Saw Dust and Splinters

The Bulldozer

2012-01-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

This is the third in the construction series. I know I just finished it and there are three more still to do and another coming out in March. This was a little bit of a challenge to make. There are a lot of small parts. Some of which I was scared to machine because they were so small. Double stick tape was my friend in this project. The bulldozer is symmetrical so there was a lot of duplicate parts. Stick them together and do two parts in one pass. The blade does lift and will scrape cheerios off the floor with out crushing them. It is also very heavy.

From this project I learned to make sure I keep the plans close. I was almost complete with it. I needed to make one more part and dry fit it all together. I could not find the plans anywhere. I ended up having to buy the plans even though I already had them. I still don't know where the original set is.

On another side. I still have one more bucket of blocks to give away. If you would like them you need to be able to pick them up. Email me, they are currently not at my residence.

I would like to also build a bed for my son. So if any one would like me to make one for them please contact me for pricing. It will be a twin with functioning drawers underneath. If you wonder how I price my projects it is simple. I double the cost of the lumber. I make one for my family and one for someone else. It is not a good business model but I am not in this to make money.

One more side note. If anyone has an oscillating drum sander they are looking to sell, I am interested. My drill press works but I am not a fan of the set up.

Going Postal

2012-01-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

My life for the past few months have not been what you would call low stress. I have a lot of people worried about me and there was a comment at work saying "remember I was nice to you when you go postal." I really do not plan on going postal and I do not think I will. I have a couple of stress relievers for me. One being a family who loves me, a wife who supports me. The second is a hobby that I enjoy that brings smiles to others. From these two bring challenges, adventures and joys that outweigh the stresses of life.
However if I was going to go postal I would have fun with it. This is my latest project. I made five and I am not allowed to keep any in the house. So I really don't know where they are going. Maybe one will end up at work just in case. In case you were wondering. They are trebuchets, or medieval catapults.

These are all made out of scrap wood. In fact, there is no two made out of the same wood. There is pine and birch in all, some have walnut, or poplar, or oak, or beech

The fun part of this challenge is making them work. I have been trying to launch caramel squares and they have been going about 4 feet. This is clearly unacceptable. So now the fun is what works and what doesn't. I have tried adding weight and removing weight. Adjusting the pin angle and removing the brad head on the pin nail. There is also changing the length of the string. I have manage to throw a Sees chocolate ball 10 feet. That is better but not yet good enough. I am running out of ammunition, candy has it downfalls, so I hope I figure out soon.
The other fun part of this project is that I do not care about finish or how they look in the end. There are pencil marks and rough edges. I do not believe they looked like works of art back in the time they were used so why should they now?
One note, Hersey kisses tend to fly backwards. I do not recommend using them.
Here are the safety rules from Wood Magazine where I got the plans (Katie stop reading here):
Where eye protection - "You'll shoot your eye out." I did while constructing them, does that count? Check out the video.
Never aim at a person or animal - Tell that to the demo video!
Do not launch metallic or sharp objects - It says nothing about Greek fire (flaming marshmallows).

As soon as I figure the optimal way to launch objects, I will be ready to lay siege.

By the way I do consider this a toy but not for the kids.

Back from the dead

2012-01-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

Update on the belt sander: It works!!! The switch was dirty and thankfully wood dust does not conduct electricity. Unfortunately I ripped it all apart to check the capacitor also. It is not as tuned as it used to be but we will get there. Just glad I do not have to replace it.

Fire Starters

2012-01-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

I tend to make a lot of sawdust when working with wood. Most of it goes in the trash. I found an article in a recent wood magazine on what to do with the saw dust. One of the ideas is to make fire starters. They suggested using muffin paper liners I had a couple of egg cartons so that is what I used. I had just done a lot of planing so I used those shavings because they were bigger and they were pine (hard wood would burn hotter and slower though). I melted a box of paraffin wax. This is done by putting it in a can and then putting the can in boiling water. Poured about 2/3 of the wax over about 8 cups of shavings and mixed. Then packed the egg cartons while the wax was still warm. Then evenly dumped the rest of the wax over the top of the packed shavings. It yielded about 2 dozen and they work fantastic for starting charcoal in a chimney. If you would like some, I need a box of paraffin wax and two egg cartons.

Year End

2012-01-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

Another year comes to a close and looking back at it all, I accomplished nothing that I set out to do this year. I was sidetracked. All very good projects. My goal was to finish the alien nativity. It is not quite complete. Last piece is minor but still I want to complete the project. I also wanted to do the entire book of Marvelous Transforming Toys. I didn't even start it except for buying a piece of wood. However this year was very good to me. I purchased some new plans and was able to complete some of them. I made a really nice heirloom doll cradle. I still have two to complete. I have a couple more construction toys to make form the construction series. I am also excited that I was able to pick up some business this past year and it is carrying on into this year. Now my only problem is that My belt sander decided to die on me today. I hope it is only a switch and can be replaced.

Alien Nativity and First Maypole

2011-12-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

As the year comes to an end I was able to finish two nativities. The first and probably the most simple of the two was the maypole. I am not quite sure what a maypole is but it came out nice. The pattern came form Meisel hardware. It was a lot of scroll saw work. My mother painted the figures. I cannot paint so it was nice of her to paint them for me. They may have looked nice unpainted but I think they would be a little hard to tell which figure was which.

This is the front and back sides. Below is the reason I fell in love with this project:

It really spins. I think I would be sick after this ride. The scroll saw work was relatively straight forward. The circles are easy to cut out if you know how to do them. Two basic ways. One is on a band saw with a fixture and a pivot point. The other, which I used, is a circle template and a router. There are off the shelf circle templates that you can buy; save your money and make one. all you need is a grooving bit, a scrap piece of wood and a bushing guide set. There are all sorts of plans on the internet to make these. It is a good jig to have in the garage.
I did modify the plan slightly. All the figures are doweled into place. Dowels are glued into the base and not glued into the figurine, This makes it so kids can play with it, switch things around or make it completely lopsided.

On to the Alien Nativity. If you look at this nativity straight on they look like aliens.

However if they are turned sideways they look fantastic.

This nativity was the reason I purchased my scroll saw. I purchased the patterns so I had to purchase the power tool. I started making this set four years ago. I completely screwed it up. My table was not square, I was pushing the material through the blade at an angle so the blade was bowing and breaking. I ended up burning the parts I had cut out. This is when I started cutting puzzles for practice. Two years ago I started this set. If I do say so myself, it is pretty good looking. It is made out of maple and walnut. There are some things that I would do better next time but I don't think there will be a next time on this project.
Interesting little tidbit. I reduced the patterns on this by 25%. The wise men were suppose to be three inches taller, they are 12 inches now. Believe it or not this is not quite done. I still have another piece to cut out.

Twirly Rolling Thingy

2011-11-24T21:42:00.001-08:00

Yes that it what it was called. It was originally designed for my wife's classroom but the district rules stated that every classroom had to have the same furniture so it was never used for what it was designed for. It was a fantastic design (yes it is one of mine). There is no unused space. Two sides will hold books, baskets, toys, or other things. The other two sides were made as a magazine holder. The entire thing is on wheels and a lazy suzan so it rolls and spins. This is the project that started me on my path of pattern making. This is about a 5 year old project but felt like sharing.

On a side note. I will not be adding beeswax to my finish. I was doing some research on the matter and a beekeeper would not suggest using beeswax for the same reason one does not give honey to an infant. It contains the same pollen and bacteria that honey has.

I have also been doing some cleaning. I found several sets of 14" ball bearing glides. I do have a use for them and would like to get rid of them. So here is what I am willing to do. I can make two 4-drawer chest of drawers like the one I did earlier this year. Cost will be $100 per cabinet. Let me give you a little comparison. Ikea has a similar unit for the same price. It is particle board with epoxy drawer glides and frame less. This will be solid wood and ply wood ball bearing glides, framed and you will not have to put it together. I will also let you decide the width of the cabinet (within reason). The height and depth are all ready determined. Sorry this is for locals or pick up only because it will not be easy to ship. Please email me if you are interested.

Finishes

2011-11-20T15:14:00.001-08:00

I try to make all my toys with a child safe finish. In other words if it goes in the mouth it is OK. Details of my finishes are on the right side of the blog. This also goes for the wood. I learned something about my finishes last week. All of my blocks I put on a coat of mineral oil. I buy it at Ikea and it is found in the kitchenware section as a wood cutting board oil. I am really close to running out so I needed to buy more. I do not live near and Ikea and I heard that I can pick mineral oil up at Walmart. So I tried and could not find it in housewares. I asked, I know a guy asking for help is unheard of. They directed me to the personal hygene section. I found it on the bottom shelf as a laxative. I was disturbed. I hope that I have not turned any one away because I coat the blocks in a natural bowel lubricating oil. This is pure mineral oil with no fragrances. If you put a fragrance or other additive it is called baby oil. It is completely harmless and it is food grade. So if you are disturbed by this, oh well.

On another note, I am going to try a new finish on the blocks if I can ever get it made. It is mineral oil with beeswax melted into it. It makes the mineral oil more of a paste which makes it a little more friendly to use with a toddler running around trying to dump, drink, squirt, or whatever toddlers to with a bottle of stuff. The problem is the beeswax, it is expensive and not easy to find. I found it at Micheal's but for $18 a pound. thank goodness for coupons.

I know it has been a while since I have given away a bucket of blocks. I have a lot. I think I am close to three buckets full of unfinished blocks. I hope to finish them before the Christmas season to give away to families that may be struggling.

Projects are coming along. I don't know if I will have any finished before the holidays.

The Latest and current project

2011-11-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

Doll cradle

This is the most current project I finished. The plan was free from Wood Magazine and I had a lot of wood that I needed to get rid of. The plan was not the easiest to follow but it was mostly template work. I ended making six of these pendulum cradles; one was a guide, three are complete, and two need to have have the bases built. I was also using several different woods. Two were mad out of counter top material. I did not know that oak butcher block material had two sides. One really good and one really bad. The counter top was 1.25" thick so I re-sawed the material in half and planed it down to the correct thickness. My band saw really was a huge help to me in this project. The back side was used as the pattern cradle. I was told not to burn it but make it into a planter. It is at may parents if any one wants to pick it up. Two are made from alder, at least that is what I think it is. It was given to me after the passing of my grandmother. It came from a front room shelving unit that my grandfather built. I made 4 sewing boxes out of it and then I had enough to make two cradles. This cradle is the one pictured. The other two are made out of birch plywood. I don't know what wood the base is going to be. This will be one toy that I will not be keeping because I have a crib that I made before I was married modeled after the one my grandfather built for my mother when she was a child.

I was able to successfully use my plug cuter to hide the screw holes. This was the new technique I learned this time around. A few things came out of this project: First, assembling parts that do not sit flush to a surface is a pain. This is the reason there are screws in this project. Second, it was nice to have a test sample to screw up on. And third, I really need an oscillating drum sander to sand these larger parts. I have the modification parts to do this on my drill press but the table is just not big enough. Fun project probably will not do it again.

Last weekend was the wood working show at the Pomona Fairplex. It has been a couple of years since my dad and I have been because it seems to keep getting smaller and the deals are not there. I went to look a band saw class. I realized that: my band saw is not set up correctly, I have the wrong blades, and it do not use the saw with its blades correctly. I will not go much further it to this. I did purchase a couple of things. I got a wider nozzle for my air brush. Hopefully I do not have to thin down my finish. I also purchased a plate glass sharpening kit. The thought process is glass is flat so lay wet/dry sand paper of varying grits to use a wet stones. I tried it out on one of my grandfathers hand plane irons. They were duller than I thought but I got one of them sharpened. Now I just have to figure out how to use a hand plane. That will be for another post. I did learn something. Wet sand paper will sick to glass with out adhesive and is much easier to peel off. If you are in the market for a sharpening stone I would recommend a 1/4" piece of tempered glass and various grits of wet/dry sand paper. I don't know if I recommend buying this system. Please note that this sand paper is meant to be wet when used. I have also heard the using a marble or granite tile also works for the flat surface.

This is the project I have been working on for the past couple of years. It is not complete yet but here is a sneak peek.

Tone Drums

2011-10-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

I have been working on the tone drums for a while. I have seen several different versions and it would be easy to make. But I wanted this pattern so I got it. This project taught me patience. The tops were supose to be 3/4" thick oak. I cut the tops out and hit them and all I heard was thud. Made the boxes. Then I clamped the tops to the boxes and hit them. All I heard was thud. The material was too thick so I planed it down to quarter inch thick and tested again and had the same result. So I glued everything up and then I could hear the tones. However I will not know if the thicker wood would sound better and on some of the drums I have some that had a twang to them I don't know why.
A lesson learned about super balls. They don't drill well and if drilling in the parting line they split. Here is a link to a project that would take a lot more time and patience then I will ever have Music in the forest.

Two more months have gone by

2011-10-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted so here is an update.

In September we took a trip to Oak Glen. We were joined by my parents who have not been a in while. We started at Riley's Farm and pressed cider. My mother took the pictures and put it in a little scrap book page. I don't know if you could tell, but Kyle's favorite part was the washing the apples. We made two gallons and it was good.

We then headed over to Los Rios to pick up our apple pie. Best crumb top apple pie ever. We stopped at the petting zoo and let Kyle run a muck. He chased the animals and tried to ride a sheep. Best part was the wash basin after leaving the petting zoo.

Kyle climbing up the bales of hay

We then picked rasberries across the street. It was probably the best year that we have seen for berries. People actually pick one gallon containers. Kyle did a really good job of picking and not crushing the berries.

In the middle of October we went back to mine and Katie's Alma Mater for the annual punkin festival. Each year we forget that stollers are not the way to transport kids, a wagon is. We did remember however to get there early so we had a decent parking place.

He was not the most thrilled but was a good a sport

Now we come to Halloween. Kyle has been fascinated with spiders so he was the "Itsy Bisty Spider" and Joshua was the sun. These were taken at the ward Halloween party. There was a chilli cook off. We placed second and last. We did the traditional white chill. If you have not had it you are missing out. There was a concern that we would not have enough chilli because we ran out last year. So I bought abunch of inexpensive canned chilli as a back up. It smelled bad and tasted even worse. To top it of no one ate it. After dumping it down the garbage disposal I realized I had burned the bottom 1/2" of the chilli. I found out the baking soda is a good cleaning agent. I used half a box after chiseling the majority of the charcoal out of the bottom

Here are some random pictures:

He is growing up

Kyle like to check himself out in the mirror. He might be a little vain but it is funny

Katie and our pint of straw berries

Some one didn't take a nap

Our happy baby

And he is starting to crawl

Drinking water like a dog. He has now moved on to using a spoon

Like the goose egg over his eye? Boys will be boys

It has been a little while

2011-08-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a little while since I have posted either about my wood working or my family. So here is a big update post. At the end of June the family took a trip down to San Diego. While I was working in Mexico, Katie and the family toured downtown San Diego. They went to the zoo and the Mormon Battalion visitor center. Here are the pictures. I can't narrate because I was not there.

