the wonderful carcinogenic chemicals MDF can release over time. Scrapping the board and starting over. It was looking cute, too. :(

Attachment 44517

MDF truly sucks. Solid wood is your best option. Alder, Birch, Maple would be my top choices for ease of machining, cost, and lowest toxicity. Some hardwoods and some softwood can cause skin reactions.

Very impressive!

We had a bunch of shelving installed at work in our old building years ago. Instead of metal shelves, they were MDF, supported by a metal frame. Walking into that room was a terrible assault on your senses. Even your eyes would burn after being in there for half an hour. The worst part was that you couldn't even open a window. It took about two years for the smell to go away. Horrible. There were several thousand board feet of fresh MDF in there though. Nothing like your single board.

Aw, dammit.

Still, good thing you spotted the potential problem before Beans got all hyper-allergic or whatever.

Glatt, that sounds awful!

I initially chose the MDF because it's wonderfully smooth. I knew it would be held together with some kinds of resins, but I didn't realize just how toxic that stuff would be. I imagine just the one board wouldn't be too bad, but the idea that my baby would be handling something that was leaching formaldehyde wasn't very appealing.

Thanks for the wood recommendations, foot. I ended up going with untreated poplar cuz the hardware store only had that and oak. Round two this weekend.

Poplar is excellent.

That's why it's so ... widely liked.


I'll see myself out.

:facepalm:

Seal it with a good lead based paint. ;)

Has anyone mentioned how we've missed you lately?

Bruce! xoxoxo

Tis I... and Juliet is still chaste. :o