Installing child cabinet locks

[nickolas80]

I'm installing cabinet locks and it seems that when im screwing in, the wood is splitting. Has anyone experienced this? Is there anyway around it?

Thanks, Nickolas

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Did you drill a pilot hole? That is the first step. If you did and the wood still splits, use a slightly larger hole. Lubricating the screw and driving it slowly sometimes helps, but it is not a substitute for the pilot hole.

[Goedjn]

Pre-drill.

[professorpaul]

As well as drilling a pilot hole, use a little dishwashing detergent (liquid) or soft soap as a lubricant. The pilot hole is critical. Sometimes, just a push awl will do the trick, but only in softer woods

-- pine. If you have worries about the depth of the pilot hole, wrap a piece of masking/painter's tape around the drill bit at the right depth, and use that as a gauge for the right depth, so you don't got through the door panel.

[BobK207]

Forget the child locks...............talk to, read to, engage them & redirect your kids

little people are amazingly smart

the best safety device for a kid is an educated brain

cheers

btw BTDT, now they're young adults

[J. Clarke]

The trouble with that is that the kid is capable of drinking the rat poison long before he is capable of understanding a dissertation on why drinking the rat poison is a Really Bad Idea.

[BobK207]

John-

You missed the operative phrase "redirect them" ......no dissertion involved, just clear concsie direction

I never had any trouble with my kids (or nieces or nephews) driking rat poison or getting into stuff they shouldn't. They learned very early (as so as they were mobile) what locations were off limits & what places were for them to play.

Parenting is a hands-on, full time time job that I was unwilling to delegate to a plastic latch.

First of all I didn't keep deadly chems in the house (kitchen sink cabinet) that stuff went in the garage and little people didn't go in the garage. Of course even no "deadly" chem can be deadly in quantity.

The perfromance of passive barriers do not compare well with active systems.

But to each his own

(well......at least until the helmet, seatbelt, anti-smoking nanny patrol breach the front door out homes)

cheers Bob

[J. Clarke]

There is something called "defense in depth".

[BobK207]

yeah, there is also something called "false sense of security"

witness the child drownigs is SoCal......too dependent on "child proof safety fences"

oops!

cheers Bob

[J. Clarke]

So how _do_ you keep other people's kids out of your pool when you are not home?

[BobK207]

I don't have a pool that's how.

Plus when I did the back yard pool area had a perimeter fence that I kept locked.

I didn't depend on a self closing gate to do the job.t

The majority of the resisdential ones I have seen are typically not working properly; and therefore not latched & doing their job. So it becomes forgotten & neglected.

How many people (other than the residents) assure the gate is latched?

Most think (or don't think) "pool gates child proof, it latches itself" and they just go thru & on their way, delegating responsibility to a passive system that is not working.

Commercial installtions are generally better but not 100%.

We have a different philosophy to problem solving, mine seems to have worked pretty good so far.

No disrepect intended, an exploration of mind set & it's origin.......are you a dem, a Brit or a Canadian by any chance?

fwiw, what is your take on red light cameras?

cheers Bob

[J. Clarke]

So should pools be banned to protect kids?

Who said anything about a self-closing gate? I presume that you believed your perimeter fence to be "child proof".

Which has what exactly to do with child-proof fences?

I'm sorry, but I don't equate "self closing" with "child proof". Child proof means that the kid can't get past it, not that it closes itself.

Or you've been lucky.

Sorry, not rising to your bait.