Kyle doing what he does best: Getting into everything.

Here are pictures at the Mormon Battalion

Kyle has had practice


Kyle panning for gold. He was so good he didn't need the pan.

I have been working out in the garage and Kyle has been helping. We seem to have received an abundance of wood from a few different sources. I have been working to use some of it up so that my sister can have her spot in the garage back. I failed in that regard but I do have some fun projects that I will be showing off in the near future. I have been working on three projects. I realized I have run out of tugboats so I have been working on increasing my supply for baby showers. Kyle has helped:

He sanded

and sanded some more

and glued

The next project is a slit drum also known as a tone drum. Kyle and his friend tested a couple of them for me. He also managed to put a puzzle piece in one that I will never be able to get out.

The last project is a doll bassinet. Fun project. I don't have any pictures of them yet. Kyle did pound in the screw plugs and knew what tools I needed when I asked for them. He did not like the drill press.

Joshua is doing fine. He is eating, sleeping, and making lots of cute faces. He likes to only sleep when he is being held, but always has a smile on his face.

Other random things from the Anderson's
Kyle has graduated to a toddler bed. Sometimes it is a good thing and other times not so much. Joshua has rolled over from front to back twice and will not do it again. He is also balding slightly. Hopefully I will soon post more.

Kyle needed a spa or a boat or the pool was just to big for him

Yes this is a problem

A tree fell in to our neighbor's balcony

What happens when you slam your finger in the drawer? You don't play with the drawers anymore

Joshua is a second child can you tell?

Update on Kyle and Joshua

2011-06-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

What happens when you mix pudding, Kyle and bath time?

Chocolate water!!! (and a huge mess to clean up)

In the attempts to get the Kyle and Joshua to cooperate to get a picture together with them we got these:

Pattie cake together

Lets see if they will sit together

I fear that Joshua will have the non smile for the camera that Kyle has.

On to other things. We took Kyle to the splash pad in the area. It took him a little while to warm up but after he did he froze. The water was a little cold.

We also took a trip to the beach. He ran down to the water and the first wave hit his feet. He want nothing more to do with the beach. It was a little cold. He clung to me as I waded out calf deep. I then showed him the showers and he had a blast.

Here is Kyle's swimming pool. Yes he has become stuck and no he has never tipped it over.

Kyle recently celebrated his second birthday. We went to Chucky Cheese. He was very not impressed. We thought there would be more climbing things and he was not tall enough to go on the one they had. So we had pizza and played some games. He does not cheat well at Skeet ball either. We recently tried to make his crib a toddler bed. He did not adapt well. Once he figured out he could escape (ten seconds) he would not stay in bed.

Joshua is doing fine. Not much to report on there. He is gaining weight and happy when not hungry. Sorry for the lack of photos but he is a second child.

From a Guys Perspective

2011-05-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

Joshua Raymond Anderson was born today at 2:55 am, Our kids really need to have better timing. He weighed in at 6 lb 12oz and 19 inches long. Kyle was 7 lb and 19 inches long. The two labors were completely different. This one was a little easier in me, my wife might disagree. Katie was able to do about half the labor at home and was not induced. What a difference that made. We were only in the hospital about five hours before we saw Joshua.
When it came time for delivery the doctor did not put the sheet over the legs like last time. I don't deal with blood real well so I examined the pink back wall. When Joshua showed his face they cleared him, guided my hand to the umbilical cord to cut it and then tossed this purple slimy child on my wife. I did not remember this event from the previous birth. Then then cleaned him up and took measurements.then gave him to me to hold. Yep, that is the best part.
Now just under one day I have had some awakening moments. I missed taking care of Kyle the first 5 days of his existence on earth. The first soiled diapers are foul, disgusting, revolting and several other words. We had four and five wipers with Kyle but Joshua's first was a 10 wiper! I almost emptied the wipes provided by the hospital. He has had two more. It isn't like a lot but like a Vaseline tar substance that smears and coats. The nurse was holding him when he went of and I said "Not it!" and she laughed and handed him over.
Next thing I noticed is that new babies are wrinkly. Kyle gained 12 oz due to saline after birth. Joshua is a prune (however not purple any more).
He has great eyes. Kyles were brown from birth. Joshua's are a blue-gray-green. I may have gotten lucky and now have a green eyed kid (chances are 3/100).

Joshua

Kyle

Everyone is doing fine. Thanks for all the support. To answer every one's question: Kyle has no interest in his brother.

The Chest of Drawers

2011-05-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

I just finished the baby furniture to complete the kits room last weekend. I have all ready talked about the bookshelves so I will not bore you with the details of the project. The chest of drawers was a fun simple project. I cannot say I am pleased with the finish because I rushed through it but the joinery is fantastic. I modeled the frame and carcass attachment after what we are moving towards at work. I used a ½” deep groove to locate the side panels. I am amazed how much stronger the face frame joint is. I didn’t even use mechanical fasteners to attach the sides. In fact the only mechanical fasteners used on this project were:

· Pocket screws to attach the rails of the face frame to the stiles.

· Screws for drawer front to drawer box attachment

· Top to carcass

· I had no choice to use screws to attach the glides

The carcass I used a stringer method. It basically is connecting the side panels by running strips of wood between them. Let’s face it, there is no need for a bottom panel in a chest of drawers. By itself it is not very strong but when the face frame is added everything squared up nicely. I had more problems with keeping the drawer boxes square then the carcass.

Drawer boxes are out of cabinet grade birch plywood. Everything else is out of solid pine. I attempted to make all the drawer boxes universal and I was good until I put the drawer fronts on. I was less than a 1/16” off in my spacing so the top drawer does not interchange with the bottom. So close but I was with in my tolerance.

My wife and I determined we would not add hardware to open the drawers easier. We all ready have one climber and we don’t need another climbing wall. We can open the drawers just fine without hardware. A lot of it is due to the full extension ball bearing glides. As I was moving it into his room Kyle had fun climbing on the face frame and sitting in the carcass. It made it very hard to make sure it fit in the closet. Katie had a few good laughs at the process.

The edit feature in blogger distorted the picture but this is the unit.

No bottom panel but the face frame is deep encapsulated. Love this design feature


Full extension ball bearing glides. Drawers come out a full 14" with a 100 pound load rating. We did put Kyle in a drawer.

When I was finishing it a neighbor came over and asked if I made it. I told her I did and discussed a little about woodworking. She asked if I would sell it and for how much. I said I couldn't because this one is for a babies room. I told her if I would sell it for $150. That was actually a really good deal considering how much the drawer glides cost (I got a good deal on them). We now have a six drawer plastic unit. does any one want it? Please pick it up.

Tales of family and pay back

2011-04-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here are the stories as they were recieved:
Laurel Price:

Well I think that the blocks deserve to stay in the Price Family. After all Katie was a Price. She has several Price siblings and cousins. One of which is her cousin Sam in South Carolina. Sam and his beautiful wife Cheryl are expecting their very first baby. The due date is very close to their 6^th anniversary in August. All Price kids love to play with blocks. Just think of the stories and construction projects they can make up with blocks from their Cousins Brad and Katie. Their little one can exchange videos and pictures with their second cousins thus keeping the family connection strong.

That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Jacqueline Pineda

Why I deserve these blocks:

I love wood.
My kids love wood.
My kids love building things.
My kids don't throw toys, so my house is safe with blocks.
We don't have blocks.
All the kids that come over to play would enjoy them.
I haven't seen Brad in forever and lets face it- this would be a great excuse to see him again.
Cause I'm awesome.

and lastly, ( here is my great story) these blocks would be a great payback. This is a true story.

Once upon a time, there were a group of awesome college girls that loved hanging out. It was getting close to Valentine's Day and they wanted to do something special for the guys in their group. So on the eve of Valentine's Day they gathered at ( we'll call them Kim and Michelle) one of their homes. They spent hours cutting out hearts of many sizes, creating poems for each guy, and baking and decorating cupcakes. By the end of the night, they had cut 3600 hearts for nine guys.

After getting everything into a van, the girls spent the night driving from house to house, quietly sneaking around the front lawn and cars, giving each guy a "heart attack". Many of the hearts were on sticks and they planted them in the lawn. Others they taped to the car and house windows. It was hard not to giggle and get caught. They left the cupcakes ( wrapped up so bugs wouldn't get them) on the car and hung up their poems by the door. Once, a late night walker stopped and asked them what they were doing, wondering if he needed to call the police. Some of the girls freaked out a little, but they were able to pull it off without incident. It was a great night.

The next morning while at the institute, they had many inquiries as to what they were doing the night before, but they never confessed. They only admitted to having a study group the night before. One of the guys had even woken up late for school and had driven to school with the hearts still on his car! It was a fun night for the girls, and even greater that the guys never really knew the whole truth as to who was involved.

Mark Yote

I have learned that it is a lot more rewarding to see a smile on a child's face than it is to be paid for a talent one possesses. If these blocks are awarded to me they will be donated to a local charity

Please only vote once. You are on the honor system.

Reminiscing

2011-04-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

This past block give away put me in contact with old friends from my junior college days. It was fun how we all met and kept college tolerable especially since we all lived at home. As I have looked back I realized that I was really lucky to have had the friends I had in college. Sadly to say that as we moved on, some to to attain a four year degree, others to marry and start a family and others to move away to start a life on their own, I have lost contact with a lot of them. There are those few that I have connected with via face book or other social media groups. I believe I have turned out all right because of my friends.

Here is a Kyle update
Kyle VS. The pudding

Who taught him this?!

He has now realized that he can climb into the bassinet for the new one arriving in the near future. Is this a problem?

On the wood working note. I attended for the first time the Orange County Woodworkers Association. I thought it would be interesting. Their meetings are close to work. It was actually really informative and learned a few things from the presenter. The part that drew me to this club was the toy building group. They build about 5000 toys a year and give them to children in need. The group gets together about once a month to make toys. I was kind of scared when I first walked in. I think I was the youngest person there by about 20 years. They turned out to be an interesting group of people. I was surprised how big of a group it was. There was over 60 people and I guess there are even more attend the wood turners meeting in the middle of the month.
Part of my job is to evaluate the competitive units and glean from what they are doing well. I like to test out some of the methods seen on other units and what our company is transitioning to on my projects. I am currently working on a chest of drawers for the kids. The original plastic one just isn't big enough any more. I used a stringer system and deep encapsulation on this dresser and wow it is fantastic. The carcass of the dresser squared up and assembled nicely. The even better part is the carcass is solid without a back panel. I am excited how this is turning out.

Tomorrow is the cut off for the block stories.

Just an update

2011-04-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

A few things have happened in the past week that maybe people would like to hear about and others may not. First we bought a new couch. Our old couch was good but a little deep and wide for our small place. So we decided to purchase a new one. The sales lady asked if we wanted the scotch guard protection. We looked at Kyle and said yes. After bringing the couch home and screwing on the feet my wife imposed all these new rules. Such as, no eating on it and no gas expulsion. She has also said no throwing the cushions and climbing on it.

Next major thing: Kyle is still getting into everything. He is doing much better and having fun. He used my drill case and drawing tablet as a slide. Sorry no pictures he was too quick. He knows the things that he should be doing and tries to get away with everything. I ask him to go get his shoes and he goes all over the house looking for his shoes at his eye level. He even trips over his shoes and gets up and looks for them at eye level. Once they are pointed out he know what to do with them. He knows that he is suppose to be taking a nap. He will go to bed and lay down. Once the door is closed he gets up and plays in the crib. He is not the quiet player. When we go back in to put him down again, he looks at us, grabs his stuffed animals, smiles and lays down. Once the door is shut he is bouncing in the crib again.

After Kyle was taken off high flow oxygen they gave him longer tube to move around. But he never used it so we tucked it in his diaper.

Lastly I have another bucket of blocks to give out. Rather than do a guessing game, this time the people who want them will have to earn them. Please e-mail me why you deserve this bucket of blocks. My wife and I will choose the best three or four stories and put them up for a vote next week. Remember others will be voting on your stories and I like funny ones. The person who receives the most votes will get the blocks. Just for informative purposes, these blocks are from scrap wood and have only been belt sanded smooth. They are finished in mineral oil only. There are some blocks that are made out of hard wood. If these blocks are thrown and make contact, damage and injuries may occur. This bucket as a lot of weird shapes, I am not sure of all that I was working on that resulted from these scraps.

My e-mail address is bqanderson@gmail.com. All stories must be submitted by Saturday, April 9th.

The book shelf

2011-03-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

We realized that the dry sink was not going to work to hold the kids books anymore. It was overflowing and Kyle used it to climb on. Katie found a stack able bear bookshelf in a Meizel Hardware catalog. She fell in love with it. On the same page was a similar coat rack with three different animal heads on it. The coat rack had all the components needed for the shelves accept for the shelves. So we ordered the coat rack and converted it and it was not all that hard. For all the math teachers out there I had to use construction geometry to find a couple of arc centers.
Patterns from Meizel Hardware come in 30 x 36 inch sheets so when I get these patterns the first thing I do is copy them so I have a copy to destroy. So I took it down to staples to get one blue print copy and two 11 x 17 copies of the bodies. The 11 x 17 copies were $0.20 the blue print copy was $5! Next time I will copy the sheet on 11 x 17's and tape them together. It would have been a lot cheaper. For this reason I destroy the copy and put the cut out patterns on smaller sheets so that I can copy them later for less.
The first task was to make a template of the bodies so they are all the same. The template worked really well. I was able to make six pieces the exact same and I can make more. It was also nice to be able to rough cut the blanks out to reduce the work and force exerted on the router when cutting the bodies to size.
The next part was assembly. I thought this would be a lot easier then it was. I didn't realize there were not very many flat edges that I could measure off of to make the rails level and square. The entire bookshelf is biscuit jointed together. With some help from my father we figured out how to put the back rail on.
I learned children's books are narrower than I thought so some of the book have to go in a plastic bucket on a shelf.

