How to make a milk tooth holder...

Just a quick post on how to make a little pot / holder for teeth,which may sound a little macabre,but if like us you practice the offering of baby teeth to the tooth fairy then perhaps not so much.


Here's the one I made for my daughter -

Vaguely tooth shaped.

It was really easy to make,although I did use my lathe to make the lid,but you could always hand carve the lid,or you can use a power drill to shape the piece of wood,although this may not be the safest way to do it.

The holder part is made from a small cube of pine with a hole in it for the coin and the bottom is shaped to resemble the root of a tooth.

To make it you'll need a cube of wood that measures about an inch on all sides,you'll need a forstner bit or a spade bit to make the hole for the coin,which needs to be big enough for a pound coin,inflation what can you do? when I was a kid a few coppers would have been great especially as you could still get half pence sweets back then.

Once you have your cube you need to find the centre of one of the sides,this will be where you make the hole for the coin.

Block already marked up - 

Needs a hole.

Hole drilled - 

Bit off centre,but not to worry.

Remember to make the hole deep enough to get the coin in with the lid on,around 15 to 20 mm in depth should do it.

To shape the holder I used a sanding drum to make the groove that looks a bit like the root of a tooth,and I rounded off the sides and edges on my table sander,but you can do this by hand or with a multi tool.

Ready for shaping - 

A small sanding drum is great for shaping things.

The next thing to do is make the lid,as I said I used my lathe,but you can stick a piece of wood on the end of a drill and use small files and sand paper to make a lid,or you could do it by hand,and if you're feeling really adventurous you could build your own lathe (which I've done,currently working on the mk2 mini lathe)

I have also seen small lathes that are powered by drills for about £50, Axminster make one that would be good for small turning projects,like this one (opens in new window)

Here's the finished milk tooth holder - 

Took about 20 minutes to make.

And that's all there is to it,they are simple to make,I made two from a small off cut of wood,in all they probably cost about 30p to make the both of them,you can leave them in plain wood,you could as I've done with the one for may daughter paint them in your kids favourite colour (my daughter loves pink) you can paint faces on them,really the sky is the limit,and it's much easier to find one of these under pillow than fumbling about for a tiny tooth.

Here's the two I made,which only took about 30 minutes to make both of them,I wasn't happy with the fit of the lid on the pink topped one,so I added an 'O' ring to make it a bit tighter.

Two milk tooth holders - 

A simple project,would be great for kids to try.

Thanks for reading.