Wooden Toys for Sweden

I have been working on multiple small tasks in my shop these last few days. I got all the repairs done for 10,000 Villages and will drop them off tomorrow. The job that  I enjoy most is making toys for grand children. 

  Shortly we are headed to Sweden to a while and I am taking some toys with me.  The turtle still needs some colour but the trucks are done.  I left the wooden truck wheels unfinished so thay will be less l likely to mark the floors or tables.  In the past I have painted wheels black, but the paint can come off and leave marks. 

  If you want to make toys and aren't comfortable drawing or designing your own toys the internet is filled with patterns, ideas and videos to get you started.

 When you decide to make toys you will find that the investment in tools is very small. About the only specialized tool you need is a coping saw. Everything else can be done with a few hand tools and sand paper.  

  With my table saw dead I have been exploring other ways of sawing.  I like my band saw, it is quick and for these small projects I have been squaring the ends and edges on my shooting board.  I have also been using my backsaws, I've got a pair, one cross cut , one rip, both saws work great in soft wood.  Kids toys can easily be made from pine, basswood or some other soft wood and so the energy and effort to saw, shape, plane smooth and the toys is really quite small while the rewards are huge.  

 cheers, ianw

   

When are Tools more than Just Tools?

  We returned from a very good holiday in Ponta Delgada on the Azores island of Sao Miguel yesterday and this morning I returned to my work shop.  Recently I watched a video by  April Wilkerson talking about her feelings related to moving from her current wood working shop. Aside from the pragmatic aspects of having a shop,  like saving money and the creative control available she talked about personal sanctuary, peace and joy.  

    If we pause to consider our shops and tools fully I think we all have those feelings.  Maybe not all the time, joy is not the feeling I have when struggling with an awkward glue up or when facing hours of hand sanding, but mostly my feelings are positive.

  This morning I was making a couple of little trucks for my Granddaughters in Sweden.  As I was working I realised that I enjoyed our holiday, but I love to be home.  I was aware that I was using tools that were my late father's and grandfathers.  I thought about the really good hand planes that were bought with Christmas gift money from my Mother.  I also looked around the basement at the lovely home my wife and I have made here together, all those feelings: peace, joy and sanctuary were all there.

  Wooden toy trucks is one of the many children's toys I've made over the years. 

I've actually made a few of these.
Go to a clearance store and you can buy the bins for cheap.

  My policy is that all the toys I make are simple, study and meant to be played with until they are fire wood.  And....I don't care if the toys are played to death or forgotten at the play ground, I'll make a replacement if asked.  I don't like to see toys smashed in anger but I hate to see toys  sitting on a shelf in a pristine box,'collected'.

  Today was the first day working without a table saw.  So far....so good.  I was able to break down the boards as needed with my band saw and hand saws. I used my shooting board more this morning that in the last year.  It was actually a quieter more gentle way to work.  I'm not kidding myself, this is small stuff with more sanding than sawing going on.  I'll report later in the week when I get into a heavy duty storage cabinet that I have to build for a stained glass group. (glass is really, really heavy).

  Anyway, I'm off to take care of those 3,275 that that pile up while one is away on holiday, and visit my Mom.

cheers, ianw

Why Wood is So Good !

  Occasionally I write blogs under the title Why Wood?, and this is a blog about why I think wood is so good.

   Years ago I was teaching in a small town and the town was building a new area.  The ceiling was constructed of laminated wood beams not steel.  When I asked why wood, I was told that the insurance rate was much lower for wood than steel.  Wood provides safe support of the ceiling longer in case of fire. Steel softens and looses structural integrity more quickly than wood, wood is good.

wooden beams and ceiling 

  This past week my children and grand children stayed with us and the 1 year old and 3 year old were the highlight of our days.  My three year old grand daughter sat at the table in the high chair that I am my brother sat in 50+ years ago.  The steel and arborite kitchen chairs and table from that time are long gone. (replaced with wood, don't you know) Wood lasts. 
  
   As well as a wooden high chair the little girls played with my Mother's wooden rocking chair. That rocking chair is 78 years old and have been played with by 100's of children for many, many years. 

The girls played with wood toys that I made for their oldest cousin seven years ago.  All those wooden toys have out lasted many of the plastic trucks and toys that have been played with here.  

  Another great characteristic of wood is its repair ability. After each visit there are often things that need to be repaired.  Not because wood is weak, but because it is strong enough to be worth fixing.  Plastic toys, once broken are seldom worth trying to repair. 