Just for your viewing pleasure:

He likes his spaghetti-o's

My Son's Adventure

2011-03-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

For those that didn’t realize, Kyle was in the PICU at Loma Linda Children’s hospital in the beginning of March. I am not going to go in to the medical details because they are not appropriate to post nor am I going to share that sensitive information online. For your enjoyment here are ten reasons not to go to the PICU:

10. They never get the food order right (but it is free with insurance)
9. Alarms go off if you stop breathing and alarms go off if you breathe
8. The most sensitive monitoring equipment is temperature, pressure, motion, and light sensitive. It is hooked up to your toe! (It is fun to set them off and see how fast people run in, not so much fun when it is real)
7. The mattresses are plastic covered (But the beds are adjustable)
6. Hourly checkup's include probing, pinching and cold instruments
5. Enough wires and tubes to get tangle and strangled with. (but it is always fun to see how long it takes the nurses to untangle them)
4. All beds are on wheels (sometimes they are not locked)
3. No privacy - all rooms have large glass doors with sheets to divide the rooms
2. You leave with more tape residue then skin (But it is nice to get to have a bath again)
1. You live in a cage.

Kyle is doing much better. It took a week to get him home. I think by the time he was his normal self the hospital was ready to get rid of him. Let’s face it; he was running laps around the nurses’ satiation, looking in/climbing on drawers, and going in rooms. They even gave him a ankle band saying he was a “fall risk”. When he came home he checked to make sure all his toys were in his room and realized, since he was gone, there was a lot more stuff in his reach. His parents were too tired to care at that point.

Through this experience we learned some important things about Kyle:

1. He is very much right handed.

2. He has a limit to what he will tolerate; Don’t pass that limit.

3. He is an Anderson in that he likes food.

4. He is very smart.

5. He is very strong.

6.. He does not like respiratory therapists.

Yep, climbing and knocking things over: Kyle is back

I want it but my wife does not

2011-03-15T04:58:00.000-07:00

In a recent publication of Meisel Hardware I found this:

The link is found here. I would love to make it, but my wife says no (Room and she thinks it a waste of money). It is only 4 feet tall and 4.5 feet long and the cost of the plan and hardware are in the link. If any one would like to pay to make it I will be happy to do so. Do I have any sponsors for this project?

The Workman Train

2011-02-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

Finished another train. This one was also featured in the Sacramento train museum. Sorry the picture is so bad. If you want to see the picture better copy and paste it into MS Word and play with the bright and contrast buttons.

Here is the complete train it was fun and a challenge to build. It was worked on along with the train in the previous post.

There are a five cars to the train and some are suppose to have moving parts.

The locomotive and tinder are made out of pine. The boiler is actually made out of cypress. I was given a turning blank from a co-worker and this seemed to be the project to use it on. Just a note, I did an initial turning to cut it down to size and get to rough dimensions. I missed a week of class and in two weeks the wood had warped where I did the plunge cuts. Lots of sanding on the lathe and the parts remained a little over sized. It still turned out though.

This is the crane and taker. The tanker was pretty easy the crane however was the last car finished. the crane does move but not very well. I don't know if I could design it better or I just like that it sort of works.

This is the side dump car and the hopper. The side dump car really works. The hopper was made on the band saw.
There are a couple of cool features with these trains. The General, Diesel, and this train are all interchangeable cars. This means that one of those long trains that blocks traffic for a while can be made out all three of these trains.
On a side note. if any of the people that I have given blocks to have a block that has this profile to it:

Can I please get it back. I miss counted how many wheel covers I needed and I am about 16 short. I may have used the block all up so I don't know if it made it to the scrap block give away.

The General Train

2011-02-13T15:39:00.000-08:00

Well I completed another train. I thought I was done with trains and this was in the Great Book of Wooden Toys. I had to use a lathe so I completed the engine in the class I took a while ago. The cool thing is that I was able to see this train in the Sacramento Train museum last year while I was making it.

This is the complete train. It only has four cars and not that hard to make except the engine. The hardest part was the engine. The engine looks like a deadly weapon with the cow catcher on it.

All the round parts for the engine was made out of a single turning. Fun to do but it was a trouble to make sure the smoke stack, sand pipe, light and bell all in the same line. The cow catcher was one of the last parts I made because I needed a bandsaw. I really enjoy using the bandsaw and it makes the smaller cuts a lot easier.

There are three passenger cars to this train. These are the baggage and passenger car.

The final car is the observation deck. It was a lot of small parts and drilling.

The train is made out of pine and walnut. There is some birch, maple and beech because they were conveniently the correct size scrap.

Christmas Letter - Late

2011-02-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays,
It is that time of year were I get to brag about all the things that the Anderson’s have done this
year. This is a very good year for you because you get to hear more about our son than about the boring
adults. In a nutshell here is the life of the parents.
Katie has retired from the public education system and is now a full time mom. She would have
it no other way. She still plays the piano for the primary at church and occasionally the organ. She is
having fun taking Kyle to various tot programs put on by the city. Oh, I almost forgot, she is expecting
our second child in the beginning of May. It is a boy.
I am still at RSI Home Products designing and building cabinets. If that is not enough wood
working for me I build wooden toys in my spare time. I took on a couple of paying projects to help pay
for my band saw. I can honestly say that I like giving away toys more but it is not very economical. You
can see my projects on my blog sawdustsplinters.blogspot.com.
This year Kyle became quite the little camper. In May he took his first camp out and did very
well. He even was able to pet a snake. So in July we took a trip up to Sequoia Nation Park and spent a
week in a tent. We went with Katie’s brother’s family and her parents also came down to visit while we
were there. We had good food and were amazed how beautiful the forest was. It would have been nice
to have Kyle walking at the time but we let him crawl at every visitor center we stepped in. By the end
of the week he was happy to be home and needed a good bath. We learned that Kyle has a fascination
with streams and waterfalls. He would get so excited when he would hear running water and start
laughing. This also explains why he comes running whenever he hears the bath water even if it is not
his.
Kyle has also become quite the little climber. We are afraid that some day we are going to
find him on top of the refrigerator. We cannot keep him from climbing. A lot of times he climbs on
something to just prove a point, once he has reached his destination he starts laughing and wants to get
down to do it again. We have also learned that he prefers the simple things. We can give him all the
toys in the world and he will play with a box for hours.
Although he was born with TEF, he has not had very many complications with it. When he
turned one we took him to have an esophagram done and they found very little structuring where the
surgery was. Yes he still sounds like a seal sometimes and gets food caught in his throat but he has had
no major problems.
I have to say Kyle is the cutest kid ever. The funny thing is that he is only 18 months and
completely independent. He does not need our help at all he doesn’t want to hold hands but gives the
best hugs ever. He takes after his mother, he likes to be bundled up and warm. He takes after his father
and will not perform on demand and will not smile for the camera. It is fun to see his mind work. He
will sit for a while trying to figure how a toy works and he is so proud when he does. Come and watch
Kyle grow (and the new addition in May) at pigsflyhere.blogspot.com.
Hope this past year has been good to you and the ones you love. We are especially grateful for
this season and the message it brings of peace through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love,

The Andersons

This was suppose to go out before Christmas but we are a little late.

On a side note I have a safari puzzle that I would like to give away. All you will get is a Ziploc bag of pieces so you might want to print off the picture as reference. All I ask is that you pay for shipping. It will be for the first person who asks.

The Barn

2011-01-23T21:17:00.000-08:00

Here was last scroll saw project for last year. I finally finished it. It is barn with a few animals.

Cow, pig and goat

Horse and sheep

Tractor and cart

I thought I was done with these and Wood Magazine had a dinosaur puzzle in their latest issue. My discovery on this one was that sanding off the paper pattern will gum up the sand paper. The patterns are adhered to the wood with spray adhesive. The spray adhesive attaches to the sand paper and ruins it.

One scroll saw project

2011-01-16T18:48:00.000-08:00

I had two major scroll saw projects I wanted to do last year . Both of them are puzzles because I thought this was the best way to learn how to use a scroll saw. One is finally complete, minus the base. This one is the safari. The pattern came out of the Wood Magazine. A while back I purchased some board feet of exotic wood. It was for these two scroll saw projects. Here are the pictures.

Zebra and giraffe

Tree and rhino

Lion and elephant

There were some things I learned from this experience. All I could do is learn because I am new with this tool. There are several different saw blades for the scroll saw and I used what was the standard blade #5. after cutting most of the parts out I finally read the instructions and it said to use a #2 blade which is much thinner. I broke several of these blades and went back to a #5.
Making the two different woods fit together (the trees and mountains), they are first double sided taped together and cut out together. Two things can happen with this method: First the tape does not hold and parts shift during cutting. The second is that the wood can be forced so hard into the blade that bends inside the wood and the parts do fit together. I had both happen.
The nice thing about a puzzle is that it was had to screw up but I managed to do this several times.
They came together well, just took longer than I expected. I think I could complete one in a day but it does take a lot of focus. The scroll saw was also time filler projects. I would work on them an hour here and there to work on these projects.

On a side note, I mentioned I would like to share the wooden toy I have made with out giving them away. My wife and I have talked about opening our house up every fifth Saturday for kids to come and play with the toys at our house. We are going to try for January 29th from 11:00-1:00. We have a 6 kid limit and we will provide lunch - pizza. We will not provide transportation. Please e-mail me your child's name and they will be put in a hat for a drawing. Drawing will be held on Saturday January 22. Think of it as free baby sitting.

Beads

2011-01-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted this on the my blog even though they have been done more than a year. This was part of the Christmas presents for the nieces and nephews last year. I was not happy how the paint on the white and yellow beads kept cracking. It still does and I am saying "oh well." I made five sets and I have two extra.
They were interesting to make. They are are all out of 8/4 lumber (planed down to 1 1/2") All the parts were made on the table saw except the cylinders, they are cut dowel. They were simple to make not so easy to paint. Maybe I will try Rit fabric dye if I make these again.

Year End

2010-12-31T23:24:00.000-08:00

It has been a good year and I have learned a lot. There were several projects that I completed and others that I am still working on. Some things that I have learned:

Make sure you read the directions. I am very much a novice at this and cannot assume that I know the best way to do it.
There are several ways to do the same thing in wood working. Do not limit one self to just one way.
I could make money doing this but not enough to support a family. My family is more important than my hobby. On the other side I can fund my hobby. I did earn enough to buy my band saw.
I don't make a very good business owner. I tend to give away more than I charge.
Fixtures make a task much easier and there are several fixtures that I should make. Now where to store the fixtures.

Here were some of my favorite projects:

The desk. Even though it was green and I did not like the way the finish turned out, it is still one of my favorites. It is these projects that keep my mind sharp and thinking. This is a project that I designed and had to work though design problems. If you want me to make something, I love a challenge, but I don't buy the wood.
The dominoes were my favorite toy this year. Fun to build and paint and finish. Maybe some day I will make the box that goes with them
The model T series was also fun. It was this project that convinced me I needed a band saw. I am just pleased how they turned out.

Tools aquired this year was just a band saw. I think I am done for a little while (don't tell my wife). I will still need odds and ends and bits but as for major tools, I think I am good. The last thing that I think I would use is a lathe. If any of you have any suggestions let me know. I always like adding to my wish list.

Goals for next year:

I was given a book called Marvelous Transforming Toys. I want to make everything in this book this year. I think my skills and accuracy will improve with these projects. It is going to take a lot of time and some money. I am open to monetary donations to fund my wood working addiction.
There are three other toys that I would also like to make this year. Those will be shown when they are finished.
Over the past year I have learned that kids really like to play with the toys I make. I am humbled by this and also feel sad. I would like more kids to be able to enjoy these unique toys. I hope to be able to open my house to let more kids play with these toys. I don't plan on giving them away, I all ready do a lot of that.
I would like to do another major scroll saw project even though I am not finished with this years. I am still learning and have become more proficient. I can almost stay on the pattern line some of the time.
There should be at least one design project again this year. I do not know what it is, but it is something I enjoy doing. Any suggestions?
I plan on spending more time with my family. There are several things that I can do at my house and don't need to go to may parents garage every weekend. I might even take a few more tools home with me.

This year was fun and I hope that next year will be better. I hope that all who read this blog has a happy and prosperous year.

By the way,should I keep the scrap block give away? Sometimes I think it is the only way to get people to read this blog.

Desk Gone Green

2010-12-18T06:50:00.000-08:00

It is done. I have completed the two projects I needed to get done before the end of the year. This last project was a desk for a friend. She wanted a big flat area with some storage that she could sew and do craft projects on. With her assistance we came up with this design. The internal pull out shelves were added later after I realized, and it was pointed out, that the pillars were very deep. The desk measures 50” wide 30” deep and 33” tall. The wood is birch construction with maple facing. The desk is finished with shellac and the green accent is Rit® fabric dye. Some of the key features are:

• Storage for large sheets under the table top

• Adjustable pull out shelves

• Completely modular (top detaches from the sides easily and assembles easily)

I already told my friend that I was going to do this problem/wish I did better section and she understands what I am going to talk about. I have to admit that this is her desk and this is what she wanted. Here are some of the things that I wish would have been better. First is the green. I was not a fan of it from the beginning because it is not me however it is her. I used Rit® fabric dye and will probably never use it again to dye wood. It probably would work well on soft woods but there was no saturation in the hard wood and I sanded some of the dye right off. I used shellac to finish which is oil based to seal in the water based die. I picked up eco-friendly paint thinner to clean my brushes. It said it works just as well as normal paint thinner but with less fumes. I was all for that. It didn’t work, gummed up the brush and I had to immediately get baby alcohol to clean the brush which did a fantastic job. I also tried some of the new finishing techniques I have learned. With toys I just wanted a smooth coat to protect the wood but on this desk I wanted to get a mirror finish on the top. Well, I need more practice.

I may have had problems with this desk but I am really pleased how it turned out. There are two adjustable pullout shelves! All the pull out shelves are on full extension ball bearing glides (two different sizes due to availability). It was one of those ideas that just click and made sense. I think I am going to keep the adjustible shelf design to myself though. Even though I did not like the green the finish came out really good. It is smooth and even. I was worried because I was using shellac. The reason I used oil based was because I used a water based dye. I was told that the water based top coat could mix with the dye and not completely seal the dye. I used a 3 pound cut of shellac and it worked fine. I just had to be careful to make sure I had plenty on my brush because it dries in an hour (15 minutes dry to the touch). It made finishing really quick. I am also proud that this is completely modular. I can make furniture tanks and super sturdy so they don’t fit into a door. The challenge becomes making a piece that can be moved easily and is still sturdy. It is a fun design challenge and it is this that makes a project fun.

