Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on designing a few different types of child-proof safety latches for different types of doors and drawers. My wife is losing the battle with the two toddlers that she babysits daily at our home, so this project was a high priority request to restore some order at home. Happy wife = Happy life!
I’m really happy with the results. This is one of my first 3D modeling and printing efforts, and I think that it has produced a couple of simple but effective designs. One of the main focuses of this design effort was to create a model that was easily printed on a 3D printer. The two designs that I’ve come up with can both be printed easily with .3mm layer height, 100% infill, and no support is required. For the top-of-door sliding latch, I just drilled a hole in a 1″ length of dowel and screwed that into the door frame. It would be easy enough to add a 3D printed version, but I’m always in favor of a simple design and I already had some dowels on hand. I actually salvaged the dowel from a foam paint brush… and yes, I’ve been called cheap plenty of times before!
I’ve posted both designs on Thingiverse. Just click on one of the images above. There are two different lengths for the inside door/drawer mounted latch to accommodate different cabinet styles. I’ve also included a 1/4″ spacer that can be used to make any minor adjustments.
Let me know if you have any other design tweaks that you’d like to see or if you have an idea for another type of child safety latch. Until next time…