Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Toddlers and Towers

You know what, afer seeing your room I wouldn't be that concerned, the child is going to go after all those books,cds, dvds you have on the shelves and the doors of the tv stand. My oldest was fascinated by the glass doors we had on our unit. With the speakers at the front and near the shelving the chances are very slim anything will ever happen as he will most likely grap the nice hand holds on those shelves and pull them over long before he pushes over a speaker I can picture him wondering around and pulling himself up on the shelves and as long as the grilles are on he won't think twice about them and leave the speakers alone, it would be the shiny drivers that would instantly attract him to the speakers should the grilles ever be off. Oh ya, I would keep the top of the speakers free of all items for awhile, especially that plant, really nice for grabbing, but you already now that.

mdrew, what is missing from my calculations?

for the 'as is' calculation



At the instant before tipping all of the weight will be resisted by the side that the speaker is tipping towards, so no reaction is shown on the left feet.

summing moments about point A (clockwise +):

P*(30)-56.8*(9.5/2)=0

solve for P and you get 8.99lbs

for the 'extended base' calc I just changed the equation to
p*30-56.8*((9.5/2)+4)=0
This assumes that the base extension is some kind of a point load similar to the carpet spike.

Edit: i did just realize that I used 9.5" for the width of the m80 in my calcs, not 9.25 as shown correctly in the sketch- this would of course be a 'conservative error'.

using 9.25" p changes to 8.75 and 16.33

Ken:
I wish you had posted a photo earlier. The solution is MUCH easier to envision now......

your pivot point is moved away from the base terz. think of the extended base as outriggers. or did you compensate for that and i just missed it in your formula?

for the extended base version my pivot point was moved 4" to the right- making the moment arm for the weight of the speaker 8.625"

(9.25/2) + 4"= 8.25

I think I should have left the pivot point the same... is that what you are saying?


Anyway, looking at the photo I do not think any action is needed.

Not only are my nephews not allowed to touch the speakers, neither are my friends! I have no problem telling them, "Do NOT lean on the speaker!" Unfortunately, one of the speakers extends into the room and people like to treat it as an armrest. It makes me very nervous! Am I paranoid, or what?!

You need to take into account that the speakers are not rectangular prisms, and the tipping axis is not perpendicular to the front and rear faces. Get to it.

As for baby-proofing in general, I'd agree that the speakers should be handled after the shelves are bolted to the walls. Additionally, I'd consider a gate btw the living and dining/kitchen rooms to take care of access to drawers/cabinets, and cat facilities.

For my second son we had to put those magnetic locking devices on all the hazadous, drawers cabinets, etc. He would not leave them alone, no matter what we did or said. I wish I knew what his fascination with them was, other than he could see us going into them and he wanted to get into them too. For a full year and a half he was constantly pulling at them, then, suddenly he lost interest. My oldest son never went into them once he was told to stay out of them, 2 different kids 2 different responses.

Ooooh - Magnets! There's an idea!