Street Sweeper

The street sweeper was a quick turnaround project.  My oldest actually did the preliminary sketches and showed me.  He told me that this was my next project.  I have to admit, a 7 year old is not the easiest client to work with.  It had to have brushes and a siren on top.  I can also say that it was not the easiest build either.  There were some angles and holes close to the edge that I was not that excited about. 

It is built on the same platform as the city trucks.  The size is about the same.  I struggled with the front wheels.  The size was easy but how I was going to recess them in was a problem.  The wheels are only a ½” thick so if I recessed them to the chassis the wheels would not look right.  This is why I grooved the side panels so that the chassis, back and roof all fit into the grooves in the side panels.  This way I could recess the wheels ½” and not have the hole in the cab from the dado.  It also made the chassis, roof and back all the same rip width. The grill is something that I tried and I like how it turned out.  It is a two piece grill.  This allowed for the vein lines and a solid top.  I like how it turned out.  The back side is a bock with an angle cut in the back.  The challenge is the underside.

I will start with the vacuum piece.  This has a top and bottom groove through most of the width of the part.  This is where grain direction becomes important.  The grain direction should run the parallel to the length.  There is not much material on the edges.  This is one reason I make two of everything.  I just doubled the width of the part making more stable.  The holes to put the pegs in are close to the grooves.  The brushes were the challenge of the entire project.  They needed to be angled because they had to rotate; requirement of a 7 year old. So I came up this this idea.  I took a 12 inch piece and cut the angle in each end.  Then I marked the location of the hole to be drilled.  With the part clamped in the drill press, I drilled the holes.  This way I had the holes at the right angle.  Then I cut the parts to length.  After gluing the pieces in, I used them as a drill guide to finish drilling the holes through the chassis into the container.  That is how the brushed got their angle.  The instructions for this are not going to be easy.

I really enjoyed doing this project and it came out better than I thought it would.  I had some really concerns because my oldest has quite an imagination.  The overall dimensions of the street sweeper is 10 x 5 x 5 inches

Year in Review

It was another great year with a lot of fun projects and some challenging projects.  Business is going well, but did not make enough to fund this year.  I did not expect it to this year.  This year I added to my tool collection.  I purchased a sharpening system.  I realized not only, how dull my set of chisels was, but how cheap they are.  This year I had some trouble finishing some larger projects but that is now next year’s goal.  My Etsy shop is going well.  I cannot complain.  I have had some positive reviews and some things that I need to improve upon.

This year’s highlights included:

·         Finished the car carrier.  This is probably the biggest undertaking I have done with a toy.  There was a lot of scroll saw work and sanding.  I liked how they turned out and I had a couple of orders for them.  The commission pieces came out even better.  It was a good way to start out the year.

·         I purchased a sharpening system to sharpen my tools.  It does a great job sharpening knives.  I have also sharpened my chisels.  I sharpened a couple of plane irons but I don’t know how to setup a hand plane so I was getting frustrated.  I will wait until I can learn proper techniques before I completely give up.  There is value to learning how to use a hand plane.

·         Finished some modular toy cabinets.  These replaced my first project that I ever made.  It was a little different having a large project in the shop.  I kept it flat as long as possible.  These are also able to convert to desks as the kids grow older.  I really liked how they came out.

·         I think I had two major learning/accomplishment projects.  The first was the airplane.  It was small and seemed easy but there were a lot of issues that I needed to overcome.  The angled wings and the sequence of cuts were two of the major learning moments.  It was also on this project that I realized I need to take more pictures of the process.  The second stepping stone was the temple portrait.  This was the most detailed scroll work that I have done.  This was a confidence builder more than anything. 

Goals I had for this year:

·         I released about seven plans this year and will have another three to release early next year.  I am happy with the amount of projects I did this year.

·         I want to finish the camping boxes I started this year.  The carcass is complete.  I need to put in the shelves, hang the doors and finish all the internal storage.

·         I did not do as well on having more kids over to play with the toys.  Something to work on this year.

My favorite projects this year:

·         One of my favorite projects this year may be a surprise to people.  It was the planters.  It was an extremely simple project that did not require a lot of planning except for the activities of the day.  It was nice just to do something simple with the family.

·         The other project that I enjoyed was the scroll saw stand.  This was a simple project especially since most of it was done a CNC router.  It wasn’t the project that thrilled me; it was the design part of it and improving on a previous design.

·         As for toys it would be a tossup between the garbage truck and the skid loader.  The garbage truck because it was a difficult design that went through multiple iterations.  The skid loader because it was an improvement to another design.  I am happy how sturdy it came out.

·         I just finished this one before posting this.  The street sweeper, soon to be on the blog, is one that fired me up to complete before year’s end.  It was designed by my oldest and we worked together to get a working design.  The brushes even move with the friction of the carpet.  Can’t wait to see his face on Christmas.

Goals for this year:

·         This year the toys are going to be either for the younger group, 2-4 years old.  I also hope to do some toys that are traditionally for girls.  My wife and I discussed that our kids no longer have room for more toys so I am going to be making some that are better suited for a younger crowd.  I also know that I have a huge hole in my offering because I exclusively made toys that my kids wanted to play with.

·         I want to do at least one craft fair.  The Etsy shop is going as well as I hoped but I want to have the experience of a craft show.  I will probably go in with someone for help.

·         From a business stand point I want to make enough money to buy some sharper tools.  I need to maintain and replace some of my dull blades and bits.