To finish I put child latches on the doors. Kyle was so confused when he could not open them anymore.

Another Train

2010-12-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

It has been a little while since I have posted a completed project. I have been busy doing a lot of things, however I have been asked to build a couple of trains for Christmas. I just completed them after 4 months. I can't say they were all that easy even though the design was fairly straight forward. In all there are seven cars and and and engine. Three of the cars are "learning cars", pictured below. There is one train in walnut (shown) and the second is in oak. I was hoping there was a little more contrast between the oak and the maple but it still came out nice. The plans came from Making Toys that Teach. I have done a couple of projects from the book (my favorite the dominoes).

The first car is a fraction car. This consists of four dowels: one full length, one cut in half, another cut in thirds and the last cut into fourths. The shape care has three shapes that fit into cut-outs. The last car is the color car. This car consists of ten slabs of five different types of wood. Each wood is a distinct color. I am proud that I could do this without any stains or dies. The woods in order are: Purple Heart (Purple), Walnut (brown), Poplar (green), Oak (light brown), Maple (white).

I learned a few things on this train that I would not have expected. First, I love my airbrush I bought a couple of years ago. It made finishing these trains less time consuming and easier. In the past I uses a 1/2" paint brush and finish toys because of all the small parts and crevasses. Very tedious and a pain in the neck. Second, wood swells in humidity. I knew this, however while making these trains I drilled axle whole 1/32" larger than the dowel. I was assembling them this past weekend when it was rainy. To my horror the axles had expanded so the wheels would not spin. Cars are no fun if the wheels do not turn. Since I only had one set of wheels on, it was easy to re-drill all holes.

My son also helped my assemble the trains.

There is a better video but apparently it does not want to load.

He also had fun carrying around the hammer and eat glue. He is also apparently vary afraid of my cordless drill.

And as always, leave it up to the 18 month old to find the flaw in the design. Who even said a round peg doesn't fit in the square hole. After that discovery, the square peg didn't have a home and the round peg took up residence in the square hole. It even looks like he is saying, "Dad, this is not suppose to work!" Got to love kids.

And the answer is...

2010-11-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

Where is this molding from, answered.

2010-11-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

In order to narrow down the countless places you would find molding you had to know one of two things.
1. I am currently employed at RSI
2. RSI sells a lot of things to Home Depot and Lowe's
That would have narrowed down the search to on of three web sites. One molding is found at Lowe's and the other is at Home Depot. Here are the links to the products
Lowes
Home Depot

Now, Because no one got the win it now question here is the other question:
How many CIRCULAR blocks are in this bucket of blocks?
Hints: There is less than 100 and there are at least two.

These are two circular blocks even though there are three circles in the picture

This is a block with a hole in it. does not count

This is a block with a circle cut into it. Does not count

Happy guessing. The rules still remain the same. The contest goes for two weeks. Every one gets two guesses. Don't use them both at the same time. This is open to all even if you all ready have a set of blocks. All I ask if you do have a set of blocks from me and win this set please give this set away to some one else.

Random thoughts

2010-11-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

It has been an interesting week. I am in the middle of projects and so don't have a much to show. There has been a couple things happen this week that made me think.
I walked into a public restroom and the entire stall was tagged including the toilet seat. I am no a tagger but I believe the purpose is to declare to every one their territory/property. How low do you have to be to mark the place that people sit on to relieve themselves? What it is saying when I am using the bathroom that some one has tagged?
I was at a home improvement store today buying some lumber. I also picked up some ruled squares. I did not realize it had a security device on it. This is not the my thought though. As I was going to check out I noticed that there was only self check out registers open. Shelf check out is very interesting business practice. In short it took four cashiers and reduced them to one. I understand the reasoning and cost saving that happens with self check out. However I was purchasing two 1X12X8 boards and there was no lumber cart in the store. Here I am in the self check out with these boards and my two squares. I ring up my two squares and don't deactivate the safety device and then have to ring up the boards, not the easiest task but I was able to do it. As I am walking out the alarm goes off. I keep walking because I always do and they usually wave me through anyway. The lady at the door stops me and asks to see my bag and receipt. She literally takes three minutes to examine my receipt with four items on it! Meanwhile I am still holding my two pieces of lumber. When she hands me back my bag she asks "Do you need any twine or a red flag?" Nope but when purchasing large items a normal check stand would be nice.
One of my favorite random events this week. have a decent commute that is mostly in traffic. I have a manual transmission so I don't like to shift a lot. I tend to go about 30mph when the freeway is averaging 25-35mph. There are times where there is a decent gap between me and the next car 150-200 feet (decent when going 30mph). There are people that think that is too much and they flip their brights on me. It doesn't happen very often but when it does I have to laugh. This past week had to be my favorite. A PT Cruiser was following me and I was going 30 and traffic was ebbing and flowing like it normally does. The Cruiser was getting really impatient and starting to tailgate. She flipped on her brights. The only reason I know she did this is because my side view mirror lit up. I could not see here headlights in my rear view mirror. So I being the nice person I am tapped on my breaks. She was not happy with that move. She flew into the next lane passed and cut back in front of me. There she stayed for the next twenty miles. Really?! Getting all bent out of shape over one car length? If you don't like the traffic go some where else. It is part of the lifestyle of southern California. Patience people.

Now I have another bucket of blocks to give away. I am going to do the guessing game in the next post but I have a "win it now" feature I want to try. This is not going to be easy. But first a few guidelines. This contest is open to all in the continental USA. I will ship the blocks. Last week I was cleaning up my parents garage after doing some wood working and my wife asked me why chopping blocks was part of the clean up. It was then that she realized that these block I give away are my scrap. Thus there is not a lot of scrap firewood. This is not a block set these piece are random shape and size. They are belt sanded and the edges broken. They are finished with mineral oil (food grade safe). There are hardwoods in this scrap block set. If your child like to throw things they can potentially hurt. Said another way, if there is an intruder in my house I am heading for my set of blocks. Should you throw them at your child that is your issue. Now for the contest.
You have until Sunday morning to e-mail me a picture/link where one of these two profiles are used in the real world. Here is a couple of hints: You will not get any hints from reading any post in my blog. Second if you don't have an idea where to look do not waste a lot of time. You only have one guess.If no one guesses correctly there will be a guess the number of blocks later.

The blocks are not done yet but they will be by the time the contest is over.

The end of my soap box speech

2010-11-01T18:35:00.001-07:00

In conclusion I have say that if I get hurt it is most likely my fault and I need to take full responsibility. There was a recent lawsuit against Ryobi where a man permanently injured three of his fingers making them unusable. Yes this is a tragic accident and could have been avoided. The short of the story is that he was free handing a cut on a piece of oak flooring with the blade all the way to the top. The board grabbed and his fingers got stuck. He won $1.5 million for being and idiot. If you want to see the article or related posts Google “man sues Ryobi for table saw accident”. He sued because the equipment did not have the flesh detection technology. This technology is out there but it comes with a cost. What this means to wood workers, Equipment will be more expensive and more safety standards on equipment.

Safety is all about what you are going to risk. There are many ways to minimize risk and make tasks safer. The man who sued Ryobi tried to take short cuts and he got away with it several times but in the end he lost the use of several fingers. He was willing to risk the setup to save time but he wasn’t willing to accept the consequences of his actions and we let him get away with it. I take risks when wood working and I am willing to accept the consequences. In life, what risks are we willing to take and what safety nets will we put in place?

Safety Equipment

2010-10-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

Safety Glasses: They are a must when I am working. I only have two eyes and they are not repairable or replaceable. I use them whenever I am using fast rotating equipment. I have had one significant eye injury. I was making some rabbets in some birch for some train cars. A piece of splintered wood flew under my safety glasses and into my eye. In my attempts to flush it out, it embedded in my eyelid. Went to urgent care and they tried to flush it out and failed. The next morning my eye was swollen shut. The body is a miracle in itself and it expelled the splinter on its own. I still followed up with a specialist to make sure there was nothing in the eye. Are safety glasses important, Yes! Do I wear them every time a piece of equipment tells me too, No. If you look at flash lights sold in the cordless combo packs, they tell you to use safety glasses when using them. When using my drill, I don’t always put on safety glasses. When I am out working with my tools they are on. I have a couple of pairs just in case I lose or break one. My advice, find a pair that you like and buy a couple. It is very easy to find excuses to not wear uncomfortable or glasses that skew vision. Basic glasses will do for most operations. I do know that people use full face shields for doing turnings. If you are worried about your eyes at least get a basic pair of safety glasses. They are cheaper than losing an eye.

Ear Protection: I did not get ear protection until after I was married. I guess my wife always wants me to hear her. Well with the hearing protection it is hard for me to hear her. Prolonged exposure to loud noises will cause hearing loss. I have one of the higher rated ear protection and they are reasonably priced. I purchased my ear protection at www.envirosafetyproducts.com. Ear protection is based on the amount of they can reduce decibels. If my table saw has a 110 dB reading and I am wearing ear muffs with a noise reduction reading (NRR) of 30 dB I will only hear the saw at 80dB. There was an interesting article in Wood Magazine a little while back about ear protection. They talked about putting in the ear buds of an iPod is better than nothing just don’t turn the volume up when you turn on machinery.

Respirator: Another purchase after I was married. I cannot say I use it as much as I should. It is kept in my garage because that is where I do my sanding and finishing. Large amounts of sanding create a lot of fine dust. This dust is not good for the lungs. I also have an air brush and fine particles of finish are not good for the lungs. I have also used oil based finished that evaporate off chemicals not good for the lungs. I use the respirator for my major sanding projects and finishing. I have also used it when cutting into my few pieces of exotic woods as precaution only.

The Brain: This is probably the most important piece of equipment any one has. This organ in your body will tell you if what you are doing is safe. It also gives ideas and thoughts on how a project can be completed without endangering yourself or others. If there is one thing I have learned with wood working, there is always more than one way to do things. One may be more comfortable doing it one way over another. For example, I have the ability to cross cut on my table saw. However I chose to use the miter saw. The miter saw was also my go to saw for making all my scrap blocks. Now that I have a band saw I use it more for cutting smaller parts.

Safety: Over Rated?

2010-10-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

I feel the need to post something on safety. There will be some that disagree and some that think that I am too strict. The company I work for in the recent past just hired a risk management manager. I am not sure what he does entirely except print out safety manuals, have safety award parties and implement safety rules. He is big on “Safety First” and just adopted the slogan from a company contest of “Make safety your first priority.” I say that is completely untrue and false security. If safety really was our first priority we would never leave the house. I would propose safety is all about risk management: What are you willing to risk and can you live with the consequences? For example, I work 30 miles away and have to go through one of the worst freeway interchanges in Southern California. I have been in two accidents in the area of the interchange in the four years that I have worked for this company. Neither were serious or my fault. If safety was first in my life I would not have taken that job because of the commute alone. I also would not work in a job that required excessive typing in fear of arthritis in my hands. However I feel the risk is adequate for my compensation. Let’s face it would any mothers have given birth if safety was first? Would men ask women out on dates in fear of being turned down(not a very good example in this day and age any more)? Would there be any progression if safety was first? So this post is going to be more on risk taking rather than on safety first.

In life we take risks every day, some have physical consequences and others are financial and some maybe psychological. We all put up safety nets to protect us from the potential dangers of life. It may be the car we drive, a savings account, our friends, or maybe it is sun block. The same applies with wood working. I am well aware of the dangers and risks involved in woodworking and I am willing to take them. I do have several pieces of equipment that are extremely dangerous and potentially deadly. I have some safety nets that I have when using the equipment. I will share a couple with you in the next few posts.

My High School Cross Country Coach

2010-10-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

I know this is not about wood working, but I found the blog of the King Cross Country team. This may mean nothing to people that read this blog, but the coach is Brad Peters. He was my coach when I ran at Ayala a few years ago. I never had him as a school teacher and I think I really missed out. He could motivate and inspire. He never thought of him self first. He will always be a better writer than I am. I have attached the website to my friends list. If you read only a couple of posts you will see what a remarkable man he really is. It was my privilege to run with him as my coach.

The Sample Shop

2010-10-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in the sample shop at my work. We were in the process of quoting several vanities for Home Depot’s Martha Stewart line. They recently just launched their custom bath and kitchen line. We were working on the retail/in-stock line. These units were designed by Martha Stewarts’s design team and completely different than what we do now. The past two weeks were spent making the samples. I hate to say that the drawings made were rushed and not all clear to give someone to build. Our sourced parts were good but the assembly drawings were either sketches or drawings not updated with the new design changes. This is probably more information than you care to know so I will get to the point. To aid the sample shop in assembling these units as quickly and correctly as possible I was out assisting the build because I was the lead engineer on the project.

It was interesting to see how they put together these units. The most interesting fact is that they use one tool for 80% of the work. They have a sliding table saw for sheet goods. They use it for squaring board, ripping small strips, cross cutting and cutting dado grooves, rabbits, and tongue and grove joints. They have a miter saw and a cabinet table saw with a dado blade set. They also have two routers. It took a week to realize why the used this machine so much: setup. This machine was easy to set up and had a scale that was accurate to the blade. It would take several minutes to setup the other machines.

Setup was the second thing I noticed was quickened. Rather than set up stops and fixtures to drill holes or cut accurate dado grooves they would take short cuts that resulted in the same result. I am not saying to make shortcuts. They need to work fast and they have adapted. Why set up a dado blade when moving the ripping fence 1/8” at a time has the same result? A dado will have a cleaner cut however in particle board the result will be the same. It is also about tool wear, accuracy and precision. Their shortcuts will dull the table saw blade faster. The dado blade will also resist deflection.

What have I learned from this experience? Something I all ready knew: there are several ways to do the same thing. Am I going to change my practices? No, I am comfortable using my tools to do the assigned tasks. Am I going to use the shortcuts I learned the past two weeks? There may be a couple of situations I use the techniques I learned. I am not graded on my speed. I would rather take may time and not make something I enjoy doing a job. I am also grateful to have my own tools. I do not want to trust some one else to the care and maintenance of the equipment.

Just a note unrelated to this post: I am sanding another bucket of blocks. So by the end of the month there should be another contest.

