Recommendation for safety hinges?

[Donald Dolan]

Greetings all,

I'm a very experienced sawdust maker... but really very much a beginner at making anything else out of wood.

I'm trying to do my first chest, which is going to be used as a sparring gear chest for the karate studio that I attend. I've made it out of 5/8" solid red oak and it's 48" long, by 15" high and 13" deep (front to back).

My problem is that I need to make sure that the lid CAN NOT slam shut. Not even when pushed by someone. This is to store sparring gear that children as young as 3 will use.

Most of the "toy box" hinges I've found will keep a lid from accidentally slamming shut, but will still close fast if someone pushes on the lid.

Any suggestions for hinges and/or other mechanism for slowing the lid down reliably? Hopefully something pretty sturdy for long, frequent use. The lid is 48 x 13 x 5/8 and is also made out of solid red oak.

My hope is to pad the top of the lid with a wrap around cover, so a piano type hinge in the back would not be ideal if I can help it.

Thanks!

Donald

[Sam Murdoch]

Here is a good source for quite a few options. The lid stays on page 9.104 and the next page are the likely candidates but there are lid stays of all sorts beginning on page 9.94

Here is the Hafele link http://www.hafele.com/us/en/external/blaetterkataloge/TCH_FC_2013/ This will open to one of their catalogs. Then just search using the page numbers above, or look at the table of contents and go to the "hinges and stays" section.

[Cliff Polubinsky]

Try these from Rockler. Used them on chests for my daughter so the smaller kids wouldn't loose fingers.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=22046&site=ROCKLER

Cliff

[Jim Rimmer]

Try these from Rockler. Used them on chests for my daughter so the smaller kids wouldn't loose fingers.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=22046&site=ROCKLER

Cliff
+1 on the torsion hinge. Used them on a blanket chest. I would use them again any place I was worried about slamming shut on fingers.

Caveat: I think they fit 3/4" stock so if you used 5/8 you may need a spacer.