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Turning a Baby Rattle

Joined
Oct 23, 2015
Messages
21
Likes
347
Location
Pine Bush, NY
I'm posting this video (the first video i've tried making; please be gentle). Fellow member Tom Albrecht has mentioned that it does not conform to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidelines for rattles. https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manufacturing/Business-Education/Business-Guidance/Rattles, so copy it at your own risk. To follow their guidelines would make the ball on the osage side much bigger and would, IMHO, make it aesthetically unpleasing. (like a small dumbell). Perhaps it would be best to advise parents that it is meant to be a family heirloom and keepsake and not to be left with the child unattended.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXo4wvT5buw
 
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Messages
935
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241
Location
Newberg, OR: 20mi SW of Portland: AAW #21058
Nicholas,
I’m sorry to push back on your post (I haven’t watched the video yet), but I think safety trumps aesthetics every time when talking about infants and young kids. As I recall, the minimum diameter of a rattle end needs to be larger than 1&5/8”. I didn’t have issues making rattles with that minimum while making a pleasing shape.

rattles.jpg
 
Joined
Oct 23, 2015
Messages
21
Likes
347
Location
Pine Bush, NY
Your work is quite nice. Forgive me, I didn't mean to belittle the "dumbell" design. I am concerned for safety, that's why I included the link to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. That being said, I raised 4 kids and none of them choked on their rattles.
 

Mark Hepburn

Artist & Chef
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
1,621
Likes
577
Location
Houma, Louisiana
Nicholas, I enjoyed your video. I don't have the courage (or the skill) to take on a video so kudos to you.

Owen, I second what Nicholas said. Those are some very nice rattles. Also a good example of how to make good use of scrap wood.

Thanks gents!
 
Joined
Oct 25, 2005
Messages
935
Likes
241
Location
Newberg, OR: 20mi SW of Portland: AAW #21058
Thanks Nicholas and Mark for the kind words, though that was not my intention for posting the pic. Even if you go with a single end and handle or a pod design, obey to the minimum size requirements. It would be awful to have a fatality from something you make.

My mother repeats herself at times, “You kids didn’t have car seats. We didn’t use seat belts and you survived just fine.” Nicholas, our own personal experiences oftentimes do not reflect the larger population’s experiences.

These are popcorn kernel rattles so that if it should break open the rattlers are small enough to be swallowed with no ill effects. When I first began making them I took a finished one and beat on it with a mallet, just to see what it would take to break. If I remember it took 4 or 5 hard blows with a wooden mallet to break an end open. The only mishap I’ve heard about was a rattle that was destroyed by a dog.

(OK, I’m off my horse now.)
 

hockenbery

Forum MVP
Beta Tester
TOTW Team
Joined
Apr 27, 2004
Messages
8,591
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4,886
Location
Lakeland, Florida
Website
www.hockenberywoodturning.com
The other issue to be concerned about is a life changing lawsuit.
The Internet lives forever with the evidence that we know the guidelines.
One of my woodturning friends made good bit of cash giving expert testimony in liability cases.
He once explained to me the concept of producers being liable for foreseeable misuses of a product.

It seems foreseeable that anyone possessing a turned rattle would let a baby play with it.
Attended children die every day and irresponsible parents win lawsuits every days.

Fellow member Tom Albrecht has mentioned that it does not conform to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidelines for rattles. https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manufacturing/Business-Education/Business-Guidance/Rattles, .......Perhaps it would be best to advise parents that it is meant to be a family heirloom and keepsake and not to be left with the child unattended.
 
Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
5
Likes
0
I'm posting this video (the first video i've tried making; please be gentle). Fellow member Tom Albrecht has mentioned that it does not conform to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidelines for rattles. https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manufacturing/Business-Education/Business-Guidance/Rattles, so copy it at your own risk. To follow their guidelines would make the ball on the osage side much bigger and would, IMHO, make it aesthetically unpleasing. (like a small dumbell). Perhaps it would be best to advise parents that it is meant to be a family heirloom and keepsake and not to be left with the child unattended.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXo4wvT5buw
Well
I'm posting this video (the first video i've tried making; please be gentle). Fellow member Tom Albrecht has mentioned that it does not conform to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidelines for rattles. https://www.cpsc.gov/Business--Manufacturing/Business-Education/Business-Guidance/Rattles, so copy it at your own risk. To follow their guidelines would make the ball on the osage side much bigger and would, IMHO, make it aesthetically unpleasing. (like a small dumbell). Perhaps it would be best to advise parents that it is meant to be a family heirloom and keepsake and not to be left with the child unattended.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXo4wvT5buw
Nicholas,
I’m sorry to push back on your post (I haven’t watched the video yet), but I think safety trumps aesthetics every time when talking about infants and young kids. As I recall, the minimum diameter of a rattle end needs to be larger than 1&5/8”. I didn’t have issues making rattles with that minimum while making a pleasing shape.

View attachment 21567
Well done and easy to follow. I involved a router for part of the rattle I made a few years back but yours is more straight forward and not as complex nice!
 
Joined
Jan 24, 2010
Messages
3,058
Likes
900
Location
Cleveland, Tennessee
We had a demo at our chapter meeting and one item was a baby rattle. It basically looked like a darning thimble (not sure what they were called but my mother had one, used to repair/darn the holes in socks). Anyone old enough to remember those? Looked like a big egg on a handle.
 
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
1,173
Likes
611
Location
Evanston, IL USA
We had a demo at our chapter meeting and one item was a baby rattle. It basically looked like a darning thimble (not sure what they were called but my mother had one, used to repair/darn the holes in socks). Anyone old enough to remember those? Looked like a big egg on a handle.


That's exactly what a darning thimble looks like, and there's a photocopy of one with dimensions hung on my "To Do" corkboard. That small end for the handle makes it a poor rattle design though.
 

Chuck Lobaito

AAW Board Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2013
Messages
72
Likes
44
Location
Farmington Hills, MI
Nicholas,
I’m sorry to push back on your post (I haven’t watched the video yet), but I think safety trumps aesthetics every time when talking about infants and young kids. As I recall, the minimum diameter of a rattle end needs to be larger than 1&5/8”. I didn’t have issues making rattles with that minimum while making a pleasing shape.

View attachment 21567
great design
 
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