New Twist to a couple of Projects

2010-09-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make a couple of trucks for a friend of my mother's. They were going to be for her two grand boys and they were going to be the exact same. I changed them up a little and made the accent woods different. One was walnut and the other was a red looking wood from my grandfathers scrap pile I inherited. They turned out really nice and but I wanted them to be a little more different. I asked the lady I was making these for if I could try to paint their names on them. Anyone that knows me knows that I could not write these names free hand. I do have an air brush and I knew if I did it free hand I would have to sand a lot of mistakes out. So I opted to do it like etching glass. My mother is a major scrap book person and a while back she purchased a die cut stencil set. I cut my letters from that and put them backwards on a sheet of contact paper. Then I put the contact paper on the truck beds and cut out the letters leaving behind the sheet of contact paper. The reason I did this rather than just tracing the letters on the contact paper was because the paper stencil leaves a lip that is easy to trace with a blade. I then painted the names on to the beds of the trucks. They turned out really nice. It looks a lot better than my free hand. Here are the pictures of the steps.

Just a note: Push down the contact paper after cutting out the letters. The lip that helps you cut out the letters will let the paint bleed if not pushed down.

My Band Saw

2010-09-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

I did a mail order band saw from a company called Grizzly Tools. It came with a high recommendation from our sample shop manager at work. They only do mail order and they are the manufacturers of their equipment so I am not paying a middle man. I have been looking on their website for a while and the the plan was to earn the money from selling my projects (I am about half way there). They introduced a new series called the Polar Bear series. The only difference was this series was all white. They were doing and introductory offer on them. With the promo price I was able to upgrade for free. I couldn't let that deal go by. I don't know what the extra 1/4 horse power gets me but I got it for free.
It came via FedEx freight and because a semi truck might have trouble on my parents street and there would be no one there to sign for it; I opted to pick it up at the terminal. Set up was not as bad as I thought it would be. It went together very well, even thought the directions were a little weird. I had to know the bolt classifications and everything was in metric.
When I first turned it on nothing happened. The motor hummed but the blade did not move. Customer was very helpful and quickly identified the problem as the start up capacitor. I think they had a bad patch of motors because they were really quick to state the problem. They sent me a replacement which was smaller than the original. Now it runs great. I just did re sawed some lumber. I am very happy with the purchase.
Now this means I do not have to use the work band saw that is extremely dull and burns the wood . I am also in control on how the equipment is treated. There is a definite advantage of owning your own tools.

The Construction Set

2010-08-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

This has been about two years in the making. I downloaded three of the plans from the Internet. They were free and here is the link. Later I purchased the Reader Digest book of wooden toy plans. It had he road grader and the larger bob tail truck. Then My wife purchased Norm Marshshall's book of Wooden Toys. This had the bulldozer and the tanker. So I just finished those two pieces. There is a Crane but I need to catch up on current projects. I feel bad because there are people waiting for projects, some I still have to design.

The Bulldozer

Cab-over with low trailer

Simi with Trailer

Road Grader

Tanker truck

Steam Roller

Most of these are made out of Poplar. It was cheap and clear. However the bulldozer engine is out of a maple foot. It was a project I was working on at work and it was a failed first article so I took the decorative profile off and squared it up. Over all it looks pretty good.
Lessons:
Slow down the speed of the drill press when drilling large diameter holes. The first two trucks were made while I was taking a wood working class. They had a 2 1/2" forstner bit that cut through wood like butter. I don't have that tool because I would not use it very much and they are a little pricey. I had to use a hole saw(it can also make wheels). I tend to burn wood when using a hole saw. I took some advice and slowed the speed down and did not try to cut the hole in 2.4 seconds. It was a little rougher then the other bit but it did the job.
Don't try to carry too many things at once. I was putting all the parts back into my car to take home after some time at my parents. I accidentally dropped the tanker truck cab and the top broke into 5 pieces. With a little glue and sanding it all worked out. I was lucky this time
Look at previous items made in the series. If you look at the engine for the tanker tuck and the other two you will notice that the head lights are different sizes. The tanker has 3/8" dowels for lights and the other two have 3/4" dowel for lights. It was a combination of not reading the drawing completely and not having going back and looking at the other trucks in the series.

Dominoes!

2010-08-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

Since my last post was about the set up of the dominoes I guess I should finish the story. But first a note about my brilliant son!

He has become quite the climber in his day. There is nothing that he cannot get around or over. We have found him on top of the dry sink playing with the blinds, on top of the hutch of the toy stove, on the dinning room table standing and proud of himself, on the computer table laughing at the fish screen saver, and 0n the living room widow sill. This picture is from him climbing on the cupboards that hold his toys. My wife tried to block his path from the couch to the top, notice the stuff on the right. That worked for about five minutes until he figured he can use the drawers as steps. He really wanted those crayons.
Back to the dominoes... This past week I was able to paint the shapes on the backside and put in the inlay walnut pegs in the front. This is just a fancy way of saying I filled the holes with walnut dowel and sanded them smooth. I don't have the patience or the talent to do detailed inlay work. This past weekend I was finishing them. I started by filling the shapes with polyurethane and letting them dry over night. I had never done that before but I am glad I did. It smoothed out some of the paint lines and it dried thick enough to hide the lines left by the router.

After the shapes had dried I put a clear coat of finish on the rest of the pieces. Now for all the mothers and wives that read this blog, which I believe is only family, this statement might shock you. Yes I am finishing these pieces on the dining room table. No I did not have my wife's permission. However it was convenient and close. I did at least cover it with cardboard. I used cardboard because I could stick push pins in it to keep the the blocks from sticking to the drying surface. By the way my wife did not kill me. I also washed my brush in the kitchen sink.
So here they are. I still have to sand the sealer coat and put another layer of polyurethane on.

Now for the lessons. I have been looking for a glue bottle to use because I got tired of buying the largest bottles of glue so I bought a gallon of wood glue and was filling the other bottles up when they ran out. Well that lasted about three times before the push tip on the glue bottle on one broke off. Good thing I had a spare but that tip was also in bad shape.
While making the dominoes I needed to go to Rockler for wood dowels. I would not suggest going there to buy wood unless you really have to. They are pricey. I looked at their glue bottles and they were $5 for the cheapest. These were the ketchup bottles with the pointed tip. I was not going to spend that much money. Well one day I was working over at my parents and there was a bottle that would work on the half wall. Knowing better than to just take it I asked my sister where she got it and how much. It is a bottle for coloring hair and costs less than $2. Sold. The bottle works great and with the pointed spout I can have better control on the amount of glue and where it goes.
Lesson number two: Polyurethane ages. I have been using the same gallon of polyurethane for the past couple of years. I purchased a gallon for the kitchen set I made thinking I would use most of it. I used about half of it. Well I was going to run out so I finished the last of the sewing boxes with it and bought a new one to finish the dominoes. When I opened the new can to my surprise it was a creamy white color. Scared, I made sure I did not get the oil base because my old can was a transparent amber. I had gotten the correct stuff. It is supposed to be creamy white. The directions on both cans state that. All my projects up to this point have had a nice amber stain to them which isn't a problem. I just didn't think polyurethane aged.
More to come of my latest projects.

Drilling tip

2010-08-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

I finally broke down and made myself a make shift drill press table. There was a couple of reasons behind this. The first was the book my wife gave me says that I need to drill accurate holes and some of the parts are quite large so I needed a bigger table than the one that came with the drill press.

A little note on a drill press: If you get into making toys the main thing you will be drilling are axle holders. I can drill a hole 2 1/2" deep. most toys are about 3-4" wide. This takes a couple of setups to drill all the way through the board. When looking for a drill press look for one that can drill a deep hole.

The other reason I wanted to make the table was to make dominoes. The original plan for the dominoes was to take and draw out where all the holes were supposed to go and then drill each one. My philosophy is that if I am making one it takes just as long to make a second. For all the math geeks that is 56 tiles and a hole lot of holes. On the other side of the dominoes were going to be shape dominoes. After about marking holes on 20 of the tiles I hoped there was a better way and there was. It is called the spacer block method. Basically blocks are used to determine the distance between holes. In the dominoes I needed to have holes 3/4" apart and 3/8" from the edge. I set up my stops which are the speed squares and then made 3/4" blocks from oak to be my spacers. The setup took about 30 minutes after all the materials were assembled. This setup is a good example of why you can always use more clamps.

This is the setup for the domino drilling.

The spacer blocks did a wonderful job locating all the holes so that the dominoes did not look like they were hand drawn out and hand drilled. They all most look like they were done on a production line. I am very pleased how they turned out.

The second part was to put the shapes on the back. I got the idea from Making Toys the Teach. They cut pieces of veneer into shapes, painted the pieces and then glued them to the board. Of coarse, me being an over-achiever, that was too easy. Actually the real reason is that I have never been very good with veneers and I wanted these dominoes to last. I could see pieces of the veneer flaking off, chipping, or causing splinters. I wanted to route in the shapes. I made templates to follow. The routers have a bushing accessory that allowed me to plunge into the wood and follow the template. I think this was the first time in 25 years this bench vise was used. Good thing my father bought it to make my 4th grade science experiment.

A couple of notes on pattern routing: I noticed the bushings for the router are set up to be mounted on a table. I was using them with a plunge router. Every so often I would have to make sure the bit was centered (or close) or the bit would hit the bushing. I also purchased the Bosch set, RA1125 (it fits my router). The bushings are saudered together. good for limited use. I was doing 112 shapes. The sauder melted and the bushing came off. Not too happy with that design. I had to use my father's brass set and reset up everything. All said and done, I need to put in the dowel plugs, paint and sand and this project is done.

An Update and a Vacation

2010-07-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

I have been off on a vacation for the past week and had a wonderful Father's Day. My wife gave me a book called Marvelous Transforming Toys, written by the same person who wrote Making Heirloom Toys. There are six projects in this book. Basically the premise is each set of toys takes base parts and then adds different parts to it to make different toys. The kids actually get to make the toys themselves, however there are a lot of small part. I am excited but a little nervous. There are parts where the tolerance is 1/64 inch. I am lucky if I keep a 1/16 inch tolerance. There are going to be some new jigs that I will be sharing and techniques. This will be next years project.

The past week I went camping with my family and may wife's brother's family. We went up to the Sequoia National park. It was a lot of fun and got to see some really big trees. We did some hiking a was able to see some of the more famous trees. On the last day we went to the "Big Stump Trail". It was basically a graveyard of these magnificent trees. I can only imagine what the people thought when they saw these trees. They were just starting the industrial revolution and these trees were over 30 feet in diameter and the branches were the size of normal trees. That is a lot of board feet of wood. They started chopping them down. Some took all most two weeks to chop one of these trees down. They sent a cross section of a tree to New York for an exhibit. It was never shown because they thought it was a fake. The mill operated for 6 years and then was shut down. The reason was the lumber was good for nothing. It was too soft and it took too much time to be profitable. The neat thing was to see the forest regenerating. There were lots of new trees where the old ones were removed. In many instances we had to look between and around trees to see the stumps. It is nice to get away and see some of the beautiful creations that God has put on this earth.

Couple of things that I learned from the trip:
We had a bear run thorough our camp one night. It was a small one and did not pose a threat. I learned that bears run fast. When you have an encounter with a bear and scaring it doesn't work, hopefully you run faster than the person next to you. You will not out run the bear.

My son loves waterfalls. I have never seen him so excited to walk up to a waterfall, maybe it is just water. Every time we passed a creek or he heard water he would look for it even if it was not visible. he would even turn around in his stroller to get one last look at it before we left. Not an easy feat when strapped in with a 5-point harness.
I also learned that the main cause of death for a sequoia is not fire but falling over. They just get too big for their root system. The roots only penetrate about six feet. If there is a lot of water on the ground or the soil loosens up, they just fall over. Many of the trees have evidence of fire damage and scaring. This tree can actually heal itself and continue growing. The bark is also a very good insulator and protects the inside from fire. The bark is so thick moss does not grow on it. The moss cannot penetrate the bark to get water from the tree.

In the end: Kyle ate a traffic cone while we waited for an hour for road construction to let us down the mountain.

Glue: The only fastener REAL carpenters use

2010-06-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

Usually I post about what I have made or current projects, but today I think I will talk about one of the major non-wood products I use. Glue is a very important part of a project because I rarely used mechanical fasteners on toys because they inevitably loosen or come off. There are several different kinds of glue. I will go over the glues that I use:
Wood glue: There are many different types of wood glue and for the most part the general wood glue will work. There are water proof and stainable wood glues also. I have never used the stainable one but I can't imagine that it is very "stainable". The problem with glue is that it does not finish well. The good thing about the basic wood glue is that it is nontoxic. I was asked once what the difference between Elmer's wood glue and the glue used in schools. The answer is a little bit of dye. This glue has about a 5 minute open time and will set in about 15 minutes. After about an hour it will have reached 90% of its strength. The cool thing is the glue bond is stronger than the wood itself.
Spray adhesive: I use this to attach my patterns for scroll saw work. The important things to remember about spray adhesive is that it is flammable, fumes are not healthy and to read the directions. Most spray adhesives must be sprayed to both sides and let dry for the bond to be permanent. I don't like my patterns to to be permanently adhered to the wood so I only spray one side.
Epoxy: This is used to adhere non wood parts to wood parts. It is usually in two parts and once mixed it will dry and can not be used again. The microwave trick will not work on epoxy. I don't use epoxy a lot because I don't like it and it is relatively expensive.
A little note on a couple of other glues: Super glue is great for a quick bond but it is very easy to destroy a project because there is not a lot of open time. Meaning once the two pieces touch they better be in the right place. Gorilla glue is another super strength glue that cures with moisture. Don't let it touch your skin.

Here are a couple of tricks that I have learned:
When you are ready to glue up a project, dry fit it together first. It is never fun to have glue on all the parts and realize you forgot to cut a part or a groove is too small. It is also a good time to find out how many and what size clamps are required.
Clean up the excess glue with a wet towel before it dries. I don't care if the glue says it is stainable. It will not stain the same as wood. Cleaning up excess glue makes sanding a lot easier.
Since I work with a lot of small parts this next trick has come in handy several times. Put a little bit of glue on the parts and gently rub the other part on it spreading the glue evenly over both surfaces. After a little while the parts will become harder to move around. slide the pieces in there correct location to each other and let dry, no clamps needed. This only works with small parts so don't try it while building a cabinet.
Glue is a fantastic fastener, however if you need to use a nail or a screw sometimes to hold things together while glue dries use it. The title is in reference to what some one told me when they saw I was using nails.

The tug boats

2010-06-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

Well I have made enough of these tug boats I should probably write about them. This is the last set I made. I am working on some scroll saw puzzles that are proving to be more trouble than I imagined. The cool thing is I was able to purchase some exotic lumber. Yes, I did cause some deforestation.