  Today is the clean up, and put away day.  A week of small children unpacks many toys and books and spreads chaos into all corners of our house.  Tomorrow I can get back into my shop and  continue working on Mary's sofa table. The table's components are machined, a little bit each day during breaks last week.  The next stage needs a bit of non-interrupted time for serious sanding and assembly.  

  cheers, ianw

   

pint sized truck II

   Last week I began the mini truck project, in the hope that I would have it finished while our grand children were here and so Kieran would continue to be spoiled by Opa and Oma and get yet another gift. 

  The challenge was scheduling shop time around play time and nap time and snow shovelling time. On Friday I shovelled the driveway and side walk three times and our wonderful neighbour blew the driveway once with this John Deere snow blower.  Kieran loves the Green and Yellow.

  At any rate the truck got finished this morning, 24 hours late.  The children returned home yesterday and I have spend the morning picking up toys and being amazed at how huge and empty our house has become.

    The red pick up truck is 1 1/4 inches long by 3/4 wide.  I am pretty sure that the ratios are not up to international specs, but I don't care.  This is to be a pocket truck for Kieran to carry around.  I think we would call it a good luck charm, but I don't think he would understand that idea yet.  

   Every project as things to teach, even a little project like this one.

a: it still takes time for paint to dry, the small amount doesn't effect the curing time much.

b: sharp tools and a fine toothed saws are a real must, maybe more that with large projects since a tiny flaw seems to be magnified on a tiny project.

c: get the thing mounted on a support as it is in the photo right away.  I fiddled around trying to paint it holding it in my fingers initially, a clumsy move, once I screwed the gimlet into the bottom of the truck it was 100% easier to paint.  That seems so obvious now.

d: seal the wood with sanding sealer first, then undercoat in a neutral  colour paint, sand and then start final colours.  The coverage was much easier and the colours deeper in tone.  I used spray shellac over the craft paint, it has two coats.

e: I will make the next one from maple or birch, this one is pine.  Pine is easy to work but it doesn't hold hard edges very well, and some of the detail would look better with hard edges.

f:  Don't get in a hurry, no project is improved by haste.

    A foot note, I am working on my wife's computer, thanks sweetie, mine is #%%#$* again.

    Don't forget Valentine's Day folks, we couldn't do what we do without the support of our Valentine Sweethearts.

Another Why Wood

http://www.berlin-flyer.com/

Check out this site for the Berlin Flyer, Berlin is in the United States, and wooden toys last for a very long time.

the bessey flooring kit

13 Paint brush day

   These are old,old toys from our church's toy box, I will have to make a tractor or something to tow these wagons.  

 

The other day I made some wooden bracelets, put two coats of shellac on the bowl I am repairing for 10,000 Villages and painted an assortment of children's toys that have been laying around in the shop for a while.  Also I worked on a couple of scroll saw projects and did a marbling technique on a box for a quartz counter top.  The toys were interesting, the nature of the paint we use on kid's stuff has changed over the years.  The old paint is still glossy after all these year. Now of course we use food safe water based paint,it doesn't have the high gloss that the old stuff had but it is not as toxic. A good trade I think.

    These bracelets were waxed once they were fully sanded.

     Each of those jobs involved painting or finishing in some way and all that finishing means that there are brushes to clean.  By the time I had completed the afternoon's work I had cleaned 13 small paint brushes. Some of the finishes were water based but the shellac needs to be cleaned with alcohol so that is a little more fussy.  After the brushes are cleaned with the wood alcohol they have to be washed with warm soapy water to get the alcohol out of the bristles.

one of my good words.

 In the old days I used throw away brushes, and they are still my choice for many staining jobs.  Now though I have some good brushes which with I apply shellac and acrylic craft paint that are well worth the time and effort to wash them out properly.  When the brushes are cleaned promptly and carefully, they last a long time and more than pay for themselves.  Decent brushes also make painting things like the toys easier, as I was sitting there painting I felt like on of Santa's elves. ( I would rather make toys than be a dentist)
 

Hiding out in St. George Ontario

Looks like a famous truck from a famous movie recently released.  I never would have guessed he was wood, but quality can't be hidden forever.

Two of My Favourite Things - Kieran and Woodworking Projects.

   The Marble Tree in the video is a project that I have made several times and even sold commercially.  I began by repairing a tree with broken leaves for a store and then copying the various angles to make my own to sell to the store since they could not get the toy any longer.   As I made the tree I learned to my despair  that the angles must be observed or the balls roll too fast and come off the tree instead of circling around it. 
   It is good also to be reminded that our best efforts are never more important than a familiar blanket and a good drink. 
   This should also prove beyond a doubt that this is not a slick professional presentation.  Just a guy that likes wood, making things  and talking about it.

cheers,
Footnote: the off camera arm is Oma to my Opa.