Best way to fit a DIY cupboard door handle/coat hooks?

[kissinger]

I'm making a dinosaur themed bedroom for my dino-obsessed kid, and I want to make cupboard door handles and a back of the door coat hook made out of dinosaurs sawn in half, but I'm not sure of the best way to attach the handles.

So basically I have two flat surfaces: one wood and one sawn in half rubber dinosaur. I was thinking of polyfilling the toys (they're hollow), drilling them and fitting a double-sided screw, and then screwing that into the door? Or is there a better way?

 

[JohnD]

can you show us a pic?

do you want doorknobs, or a lever handle (operating a latch) or just a handpull?

if the toys are hollow, I think I would go for a wooden spacer to fill the gap between the door and the model shell, inside the hollow body, drilled through for the screw or spindle. then all the load will be on the spacer. something similar is sometimes done when hanging kitchen cabinets on a plasterboarded wall. Polyfilla will crumble, but you could fix the spacer into the shell with polyester or epoxy resin.

are the doors hollow or solid?

 

[kissinger]

I just need doorknobs. The doors are solid wood I think.

 

[kissinger]

As you said it would, the Polyfilla just crumbled! I will have to try something else. So with the wooden spacer, this would just be a small piece of wood secured by some kind of resin?

If I secure the wooden spacer that way, will I still need to screw through the spacer into the model shell, or will it hold without screwing into the shell also (it's quite a thin shell tbh).

 

[JohnD]

The resin is to fill the space between the end of the block, and the shell of the toy, since it is an irregular shape and you will not get a good fit. Drill through them both when set. It needs to be strong enough to resist use of the doorknob.

I'd use a 2-part resin as used with fibreglass repairs on boats and cars. It hardens by chemical action, not by drying out or exposure to light.

There might be some better idea.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Think I'd have just bought some eg https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/834...arch_query=dinosaur+knobs&ref=sr_gallery-1-13