The exotic woods are displayed above: purple heart, lace wood, lypus, yellow heart, and walnut (not an exotic but my wife likes this wood). I will probably never buy this wood again, except the walnut. They are all really nice looking woods with good color. My favorite is probably the lace wood. The yellow heart was definitely yellow but kind of plain, but had an interesting smell. Yes, woods have distinct smells. The yellow heart smelled like pepper when cutting into it. This wood is also very hard. It actually destroyed the template and bushing guide I used to cut out the center of the tug boat. Now I have to make another template.

The story of the Tug Boat
This was one of the first projects I made from the Making Heirloom Toys book. It was a pine base with a poplar scrap header from work planed down to 3/8". I made three and I don't think I have any of the originals. I have had several people come up to me and ask how much they cost and to this day I have not sold one. I think my price is too expensive or too cheap. For the most part you have to go though child birth (it is received at the baby shower). Or I have given them away - right place right time sort of thing. They are usually made out of scrap wood or planks that are too short to be of any use. I have been having fun making them and will continue to do so. I also put an extra coat of polyurethane on them so they slide really well on carpet. They are not balanced or finished for the water, but sand is ok.

The microwaves saves me again

2010-06-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of projects in queue that people would like me to build for them. It is nice to see that people appreciate the work I do. I hope to complete my current projects before I start on the others however time will tell. This past weekend I was working on the trains and I glued the cab on the chassis completely crooked. I was completely upset and then my wife said "Why don't you microwave it?" 45 seconds in the microwave and the parts came a part with a little TLC. I think this is my new favorite trick.

The other story of my life is that I am trying to earn enough money for a band saw. I need re saw capabilities and be able to cut gradual curves for some toys. This is one of the main reasons I am selling my toys. I know which band saw I want and I am about half way there. Well my wife through in an interesting twist. I now have to make room in my parents garage for this band saw. Most of my tools are at my parents because I only have a single car garage. I had just cleaned out may parents garage and had plenty of room for a couple of tools. Then my father found an excellent deal on a hybrid table saw and bought it. I would have done the same. However I have no more room in the garage until some of the stuff that was not planned to be in the garages is moved out.

And the answer is.....

2010-06-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

20. My wife actually won, but I told her "You can give the blocks to the next closest person or you give our set of blocks to the next closest person." She is going to pass the bucket of blocks to the next person which happens to be my mother-in-law. I will have to say that I am disappointed in the response I received from the contest. I guess I will do one more bucket of blocks and then start donating them to a local charity because no one seems to want them. Interesting couple of weekends of wood working. If I have time I may share.

More blocks

2010-05-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

It has been a tough week, but I have another bucket of blocks to give away. I am going to put down a few new rules for this give away. First I am not going to have people guess the number of blocks because I have already done that. Second the contest will last two weeks. Everyone will have two guesses, one per week. I wouldn't want you to put both guesses down and then be boxed in. No taking back guesses, once it is posted it sticks. Third if you all ready have a set of scrap blocks please don't try for another. Fourth these are for kids so if you don't have kids to play with them why do you really want a box of blocks to take up space? I am going to condition this rule: this could be grand kids, cousins, nieces, nephews, or kids. I really don't want toys I make to sit on a shelf as a display.

So here it is. Last time there there was 102 blocks. How many TRIANGLES are in this bucket (it is the same bucket as last time just different blocks). Here are a couple of hints:

These are not triangles

This is a triangle

Second hint: there is at least one triangle in the bucket and I wouldn't guess more than 102.

Happy guessing and I will mail if needed.

the model T series

2010-05-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

Here are the model T cars/trucks. There are three in the series and they were a a lot of fun to build. They are larger than I had originally thought. The tanker truck is about 8 inches long. bodies are made out of poplar and the fenders are made out of random other species of wood. One complete set is made with walnut fenders. Walnut is the dark wood.

I know I swore I would never make wheels again, well I made these wheels. Out of all the things that could be a choking hazard I think the wheels concern me the most. The headlamps have at least 3/8 inch of glue bond but the wheels are only 3/8 of an inch and they are over two inches in diameter. I fear they may break. They were not too bad to make. I think it was largely due to the fact that I just purchased new hole saws

I had to turn the tank because dowel does not come in that large. They suggested to use a wood rolling pin if a lathe was not available. Good thing I was able to use a lathe. The cabs were the hardest part but once I had the blocks cut to size it was all about laying out lines a drilling holes and using the band saw. Sanding was the hardest part It was a fun project. I might make more if time permits.

Me and My Son

2010-05-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was our churches fathers and sons outing. I know that this is not a wood working post but this was an activity between me and my son. That is why it is being posted here an not on the family blog. This is going to be a lot of picture and I will jut caption them. Hope you enjoy. We spent the weekend at a camp ground in Lytle Creek. It was a nice campground just a little overgrown with fox tails.

Our camp site. People commented how big our tent was. It is a nine person tent, but we used every inch of it with stuff and two beds.

We were able to pet local wildlife and got yelled at by the ranger for touching a gopher snake. The squirrels were too fast to catch. Yes this is a 4' gopher snake that was there when we arrived

We ate a very good meal of chicken and rice. Kyle had just rice and chicken baby food. He did not care to much for the baby food. I don't blame him. We ended with pineapple upside down cake.

Kyle in the tent

Just sitting around the campfire. If you are wondering where the wood came from look below at the products. Most of this was scrap.

He finally went to sleep at 8:30

This is how he was in the morning.

In the end he slept through the night and liked dad's sleeping bag and bed better than his own. He also never dirtied his diaper either (Yes I changed his diaper several times) until I passed him off to my wife so that I could unload the car and unload he did also! Next trip to the Sequoias for a week.

Finishing Day

2010-05-02T20:59:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to have my day of finishing. This is a day of minimal interruptions to put a clear coat on all the products that I have completed.

In other words it is taking:

and turning it into this:

Yes I had a little bit to do. I usually add two coats of polyurethane and each coats takes about two hours to dry. Between each coat is a sanding process and it is all hand sanding. I will be posting more detailed pictures of the projects with a little more description. The only one that will not be shown again is the middle truck with the boat on top of it. That one has been sold.

In honor of finishing day there are a couple of things that will be coming out of it. The first is that I am giving away one of my tug boats. Of course it is free if you have the correct answer first. They are small enough to ship so anyone can answer (pun not intended). Please answer on the blog. Here is the question:

What is the name (common) of the yellow wood used on this tug boat?

I know that the pictures are slightly yellow but it is a good representation of the color. If you also look at the top picture on the right side you can see it in it's natural state. This yellow wood is the accent wood and is found on the top of the body and cabin. The other wood, white in color, is alder. It came for some shelves that my grandfather made. To help you guess here are a couple of hints:
You will not find this wood at your local hardware store.
It is a very hard wood. It thrashed my bit and broke my template that I use to make these boats.

The kids furniture

2010-04-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

The children's furniture that my wife and I made last year was fun to have displayed in our home. Here they are the units in no particular order of favorites:

The Table and Chairs

This unit is made out of solid pine and finished in a clear coat of polyurethane. There are four chairs with this table and it also comes with a leaf. It has been used at family functions. There are a few notes I will make. The table top does move because there is a leaf that goes in it. I have an idea how to lock it in place and I will add it to the table before it is delivered.

The Dry Sink

Fun little sink that lets kids use their imagination. It is made out of solid pine (except for the back is ply wood) and has a clear coat of polyurethane. This was made right handed by request of my wife. If it was up to me it would be left handed. Do not be fooled this sink will NOT hold water, however the pump does move up and down. There is plenty of stage in it. we used to keep the baby stuff we were collecting in it until some kids got into it. They used the shampoo as lotion because it smelled nice. We had a good laugh. This was also the unit I tried my luck with a tap and die set. The pump is attached with real wooden screws.

The Wood Stove

One of the more challenging pieces but it was fun. The unit is made out of solid wood (Except the back panels is plywood) and finished in polyurethane. There is a lot of little places to put things and I will even include the pan set that we have with it now. I can't say it is all there but it came from Ikea. The burners are removable and all doors and drawers work. The hutch is removable and is located by dowels. The only concern I have with it is the corners on the base and stove top are not rounded. It is not a huge issue unless if it is thrown around. I will point out that I do have a glaring mistake. When I was routing out the back center burner the bit shifted down and eventually punched through the top. The mistake is covered by the burner but it is very much visible if the burner is removed.

Random Things

2010-04-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

Since my weekly project updates are complete I don't have an update this week, just some random things.

While I was driving down the freeway on the work I saw truck with the advertisement "Husband for Hire". I thought this was a interesting. It turned out to be a handyman service. I couldn't see the rest of the ad because the bed was full of stuff. It brightened my day.

The other random thing is about some grasshoppers I made. I tried to make them less of a choking hazard and I do not like them. They are originally suppose to be a pull toy so I removed the string and the antenna. They did not turn out as well as the original ones. I do not what to do with them so I think I am just going to give them away. I have two of them so the first two people that want them get them. I am not going to post this on facebook. One of the originals is up for sale on the right.

Time for Change

2010-04-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

I think it is about time I changed some of the graphics and layout of my blog. On the right side are products that I am selling. These are usually duplicates because it is just as fast to make one as it is to make a few. If you are interested e-mail me for the price. And as always if I made one I can make another, so if you do not see it up for sale ask me about it and I will let you know and the price and lead times.

Have a wonderful day!

Week Ten - Done

2010-03-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

For all intensive purposes the tractor trailer and dump trucks are complete. I still need to do a finish sanding and glue everything together. I do not know when I am going to put the finish on them because I usually get a bunch of toys ready to finish and spend a day finishing them. I am excited about these projects and they came out nice. Unfortunately there are a lot of small parts that can be broken off so they are not for toddlers. It only took ten weeks which is not bad for working only weekends and during class. I have several other projects that are close to being finished also.

I was also hoping to finish the candle stick holders but I ran out of time. Maybe next week.

Interesting article

2010-03-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

Found this on one o the blogs I follow. Found it interesting on safety and toys. The products I use are found on side bar if you are interested.

Building can be child’s play

The TV Stand

2010-03-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

I will have to admit this is one of my more favorite projects I have designed and built. Yes this is my design and I own the drawings. Not to say that some person can not just copy it. The stand was originally designed for my sister who, I think still likes hers. My wife liked my sister's TV stand so much that she wanted one. Evidently, That meant that I had to get rid of the very first TV stand that I built. It is now at my in-law's home.

It was definitely a first design project that had it's flaws. It opened from the sides and was not very friendly to a small condo. I also underestimated the weight of DVD's and videos. The doors sag just a little even though I have a piano hinge all the way down the doors. It was also made out of 3/4" plywood so it was built like a tank.
Back to this TV stand. This is made out of solid birch and with plywood inlays. The drawers for the video's was a great idea. The only thing I did not consider when building this was game consuls. Oh well. The design is a great one. It is much more modular than the first because the drawers come out making it much lighter. I also have two side that can be used with the stand, end tables or night stands. I have learned to appreciate the value of being modular like Ikea but much more durable.

Toys are not the only thing I have built, They are the only thing that fit in our house currently.

And the actual number is....

2010-03-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

That was my last count. Kyle has determined that his blocks about 3 times as many is not as exciting as a bucket of blocks in his parent's room. He would have fun pulling them out and we would put them back in.

Thank-you for all those who participated. The good news is that I had to clean out the garage again so I have a good start on another pile of blocks. I think I will do other things like this also. We will see.

I do not have an update on my projects this week. Cleaning the garage and work interfered with getting stuff done. But I have a clean space to work again and I know were things are.

Another little tidbit of advice. Before gluing everything up put it together first. I dry assembled the flat bed yesterday and the one of the wheels didn't fit and the cut out on the trailer was too small to allow it to turn. The good thing is that I can correct it.

Week Nine

2010-03-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

Well nothing was done this week on my four projects. I was able to work more on my candle sticks. Now I just have to drill the top holes. I think they are going to be a little big for the standard candle. I may have to use pillar candles.The guess the number of blocks is still going on for one more week. I think I made it too long so I will announce the winner on week ten post. You can still post your answers on this post or the last one. I have also opened it up to those who do not have a Google account. Since it is an "anonymous" post please put you name or I have no way to reach you. I did not realize the posting restrictions on the blog. I will also ship the blocks to their destination if you are not local. Here is the hint. This is the bucket that I have them in right now. Yes I have cleaned it. If you know my packing skills, then you know the stack is very dense.Lesson for the week:
Keep the glue bottle closed and upright at all times. Even if you think it is closed you should keep it upright. I thought mine was closed so I laid it down in my box I take to my class. It wasn't closed and dripped all over my book and some of my projects. I hope that I will be able to clean all the glue off my turnings.

Week Eight

2010-03-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

There are a couple of things this week that happened. I will start with the freebie because most people want to see something free first before they commit to reading the rest of anything. I have completed a bucket of scrap. That means that I have a bunch of random wood blocks to be used as toys. I usually give them out to family but I am going to try something new. I will give this bucket of blocks to the person who comes closest to guessing the correct number of blocks on the floor. These blocks are very much random and are all different shapes and sizes. I have sanded them and put a coat of mineral oil on them making them child safe. However I do warn you if your child likes to throw things, some of these blocks will do damage. Most of them are out of poplar, but there is some good sized pieces of hard maple and walnut. The last two woods will dent other pieces of wood. I will run the contest for two weeks, so the last day to place your vote is March 22. I will allow two votes per person because I hate guessing 1000 and two other people guess 1001 and 999. I said they were free but a plate of chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies would not be turned down. Good luck.

This week It looks like I did not get much done. And I did not. I was side tracked on another project that I hope to clear in the next couple of weeks. I did put headlights and bumpers on my current projects. I also did some face turning. This is what I was concerned about a couple of weeks ago; two pieces of wood glued together with a piece of paper. It worked and they turned out really nice. I just might finish my candle sticks this month. It was amazing how easily the two pieces of wood separated with a chisel and a mallet. I also learned a couple of things in the process.
After five years of studying to be and engineer and getting a BS in mechanical engineering I don't know how treads work. In brief, my work piece is attached to a threaded insert that is then screwed onto the lathe. I was told this was a left hand thread. Righty tighty and lefty loosely, right? Wrong! This is a left hand thread so it is backwards. After finishing my first turning I went to take it off with the wrench. It wouldn't budge. The "Woodworkers don't use nails" gentleman saw me struggling and offered to help hold the lathe while I turned the wrench. He thought I was going the wrong way and then realized this was a left hand thread after a couple of attempts. It still would not budge. We tried a mallet. The instructor states at the start of every session that if your are forcing it you are probably doing it wrong. So I finally humbled myself and ask the instructor for help because I was too weak to remove my part from the lathe. I held the lathe and the teacher took the wrench and popped it right off with a flick of the wrist. I was turning the wrong way!

