Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Mini Cars

I was looking through my cut off pile and noticed I had a lot of random species of wood about 3" wide.  I really wanted to reduce the amount of wood in this cart so these cars were a result of my off cuts.  These cars are designed to be a weekend projects and simple.  The wheels are 7/8" diameter so I cannot donate them due to a choking hazard.  The wheels come with an 1/8" hole.  I did increase the hole size to 3/16" for a stronger axle. The goal of this project was to use up scrap and to fit one car plan on an 8.5x11piece of paper.  I am not going to do a complete assembly or material list with these.  I think the design is simple enough to just go over the basics.
Sports Car
Sedan



Beetle
Mini



Bus
Fire Truck
Box Truck
Ambulance









When I do it again, I would probably not cut out the wheel wells.  I would drill them out after assembly.  It was a good project and the kids are already fighting over them.  Probably should have made 3 sets so each could have one.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Two New Tools in My Shop



I purchased a couple of new accessories for my shop.  One was a the Gripper push block.  It was probably something I should have purchased a long time ago.  It does what it says it does.  It has been great for ripping small parts, thin materials and pushing material through.  There are a lot of accessories that go with this push block.  I only purchased the 1/8" foot.  In the near future I will most likely purchase another to use for long boards and add on the gravity foot for a little more security against kick back.  This was a wise investment and well built.
I also purchased a couple of brass bushing router bits from MLCS.  These were to put a small radius on the inside edges of cut outs.  I am not disappointed in them because they work well.  They are great for inside cutouts but they are not worth the set up for straight pieces.  It is easier to do these edges by hand.  They will polish the edge where the bushing touches.  This is because the bushing is not free rotating like a normal bushing.  I cannot complain about the ease of putting a small radius on inside edges.
Not bad additions to the shop. I am currently working on a couple of new designs.  Right now I have a couple of personal projects that I need to work on so the toys are kind of slow right now.