The Front End Loader

This is one of the most requested items by my kids.  Ever since I brought home the design they have been asking for it.  If I remember correctly my middle child actually slept with the plans the night I brought the plans home.  My oldest slept with the toy last night.  There are things that I like about it and things that I am going to modify. 

 First problem was all about the design process.  When I was putting it into the CAD system everything fit even though some of the joints were close or parts were thin.  The shovel caused the most grief.  Because the joints were tight, my first bucket did not move.  There were some modifications and I figure that I need to give the joints about an 1/8" tolerance.

The second mistake was trying to make the bucket thin.  I do have to give a little bit of back story on this process.  The bucket is made up of laminated pieces and to line all these parts up I marked 1/8" holes in precise locations in the pattern.  This allows an 8d brad nail to be put through the holes and line up the various parts.  I started with 1 1/2" thick material. The first mistake was that I cut out the part and then drilled the holes.  The 1/8" drill bit walked on a couple of the parts making alignment off. 

First assembly of the shovel.

My second mistake was using 1 1/2" thick material on a scroll saw with the wrong blade ( I used a #7 skip tooth).  The blade did not cut square.  I figured I could sand it all out.  This is probably why my sander belt sander died.  So I sanded all out and sanded to the assembly holes, which were less than a 1/16" from the edge.  I still did a dry fit which is when I found out all my joints were locked.  So I went back to the design and moved all my joints out and all the pieces of the bucket were made with 3/4" pieces.  I also thickened the wall of the shovel.  The second shovel went together much easier and less sanding.

 This was a fun little project and with a lot of discoveries.  Glad I finally completed it for my kids so now they can pressure me into a garbage truck.

The Belly Trailer

So I was sick over the weekend which gave me time to assemble the toys I put finish on.  This is the belly trailer that goes with the semi truck cab plan. 

It is amazing what I learned as I built the trailer.  Things look like they will work great in the 3D design but when the actual parts come together there were problems that I did not think about.
First was the holder for the doors.  In the design the piece with the groove had plenty of glue bond to support the constant opening and closing of the doors.  When I made the part, I realized there was no way this part was going to hold up.  The easy fix was to add small support pieces to the edges to allow more glue bond and add the needed support.

 The doors have two dowels to hold the doors in the groove so a parent doesn't have to continually put the doors back in when a child pulls them out.  These have to be put in after it is finished.  I didn't think that it was going to be a huge deal until I tried.  There is not enough room in the trailer to accommodate a hand to hold the peg and a hammer.  The solution is simple enough.  If the edge of the dowel is rounded it can be pushed in enough to hold it in place while it can be set with in with a hammer using a small piece of 3/8" dowel as an extension.

Fun little project and made me do a couple of angle cuts that I do not like to do.  My favorite part of this project was figuring out the design.

A Hot Day

Summer finally arrived in Southern California.  I think we were having a little bit of everyone's summer.  We had cool weather and then monsoon weather and now we have the heat and the fires.  Not the best weather to prep, cut and then glue wood in the changing weather.  I am working on several projects.  I have a grader and dump truck which I will put up for sale.  These are to confirm the drawing changes I made from the prototype.  I also have a belly trailer for the semi truck I just made and a front end loader.  These are the new designs that I am working on.  I think I got a little too confident in my abilities and made some decent design errors in the front end loader. 
The first main mistake was making the shovel walls too thin.  The concept was good but the execution was very flawed.  When sanding it smooth I sanded through some of my alignment holes.  The alignment holes were also close enough to the edge that it weakened the part when I drilled them.
This leads me to the second error.  All the parts were made out of 1 1/2" thick lumber. I thought the 1/8" drill bit would not walk on me when going through.  This was an incorrect assumption.  This caused a lot of grief.  It was also a pain to cut out on the scroll saw.  I admit, I was probably using the wrong blade. but a #7 should not have had a problem cutting the part out.  Well the blade did not cut straight.  No problem, that is why I have a sander.
Third problem was not checking the parts before gluing them together.  Yes I did a dry fit.  I have two parts that are close in size and important difference is the hole is a different size by a 1/32" for an fixed and movable joint.  I mixed them up.  It will not affect the end result, just a little inconvenience.  So I have made changes to the drawings and will see how the changes work.

Saturday was also the day that I really felt the heat in the garage.  It was tough doing glue ups.  It felt I like my open time for the glue was less than a minute until it skinned over.  That is not a lot if time to spread it and put the pieces together. 
All in all it was a productive day.  I hope to finish a lot of these projects labor day weekend.

On a sad note, my 4" belt sander died.  I think it will cost more in parts and shipping than to buy a new one.  It served me well.  I was hoping for a little bit longer until I upgraded to a 6" belt sander.  The motor was out of balance, some of the welds have broken, and in a final act of defiance it shredded it's drive belt.  So I ma in the market for a new belt sander.