Week Seven

2010-02-23T20:35:00.001-08:00

It is finished, sort of. The flat bed truck for this purpose is complete. I will not be showing this truck again until I clear coat finish it and add the wheels. The only parts that are missing are the air filters, bumper, and head lights.The other projects are coming along. It is more detail work and there is not much to show.

I did more on my wood dowels. It was kind of fun and chips of wood were flying everywhere. These turnings are pretty much complete. I have to cut them to size still and I need to check to make sure the diameters are correct. The thick plain looking dowel is complete. It is three inches in diameter and I have to cut it to size for the few projects that I am making with it. The other two are not candle sticks, but I will keep you guessing. (The candlesticks are the ones on the right. They look the same) I was unable to do any of the face turnings so I don't have anything to report.

The lesson for the week is make sure the tools are sharp. My coworker does a lot of lathe work so when he found out what I was doing he offered to let me borrow some of his chisels. There is a lot of responsibility when borrowing some ones tools because of the fear of damaging or destroying them. Well, he did lend them to me. It was amazing how much easier and cleaner sharp tools cut through the wood. Fortunately for me, my coworker also likes sharpening them too. I guess I need to sharpen some of my hand tools.

Week six

2010-02-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

The abbreviated story of lumber is that a tree is cut down and then cut into flat square boards and sold. This week I reversed the process. I took those square pieces and made them round again with a lot of waste. Yep, this week I made dowels. These are not for the four projects I am working on now, but I wanted to make square boards round. The octagons are in the process of being made round. This is a new process for me called face tuning. On the back of each octagon is a piece of scrap wood. Its soul purpose is to be able to mount the hardware that attaches to the lathe without damaging the work piece. The pieces are glued together with a piece of paper in between. My instructor said that once the piece is complete this glue joint is easily separated by a chisel and mallet. I am a little worried. The lathe spins the part at 1200-1500 RPM. I am using chisels to cut the details. I don't know what is going to happen.
The octagons are maple and poplar with a ply wood scrap block. They will be made into disks. Starting on the right: the first dowel is poplar, the second is clear pine and the third is cypress. The last two are maple turnings that I started a year and a half ago. I think I need to finish them.

The other four projects are coming a long. One is almost ready to be finished. The other three have so more work to be done. It is all detail work though so the changes from week to week are going to be small now that I have to make square wood round again. My projects are starting to take notice in my class and I have received some nice compliments.

Week Five

2010-02-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

I cannot say that I accomplished a lot this week. I have sort of been side tracked on a couple of other projects. In class I have access to a lathe and I really need to get some parts done in order to make some future projects. However I did have a chance to do some of the detail work on my projects.
This week I have learned that I cannot count. I am short one axle holder and two steps. Oh well, I should be able to make those pretty quick. The projects are starting to come together nicely. I am happy the way they are turning out. I have learned that my father's tape measure is off 1/8" in the positive (better in the positive than in the negative). His response is that I should have been using that tape measure though out the entire project. An eighth of a inch is enough to throw off the entire yield of a board and because I am making toys I also use a ruler. This is the reason some of my parts are a little big.
If you have not been able to figure out what I am making the pictures should give it away. I do not have the trailer in the picture for two reasons: I have not changed it since last week and it is 21" long.
Last week I had some one in class come up to me and tell me that a true woodworker does not use nails. This week another classmate asked if I sold my toys because she would like to buy one. We shall see.
I also learned something this week talking to a coworker about lathes and turning projects. His specialty is the lathe and asking about turning and he offered to give me some wood. I politely declined but he insisted. He purchases turning blanks online and the company uses wood as packing material and it was too small for him to use. (This is where I received the wood for the helicopter.) He said Wood workers give each other wood that they cannot use. So he gave me a chunk of spalted huckberry and cypress. He also offered to lend me his turning chisels because the school ones are not that great. Next week I hope to have some turnings done.

This fish does not get water

2010-02-05T20:57:00.000-08:00

I spent four weeks on a few complex projects and post a picture of a fish that took me a couple of hours to make two of them and everyone comments on the fish. I am finishing this fish tale on this post. The plans wanted me to use a aniline die. at $7 an ounce, I don't think so (There are nine colors). I read in one of the books that food coloring is a good way to stain wood. So that is what I used. Well water makes wood swell and these were tight fitting pieces anyways. The good thing is that the fish is now colored and I only colored one of the fishes. The bad new is if the fish gets wet the colors will run. This is not a good puzzle for kids that put everything in their mouths. It would be like sucking on a permanent marker. I need to clear coat it still and with the weather I don't know when I can do that. Not bad for a weekend project that was purely experimental.

Week Four

2010-02-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

There is a point were I get really excited about completing projects; this was that week. I had a great week and got a lot done. not as much as I wanted but there is never enough time in a weekend. My projects are getting closer, but the problem is I am getting distracted by other projects. I am working on some boxes also. They are very basic but I was asked to build them. I also did my first puzzle. I will talk more about that later. I am excited to put on the axles. All I have to do is drill the holes and glue. The fenders are ready to glue on and they are looking more like toys. I spent most of my class sanding though. It is a necessary pain.

Now for some stories:

On Saturday I was able to pick up some lumber at Peterman Lumber. Great lumberyard with a lot of different species. I was delayed several weeks due to truck problems and weather. They had a bunch of discounted hard maple so I stocked up a little. I also picked out some exotic hardwoods. not too bad priced when I only picked up one board foot. However I do wonder what damage I did to the rain forests. I will have to post some pictures later. Later that day I made a huge pile of sawdust (I haven't cut into the exotic hardwoods yet).

Monday was class. I got a lot of sanding done and I put together the boxes. As I was nailing the boxes together, one of my classmates came up to me and said, "A real woodworker doesn't use nails." In some cases I agree because I do not use a lot of nails on my projects. However, nails do a great job of keeping things together while glue dries. He came back a little later and said that I could borrow his bottle of glue. I showed him my bottle and told him the nails were to keep it together. He left me alone after that, not sure why. I also was able to talk to the professor about some lathe work that I need to do. It actually may finish the candle sticks I started a year and a half ago!

I also did my first scroll saw puzzle. I want to get better at the scroll saw and this is a good way to do it. I also learned a lot about wood and scroll saws with this day project. I had some one inch glued panel scrap that I used to make this puzzle. I don't plan on making that mistake again. The first one had a hidden knot in the middle of one of the glued up pieces. Of course the knot was in the middle of the fish. On the second one I realized the white rings in pine are a lot softer than the dark ones. So I would be pushing to cut and then I would cut into a white ring and cut way too far. They look good and they work. I can take the pieces out from both sides which means the scroll saw was set up correctly. They will be painted with food die and polyurethane.

It was a weekend that I needed.

Week Three

2010-01-26T21:35:00.000-08:00

It was another fun day at class and I progressed more on my projects. They are now starting to take shape and look more like toys than just a pile of wood. I did make another mistake, but it was kind of on purpose. I wanted a little bit stronger of a joint on the boxes so I put a dado in the front and bottom of the box. This created a groove/space where the back is going. not to worry a couple of pieces of scrap and you will barely be able to tell were I made the mistake. Now that the basics are pretty much done, the fun begins. I have a bunch of detail work to do.

Toy Testers Wanted

2010-01-24T14:42:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking (which is never good) about all the toys I have made and would like children to use them. My wife and I have talked about opening our house to let kids play with them. Now I do not want this to turn into a free for all so there are some guidelines.

Kids ages from 3 to 8 years and potty trained. (I change enough diapers)
I can only allow 6 kids at a time and 2 kids maximum per family.
I am going to exclude kids related to me because they see all the toys I make and benefit from me making toys (This my change)
Parents are responsible for dropping off and picking up their children on time.
I will be taking pictures and posting them on my blog. I will not mention names on my blog.

After talking with my wife, we would like to do this every fifth Saturday from 10:00-12:00. We would provide a pizza lunch. My e-mail is on my face book account so please e-mail me if you are interested (I may need your phone number) and I will contact you by Wednesday if your child is selected. We are looking at doing this Saturday, January 30th.
I don't know if I am going to have first come first in or randomly chosen but if this works out I plan on doing more. Kids who have not been over will have first priority over kids that have been here before so everyone who wants will have an opportunity.

For those kids ages 9-13 who feel deprived not coming over I am looking at starting a wood working class. I have not put all the details together because it is a little more work to teach woodworking.

Week Two

2010-01-21T21:02:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest on the projects I have been working on. There are more pieces and I have some patterns adhered to some pieces of wood to scroll saw. I am not as far as I want to be because of some factors beyond my control. So far they are coming out good. I only have one mistake so far. I glued incorrect parts together. Thank goodness for an article in Wood Magazine I was able to save the project. There was an article about fixing a glue up mistake on panels. In short, take a microwave heating pad (I used a sock full of rice) and heat it up. Put it around the glued panel seam that needs to be separated. In a few minutes (10-15) the glued panels would come apart. Granted the glue can not have dried for weeks. Well I tried it but my parts was two face joined pieces and not a panel so my part was too big to put the rice sock around and I thought I was going to lose two of the hardest pieces to make. Then I realized my part was small enough to put in the microwave. One minute later and a little nudge from a chisel and hammer, the parts separated. With a little bit of sanding they will be good to work with. Hopefully the toy is not radioactive now!

My Christmas Present

2010-01-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

This year I asked for an after market miter gauge for my table saw. The miter gauge that came with the table saw was ok but I am doing some more projects with compound angles. I was also reading how much better after market gauges were. I was excited to get it and it took me a while before I had an opportunity to set it up. I have only done 90 degree cross cut but I am amazed how much easier and staple the gauge is. After making some cut I told my wife that I loved the miter gauge but I now need a new table to match the nice new gauge. She said she could take back the miter gauge. I guess I have been converted to the after market miter gauge. I am excited to try it out on some miter cuts to see if I set it up correctly.

My Current Projects

2010-01-13T21:01:00.000-08:00

Well I have decided to try something new. I am currently working on four projects. (That number is likely to increase but this is my current work load.) I have decided to photograph my progress. I have a woodworking class on Monday and sometimes I can work on them on Saturday so I hope to update the blog mid week. I hope that I can keep this post going because I enjoy the progress of a project just as much as the finished project. This is technically the first week of the post but I have been working on these for a little while and stopped. The glue ups and some of the cutting was done earlier.
I hope that you enjoy watching these projects develop. We will see how long these will take!

Kyle's post

2010-01-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

cdxzzzzz bmz.;.cpo;/kkkkk,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, hnnnnnnnn h sc v

Kyle was on my lap on the last post so I let him make a post on his own. he has grown up so much in 7 months

What to do with Scrap

2010-01-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

I was reading on one of the woodworking forums I follow about scrap and what people do with it. This person posted a picture of is "scrap pile" which was two 5-gallon buckets and said he gives his scrap to some neighbors who have fire places. I was surprised how large some of his scrap pieces were. Some of the pieces would make some decent projects. This prompted me to share what I do with my scrap.
When I start a project I will usually have an empty bucket to put my off fall. This way I have all the scrap from the same project and if I need a setup block or need to test a set up I know that it is the same thickness or from the same board. After the project is over I go through the bucket and pieces that I can reuse get put back in the wood pile. Pieces that are too small or unusable are thrown in the fire wood pile. The rest is made into wood blocks. Every so often I clean out the wood pile and make more blocks out of wood that I realize I will never be able to use. When I have a sufficient pile of blocks I give them away to friends or family. I am running low on friends and family so I will probably be giving them to a local charity. Granted it is not the best set in the world. They are all different sizes and shapes but there are many types of wood. Kids still have fun with blocks even if they don't make the perfect castle.
I know that hardwood makes a good fire but I hope that this will at least will get others to do the same.

The Excavator

2009-12-23T19:11:00.001-08:00

I was a little excited when I received the tracking update that my wheels had arrived at my house. My wife had other plans with my package that arrived. by the time that I arrived home she had opened it and hid the contents some where in the house. She thought it was great that she didn't have to go shopping for Christmas, packages just arrive. I told her that I had ordered wheels to finish this project. With a little coaxing she divulged the hiding place of the parts. Tonight my son and I finished this project by putting on the wheels. My son does not like the drill yet. I think it was a little to heavy for him.

This project came from the wood magazine. It is a companion to the wood crane that came out last year. I built that earlier so I was excited to see the excavator in the previous issue of Wood Magazine. The parts were actually stuff that I could buy from the hardware store except for the wheels and pegs. and it was easy to make. The only issue I had with the crane and excavator was that it was made out of 6/4 and 2/4 material which is a lot of planing and glue ups.

Both are made out of birch and walnut. The expensive part of these projects was the hardware but well worth it.

This project is where I learned how to make tight movable joints. My son had fun with it once it was completed

Teaching kids woodworking

2009-12-21T18:45:00.000-08:00

Found this on the Wood Magazine web site and thought it was pretty interesting. I plan on continuing to follow his blog. Here is the link:
Paul-Meisel
Hope you also find this blog interesting. I think if it would be fun to teach kids so if you trust me with your kids I would be more than happy to provide a class. It would have to be local only.

The Helicopter

2009-12-05T08:14:00.000-08:00

Well I actually was able to fix my mistake sort of. I am not happy about my screw up but grateful I was able to fix the mistake. On an earlier post I said that I used a table saw to cut the groove when I should have used a band saw. To fix my mistake I had to cut out the middle section of the helicopters and replace it with a strip of birch. I then re-cut the groove using the scroll saw (which worked much better). The wood was given to me from a coworker who likes to turn wood. He ordered some blanks on-line and gave me the "packing material". It turned out to be Huckleberry. It is a nice green grained wood that smells funny. (Each wood has a unique smell one of my favorites is walnut.) The picture doesn't show the beauty of the wood that well.

Despite my mistake it turned out good and I have patterns to duplicate them. There is a lot of angles on the helicopter which were not that bad, probably because I had done the bi-planes earlier. The only tricky part was the pontoons and cutting grooves equally spaced. Making Heirloom Toys does a good job on showing how to do this. They suggested glue and I taped the dowels together. I used a scroll saw to cut the propellers I am getting better but is is pretty obvious they are not balanced.

