How To Question? Baby Rattles...

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Does anyone know of an online article or a book/plan for purchase for a baby rattle? My sister is having a baby and I would love to make her one, but I have never done anything with captivated rings and would need to learn how.

Unless my good friend John from Spring Green has done this and we can meet up and get a tutorial from him

Anyway, if you guys know of any good books or better an online source for how to make these, that would be great!

[John Miliunas]

Hey Jeff! Never did one myself, but am familiar with the general concept. I don't have a captive ring tool BUT, I do have a small set of the Sorby beading chisels, which would get us better than halfway there! Drop me a line and we could probably learn something new at the same time! In the meantime, I think our pal Dick Parr can probably give us some pointers, as he's just completed some of the same!

[Jeff Sudmeier]

John, sounds good, I am busy the rest of this month, but I will keep in touch via email about early November. (Wow! November!!)

I don't even understand the basic concept, so any pointers anyone else can give would be wonderfull....

[John Miliunas]

John, sounds good, I am busy the rest of this month, but I will keep in touch via email about early November. (Wow! November!!)

I don't even understand the basic concept, so any pointers anyone else can give would be wonderfull....

"Busy the rest of the month..."? Ha! I've got enough going to keep me busy with that house until the end of Nov., 2012! BUT, I was just talking to LOML last night and basically told her that I *NEED* to spend a bit of "fun time" with my WW or the rest of the stuff will soon come to a screaching halt! She was actually quite receptive to that, so a little diversion like this would fit the bill perfectly! Yeah, definitely, keep in touch!

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Sounds good, once this week and the first week of November get over with, I will either give you a call or email to set something up....

[John Miliunas]

Sounds good, once this week and the first week of November get over with, I will either give you a call or email to set something up....

Coolness! I'll email you with phone #'s!

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Anyone else got any tips for doing a baby rattle? What size blank, what woods, etc?

[Dick Parr]

Jeff I just made these for our twin grand daughters. Two of them are made from Oak, one is Mahogany and one is walnut. The second biggest one is finished with walnut oil but I didn't finish the other 3 yet. I will leave that for my son in-law to do after they find out if the twins are allergic to anything. If you do put a finish on them, use a type of nut oil, like walnut, peanut and so on. The first thing the littles will do is put it into their mouths.

The biggest one is 6-1/4" long x 1-3/8" in dia at the largest part (top). The smallest one is 4-1/2' x 1" at the top. I think the twins will have to grow into the big ones.

I learned that after you form your beads, and do a little hollowing under the bead, to use a #6 finish nail bent to and angle to finish cutting the ring off. I used a 1/16" parting tool to hollow under the beads to form the ring on the 2 largest rattles and spent allot of time filing and sanding the sharp transition off the inside of the rings so the babies don't cut themselves, not good. Then I bought the 1/4" captive ring tool and used it for the 2 small ones. I then learned of the #6 finish nail.

They are fun to make and even the little ones make a noise. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Enjoy.

Edit, I added a picture of the 3 before I made the walnut rattle.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Dick, thank you very much for the tips! I think that I have a little experimenting to do tonight!

[Steve Roxberg]

I believe the last issue of American Woodturner had an article on making baby rattles. They stressed that the item should not fit through a particular sized hole for safety. I believe it was around 1 3/4".

These did not have rings. Image a blank 3/4 thick about six inches long and two inches wide. You'll need two of these. In one end on each blank a router with a bit was use to scoop out a hollow. This hollow, round bottom, was filled with dried peas for noise and the two halves glued together and then turned.

Obviously the article had more details, make sense?

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Steve,

Thanks for the reply! That was just the lead I was looking for!

They have sample articles on the site and this was one of them.
http://www.woodturner.org/products/a...tle_fall04.pdf is the url for the PDF. If anyone reads this out of the archives and needs a copy of the article after it is removed, I have it on my hard drive.

Thanks again!

Jeff

[Chris Padilla]

I would think shellac to be an excellent finish...they use it in pills all the time so lil' ones chewing on it should be okay? Either that, or skip a finish alltogether?

[John Miliunas]

If you're looking for a protective finish, most *any* finish will do and it will be safe, as long as you make certain it's fully cured before deploying the rattle to the perspective recipient!

[Harry Pye]

While the captive rings are a way to display the skill of the turner and are a clever built-in rattling mechanism, if they should break, they become a choking hazard. Best to make a cavity inside the rattle and fill it with dried peas or beans.

[Dale Thompson]

Jeff,
I'm glad that Spring has at least ONE friend. That is probably more than he deserves.

If you haven't already purchased a "ring" tool - DON'T! They are essentially scraping tools and, once used, are virtually impossible to sharpen unless you have a special sharpening wheel to raise the required "burr". From then on, the word is, "burn, baby, burn!" I recently ground mine into a round nose scraper.

Trapped rings are relatively easy to turn with a 1/2" skew or even a 3/4" skew. First you have to make the bead. Allow yourself a bit of room on both sides and undercut it with the long point of the skew. Work both sides until the ring "breaks loose". It will usually jump to one side and stay out of your way until you clean up the area under the bead. If not, tape it to one side. Next, you will tape a piece of sandpaper to the cylinder under the bead. If your lathe is reversible you will want to wind the sandpaper in the direction where the tailing end faces you. Now, take your loose ring and and move it over the sandpaper until you get the round shape that you want on the bottom.

You can repeat the above process to get as many rings as you want on a given "rattle. I've made quite a few rattles over the past year. My new grandson loves them but his Australian Shepard loves the taste of Oak. Go figure. I'm just a slave to BOTH of them.

Raffan has a DVD named, "Turning Projects". On that one, he does "trapped rings" which are about 1/2" in dia. and he does it with a full sized skew chisel. I am ENRAGED by talented people!!!

Since we are not on speaking terms, please give my regards to Spring.

Dale T.