Toddler Tools Made From Baby Foam Mat

Tools for babys and toodlers.

Today we will create some colorful tools for our little ones.

The idea arises when my son, seeing me working on projects in the workshop, tries to help me and do his bit.

The problem is that some tools are quite dangerous and not suitable for his age, 2 years old. So from this I decided to choose 3 basic tools to replicate them in a friendlier and safer way.

Plus, while he plays kid's workshop with his tools, I can work with the real ones.

(in a way they are also tools for me, since by giving them to him, he entertains himself, giving me time for technical work)

• Scissors / Cutter
• Baby Foam Mat
• Hot glue Gun / Contact Cement
• Dremel / Motortool
• Pencil
• Ruler

The initial concept is to develop some colorful and eye-catching tools for our little ones. These tools must have a design that is associated with their real shape, but at the same time is interesting for children. The main objective is that when children see us use real tools, understand their use, and try to replicate their functions in his innocent world of imagination.

At first, several materials came to mind to develop the tools, such as cardboard or plasticine, but these materials do not last long, depending on their handling time, the deterioration is faster, and since the idea is that these tools are highly durable due to who is going to be its owner, it was best to look for a material that was manageable and would not deform so quickly.

So I went over my son's crawling mat, which I had saved for some project, and guess what, it's perfect.

Let's start with the hammer, for the hammer I started gluing circular layers to obtain the specific shape of the head.

To make it more striking, I used a mixture of varied colors depending on the materials I had, but you can use the colors you want and the shape of the hammer you prefer. I decided to opt for a cartoonish style to attract my son's attention.

glue layer by layer adding contact glue on both sides of the cut out piece.

If you can, locate the center piece of the hammer head and polish it before gluing.

After gluing the pieces together, this is where we use the dremel to give the hammer head the proper shape.

This is how the front and central part should look after being polished with the dremel

Now we will put together many layers of foam until we reach the desired depth of the hammer head. I wanted to make it elongated like the ones that have their system for removing nails.

Here we can see how the head is taking shape, so when we have an approximate silhouette we will start sanding with the dremel, shaving until we reach the desired shape, but be very careful not to exceed the applied force or the revolutions of the dremel as it can If you don't get the expected results, this would result in re-gluing more layers.

If you find some unwanted lumps or bumps that you cannot remove with the dremel, it is always good to use the blade to cut a little over certain areas, always carefully, to avoid unwanted cuts on your fingers.

After having a homogeneous shape, we will cut the part that removes the nails.

For that we will use the dremel at higher revolutions, remember that the more revolutions the sandpaper will exert the more pressure.

Be very careful not to damage the figure already reached, if you need to scrape a little more remember that you can always use the cutter

When you finish the back part of the head or when you think the shape is correct, you can attach it to the front part with contact glue, or hot silicone according to your preference. If there are any imperfections, remove them with scissors.

As in the first part of the process we will proceed to create a handle with several layers of the foam mat material

From this moment on we will repeat several steps of the process, as in this case we must sand with the dremel until we reach a desired shape.

sculpt desired handle shape

We will glue the handle with the head of the hammer to finish it.

For the pliers we will create a template, which we will then reflect, to join them in the central part with a small screw, which will act as a union and movement of the two pieces.

The mechanism is a basic system of conventional pliers

Here I noticed that for a children's toy it is quite fragile so I had to add some extra layers to reinforce its structure.

so I replicated the mold to make it twice the initial thickness

To do this, add some extra pieces that will work as handles and as the clamp piece.

Here you can see the center piece, I decided to make it from one of the more rigid and thicker panels of the mat.

then mark the location guides for the pieces to add, taking into account the mobility of the pliers, and respecting its movement.

Apply the glue to the indicated areas and after it is ready, glue all the corresponding pieces.

We will cover the part of the central screw to avoid accidents, I recommend that it be a screw that does not have a sharp tip to avoid accidents with your baby's hands.

We will place a small yellow button with glue there, to hide it.

take advantage of leftover material.

If you wish, you can polish the edges of the foam with the dremel to create smooth bevels.

For the screwdriver we will use the measurements of our two finished tools to maintain a consistency of sizes, in my case I based it on the size of my son's little hands. so that the tools were neither so big nor so small when he took them to play

once again we will put together layers for the handle

In this case the screwdriver will have interchangeable heads.

We will sculpt the shape of the handle with the dremel and the help of the cutter to remove more volume faster

In the slotted head we will cut the central part so that when we join it it will give us a more chiseled finish.

In the phillips style head we will use the blade to generate the point effect, we can also use a soldering iron tip

To make the heads interchangeable, we will cut a square shape in the central part of the handle; the fourth will serve as a compartment to house the heads.

and voila we would have finished our third tool, to complete our group

It is clear that my son will enjoy them. :)

I hope you and your child have fun making them.

Thanks for watch.