The Fire Truck

2009-12-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

One of the latest projects I completed was the fire truck. This was a request from my wife. It is made out of cherry, maple and birch. The plans are found in Making Heirloom Toys. It was not an easy vehicle to make. In fact I would put it harder than the fairy boat. It is probably due to the fact that I did not have the correct tools. It would have been nice to have a band saw and a lathe on this project. The hose coils were the most challenging to do because I did not have a lathe. I ended up using a router to cut grooves and then chucked it in a drill press to sand the radii.

The fire truck does come with an extension ladder. It is actually pretty cool if it worked. The instructions say to use friction washers. These worked for about a day and then compression set in and it can not hold up its own weight any more. Other than that it is a pretty neat feature. If I build another one I would probably use threaded rod and acorn nuts to assemble the ladder. This way I could tighten it as needed.
The truck is made out of solid wood so it is very heavy. It will actually be fun to see my son play with this toy when he is old enough.

How do You Teach Kids Woodworking?

2009-11-05T15:43:00.000-08:00

I was asked to help the cub scouts in our church to build tool boxes. It didn't seem that hard of a thing to do so I agreed. This project was to review the safety rules and basic use of hand tools. I pre-cut all the lumber for safety and speed reasons and even dry fitted them together. everything went together great in the garage. My grandfather taught me how to use hand tools and the first lesson I had was pounding nails into a block of wood. At the meeting I had one hour to teach every one (seven cub scouts) the basics.
I started with safety: safety glasses and hearing protection. I had enough glasses for everyone to wear so I felt pretty good about that. Then I had everyone pound four nails into a block of wood. This is when I knew I had a problem. None of the scouts were able to drive any of their nails in straight. They were all able to start them and then bent them. So we moved on to the tool boxes - I only had an hour.
I started by nailing the sides onto the bottom. I instructed the scouts that it is easier to start the nails in the side until the just started to protrude on the other side. This way it was easier to finish the hitting in the nail. Sure enough every single scout drove at least one nail all the way through and into the table. after the sides were put on I realized I made one small miscalculation. I was only using 1" wire nails on 3/4" material. The nails were not long enough. Lucky for me I had 1 1/2" nails in my car. These were a little bit thicker but they did the job, sort of. The thicker nails presented a new problem, they split the wood when they were used close to the ends. I didn't worry too much about it.
On to the sides of the tool box. At this point I was trying to hurry because time was running out. I did a huge disservice to the scouts by pounding in the nails with 3/8's of an inch remaining so they can pound it in the rest of the way. two philosophies emerged:
1. Aggressive: Beat the nail in and continue beating it until the wood cracks, gives way, and eventually spits in two.
2. Passive: Not finish beating in the nail and flip it over so that I can put on the other side and not have to beat in any nails.
The last part was cutting a dowel to size for a handle. They did all right with a box saw and a miter box.
I think there were more bent nails then there were nails that were driven in correctly. Overall the tool boxes looked like they made them because they did. Next time this will have to be a two meeting project. First to learn how to beat in nails. Then we will move onto a project.

If any one has any suggestions on how to teach kids wood working I am anxious to hear.

Band Saw or Table Saw

2009-10-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

I hate making a mistake that completely ruins a project. What is even worse is when I knew better and thought I could do it anyway. I was working on the helicopter (I know not a winner on the poll) and was cutting the groove for the stabilizer wing. It should have been done on a band saw but I figured I could fake it and cut it on the table saw with the blade all the way up. I figured I would not have a huge arch on the groove and I could cover it up. No only was I wrong, I cut the groove 1/4" too deep and I failed to double check my set up and failed to center my groove. Lessons I learned before but thought I could get around them.

I am going to try and savage them but I don't think I can. The lessons learned:
Always check your measurements.
Table saws are great and can be versatile but don't try to cut a straight groove with a curved blade.

A note on the poll:
I really didn't want to make the fire truck. The more and more I looked into it the more and more complicated it seemed. There were board thicknesses that were dimensioned to a 1/16". I think they were dimensions down to 1/32". Lets just say my tolerance is about +/-1/8". The ladder is made out of 1/16" dowel. I have broken 6 rungs already and that is just a dry fit! Yes I am making it because my wife wants it.

The trolley car is something that my mother wants. I have to review the plans on it. It seems pretty straight forward. I have the wood for it.

I just received the plans on the backhoe and Katie has all ready cut most of the parts. I have to shape a lot of the small ones.

The helicopter I just screwed up and will have to try and fix.

The vintage truck is the only won that I haven't started and that one is for me. I wanted the challenge and most of the parts are 1/4" thick.

Where are the Fairy People?

2009-10-04T09:59:00.001-07:00

I finally completed the ferry boats with all the cars. I am pleased on how they turned out. I took one of them over to my nieces to play with. After pulling out all the cars Sara continued to look inside the ferry and asked, "Where are the fairy people?"
Sara and Nora served as my "Toy Testers" for the ferry. If you are ever wondering why we have families over for dinner or dessert it is purely selfish reasons. I need to make sure the toys I make are safe for kids. This is definitely an older kid toy. There are several small pieces that can and do come off. A co-worker told me they expected the ferry to float. This is not a bathtub boat and it will sink and I don't plan to test that theory.
Here are the cars that go on the ferry:

The Woodie Wagon

This vehicle is made out of oak. Katie feels it needs a surf board on top. I really don't know why there would be a surf board so there is not going to be one.

The Sedan

The Sedan is made out of walnut and was the first car that I finished. The headlights were purchased. They do occasionally break off and this is a safety hazard. If I make this toy again I will probably leave off the headlights.

The Pick-Up Truck

The truck is made out of mahogany and poplar. Not much to this truck but I am curious how the center of the cab was suppose to be cut out. The plans say that the body of the cab is suppose to be hollow but gave no instruction on how to do it. I didn't think it would be worth the time so I left it solid. If any one has any idea how this is to be done please let me know.

The CoupeThe coupe is made out of maple and mahogany. The headlights still create a choking hazard. The angled front end made it very difficult to put on the fenders. I learned to make things very much over sized and then sand down to fit.

The Train Series

2009-09-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

Below are all the trains that I have made to date. The sad thing is there is still one more train that I would like to build. I don't know when I will start it. Hope you enjoy the trains

My First Train

2009-09-27T21:24:00.001-07:00

This was the first time I had ordered plans from a catalog and it was worth it. The plans are from Playstar but I found them on Meisel Hardware. The plans are copy righted so I will not be posting them. I made these a while back because I thought they would be good Christmas gifts and I could donate some to toy drives at Christmas. Well it was a large project to make five of these and it took longer than I thought it would. All the sets were donated mostly to family but I only kept the one for myself. One day I will probably make more.

The plans were great. Full size and all dimensioned. Most of the lumber is standard and can be purchased at a local hardware store. The wheels can also be purchased from Meisel Hardware but I prefer Bearcraft. The only tricky part was the groves for the linking pins. This was done on a table saw with a dado blade. I needed a reason to buy some more tools and I got one.

To let you know a time frame, I made these when my wife and I were dating. She may have applied the finish to these. I would consider these great baby toys. They are big to grab, no small parts and easy to make. One note: there are pegs on the flat bed to rubber band logs to, don't put them on and don't make the logs; kids put their toys in them and haul them around.

There are also two truck series that go with this train. I personally liked some of the trucks but some of them seemed a little plain. These will be on another post.

The Desiel Train

2009-09-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is the first train and second toy that I made after I started only making toys. I still make other stuff but found a real niche in toys. Toys also don't take up as much room as furniture. The interesting part of this train is that I did it during an adult woodworking class. Last year I decided to take the adult woodworking class at Chaffey High School. Basically I had access to all the tools and was under the super vision of a teacher. This train actually changed my view on toys.

I will talk about the boring stuff first though. It is 54" long and is made out of walnut and pine. It was mostly scrap from previous projects. The plans came out of the Toys, Games , and Furniture book by Reader's Digest. The book has some good ideas but I really was not impressed with the drawings and dimensions.

I don't see this train as a toy. It is more of a model. I see an eight-year-old playing with this train and it was around our tree at Christmas because it looks really good. I don't say that to boast because it really is not to scale and has some blemishes. This train is more of a showing piece. Two of the cars have small ladders. The wheel coverings are thin and can break easily and the box car door really moves. The links are wire hook and eye screws. I read an article in The Wood Magazine about toy making that I have embraced. A toy is something that you take to make well and may only last the amount of time that was put in to make it before it breaks. But it brings a smile to a child's face and a glimmer to their eye. I would be disappointed if this train broke therefore I do not see this as a toy.

Interestingly enough I gleaned a fair amount of knowledge from this project. I learned how to use a band saw to re-saw wood (take lumber and cutting it to different thicknesses). A lot of the parts to this train were 3/8" thick. It would be a huge waste of wood to plane 3/4" wood to half it's thickness. This is where the re-sawing comes in, I cut the standard lumber in half. Please also note that I could not do this without being in the class because I had access to an industrial band saw and an industrial planer. This project is also where I learned that a little bit of color goes a long way. My accent wood is walnut and it makes different details stand out and the entire project look that much better. The walnut used was all considered scrap. This was also a project that was a confidence builder for me. It was fun to make but I don't know what I am going to do with it. Right now it is sitting on a shelf behind other toys so that when children come over they don't see it.

The Passenger Train

2009-09-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

This train was made along side the train mentioned below just that this finished first. This one really tested my skills at the scroll saw (and I am still not very good). All the windows and doors had to be cut out using a scroll saw. I thought it was a clever idea to double stick tape the faces together so that I was cutting two pieces instead of one and I have matching parts. I did not realize how much of a pain it was to remove double stick tape. However I would do it again. I made two of them, the picture below shows all six cars and has a walnut roof. The one above has mahogany roofs.

If you are wondering why I make multiples of projects it is for this very reason: It is just as easy to make one as it is to make two or three. I can always find some child to give the extra to (Lately it has been for baby showers).

Here is a note on the materials used. The sides are made out of a veneered MDF which is why I am hesitant to give this train away. Some MDF contains chemicals known to cause health issues. I typically don't use MDF but I received this for free so I wasn't going to waste it. I am sure it is fine but when purchasing furniture and wooden toys for kids try to stay away from MDF and particle board. As long as the children don't eat this train it is fine and will cause no problems.

This also came from the book Making Heirloom Toys.

My latest train

2009-09-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

This is the last train I made. For the most part there was nothing that was really complicated except that I was making very small parts. The wheels and smoke stack were purchased; thank goodness for that. The pattern came from the Making Heirloom Toys. I did however learn how to cut a flat bottom on a dowel. That was interesting. It is outlined in the book but essentially glue the ends of a dowel to a scrap block and run it through the table saw. The other way is to hand plane it. My nephew picked this train out for Christmas last year.

Pictures for the Poll

2009-09-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

I was was told that I needed pictures for my poll on the left so here they are:

1. tolly car
2. vintage truck
3. fire truck (sorry the picture didn't come out well. It is in the upper left corner)
4. helicopter
5. the backhoe - I don't have a picture because it is coming out in the next issue of Wood Magizine. For those of you who have seen my crane, it is the the matching piece

I am disappointed that I can not see who voted for what on my poll. I guess that is how it works. If you would like me to let me know I would be grateful. I am not one for guessing.

My video

2009-09-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

I was sent this e-mail at work and I have to post it for all the engineers out there

The Grasshopper or Cricket

2009-09-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

In "Making Heirloom Toys" it is called a grasshopper but I called it a cricket and I don't remember what I called it last. This is what I though I was going to be making for Nora (See ferry post below) but her sister Sara wanted it. It is an interesting toy that can pretty much be made out of scrap. In this case it was poplar. The hardest part about the grasshopper was the eyes. It is 3/4" dowel that should be rounded on a lathe. I don't have one so I used a drill press.

When I make more I will not be putting on the antennas because it is not easy finding glue that attaches plastic to wood. I found some model glue but I don't trust it. The antennas present a severe choking hazard if they come off. I will be making more because they come from scrap lumber and they will make great presents

This was also where I learned how to make my own wheels. Purchased wheels are still easier and better to use. To make the wheels I used a hole saw in a drill press. Then put the cut circles on a bolt and secured it using a wing nut. The bolt was then attached to the drill press and I could sand the wheel smooth. I had to do this for the back wheels because they are not a standard size.

The Bi-Plane

2009-09-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

This is another project from "Making Heirloom Toys" book that was given to me for Christmas. I guess this is the toy that caught April's attention when she bought it, so I had to make it. All I have to say is thank goodness for a belt sander. There was a lot of angled cuts I made with a band saw that needs a new blade. My cuts were not pretty and needed a fair amount of sanding to look good.

It has been fun flying it around my son's head because he likes to track it, but he does not like it landing on his tummy. Overall the planes tuned out well. They did remind me of a few safety rules.
1. Belt sanders and thin parts are not meant for each other. It is easy to get manicures trying to hold down the thin part. I tried to sand the wings on the belt sander and it slipped and embedded itself in the dust trap. This resulted in a nice sanded half moon in the wing. So I promptly removed the dust trap and continued sanding the wings letting them fly into the wall when they slipped. It is better than getting a manicure from a belt sander!!!
2. Make sure you keep your hands clear when machining small parts. The engine cowl was made with a lot of luck, but there is a radius that is put on by a router. To do this I put the part in a clamp. It is better to loose a clamp then a finger and I still have all ten of my fingers.

The Ferry Boat: The Last of the Christmas Projects

2009-09-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is one of the latest projects I have completed and probably the largest toy. This came out of the "Making Heirloom Toys" book and I like how it turned out. There are four cars that also go with it, but they are not quite done. Making wheels is a pain so I would suggest buying them. Unfortunately I don't have that option with these cars.

Just to put this in perspective the ferry is two feet long. My wife will probably point out that this is the one with the mahogany roofs. I made two. The other has walnut roofs and we are keeping that one. I was originally planning on building one, but last Christmas my wife (yes I will blame her) decided it would be fun for me to have all the nieces and nephews pick out a toy from the toy books that I had received. Well Nora was commenting on a grasshopper pull toy that she like and I thought I got off easy with her, but as we were closing the book she said, "But what I really like is the fairy." So out of the six Christmas project I had to do, here has taken the longest and is the last to complete.

I learned a lot about templates on this project. The sides were made using a router and template. The templates was made out of hardboard and I new if I messed it up I could make another one. The other way of making the sides would have been to drill holes and cut the centers out with a scroll saw. The template offered more uniformity to the sides.

For those of you who picked up that there are still five other project that I have made, I will also post those also. Unfortunately I have all ready finished and given the others out so it is going to take a little bit of time.