Salt Lake Temple Portrait

A couple of months ago I was asked to cut out the Salt Lake Temple.  I was not sure even how to start or where I could get a pattern. I am active on a couple of forums so I posted the question with a picture of the Salt Lake temple on it. Less than 24 hours later I had a pattern in my hand.  Honestly I didn’t think I could do it.  There were a lot of small cuts and looked like it would take more time and effort I wanted to put in.  Someone had taken the time to create the pattern for me so the least I could do would be to make an effort to cut it out.  One plus side was that I needed to by some tools for the project.  Granted it was new blades and a mini drill bit set. 

So I cut out my blanks of 1/8” birch ply wood.  I stacked cut two out.  I have learned that I do not have as much control cutting out a single sheet of 1/8” material.  I started drilling and cutting.  I quickly learned that I had to slow the saw down a couple of steps.  I learned a little late, but it was ok, to cut out the small pieces before cutting out the larger sections.  The larger cut outs reduced the strength of the part and the board would vibrate with the blade when cutting out the smaller sections.  I only cut through a couple of parts and no one will know where. 

Cutting was one challenging part.  The next part was peeling off the pattern.  This was another reason why I cut two.  I did not have to worry about the pattern on the second piece.  Taking the painter’s tape of carefully was a challenge but it was true to its name and came off easily.  It was actually sturdier than I thought it would be.  The backer was painted black and glued to the portrait. 

I enjoyed the challenge but I think it will be a little white before I do another portrait.  I may not do a building again.  The straight lines caused me a little grief.

2017 Christmas Ornament

I found next year's ornament early on and so I have already started cutting it out.  This year the wood is pine.  I have had problems in the past with blow out and chipping on the back side.  I had some 1/8" hardboard so I decided to put a backers on the stacks in hopes to minimize the chip out.  It worked, but I had these ornaments of thin board.  I could just throw them away, but I decided to practice on them.  I wanted to try something else in my air brush other than shellac.  I found some pearl gold air brush paint at a local craft store.  I used 1/2 a bottle on the nine ornaments.  Looking back, I do not think my settings were correct.  The paint was a lot thinner than than shellac.  I should have dialed back the amount of paint going through the nozzle.  They turned out ok.  The paint was not as consistent as I would have hoped, but that is my fault.

This weekend was not as optimal as would have hoped.  I had a lot of finishing to do and several projects are presents.  This was the last finishing day I had before they needed to be shipped out.  While I was setting up in the morning I heard a loud weird noise.  Looked around and did not see anything out of the ordinary and continued to set up.  The neighbor across from us was setting up for a yard sale and came over.  He asked if I knew there was a downed power line in our yard.  Upon inspection there was a downed line in our backyard.  The live end was in the neighbor's yard, but my yard was still off limits.  We went and did a couple of things as a family.  When we came back, the wire was cut back but not repaired.  Good news was the power was still on.  So I started my finishing.  Half way through my first coat the power was cut.  They estimated it would be turned back on at 8:30 in the evening.  I used what air I had in my compressor to clean my air brush and clean up.  Now I have to figure out how I am going to finish these presents in time.

Planter boxes

Over the weekend I decided to make planter boxes despite the fact that I had a lot of other projects that I needed to complete.  My family needed some time and this was the weekend to do it.  The local fair ground was having a farm day so we just made it a themed Saturday.  I took the kids to Lowes to pick up some dirt.  Then we went to the farm event and had a great time.  We even picked up some plants.
I was hopping that the kids would be more interested in building the planters but they got bored real quick.  The planters were simple.  Four 2x4's screwed together to make a square.  The squares were stacked on top of each other and screwed together for depth.  Our herb garden was only two 2x4's tall and then we made three that were 4 tall.  The planters were open on the bottom so they just sat on the ground.  The dirt went in and then we planted the plants and seeds.
I know that this is not a good time to plant, but the kids enjoyed it and if it doesn't work out we can do it again in four months.

The only issue I had with the entire project was the screws.  I got deck screws with the star head.  a box of 2 1/2" and 2".  Both promoted they came with a free bit.  What I did not realize is that the screws had different size bits.  I could not use the same bit for both screws.  This was slightly aggravating.

New Ornaments

Our family picks up an ornament from the various places we visit each year.  It is kind of our travel log.  My son has attended a Project Surf Camp for a couple of years.  This year he came home and requested and told us that we needed a project surf camp ornament for our tree.  He actually drew one out, but it was lost.  I talked with him about making the sticker we received an ornament.  He was ok with the idea and this is what came out.

I tried using a spiral blade on the top lettering.  It is the first time I have ever used one and didn't really like it.  I did not feel like i had good control over the blade.  It stretched when I put tension on it and the end bent all over the place making it difficult to insert into the pilot holes.  I don't know if I will be using them again.  Other than the upper lettering I am happy with how it turned out.  It was a lot of holes and I was in constant fear that I was going to cut through and ruin the piece.

The ornament of Yoda is because I found a picture online and thought it would be a fun cut out. Sorry I cannot sell it the image is copyrighted.  But you can make the snowflakes from their webpage.

Fork Lift

This was a request from my kids, like most of them are.  They wanted a fork lift to replace the one that I though was too fragile to throw around.  I think there is a trend for the toys that I am making.  The forklift proved to be a challenge that I could not figure out.  I did not want a string to lift the forks up.  I thought about a wedge design or steps.  Nothing seemed to work how I wanted it to.  So I went back to the string.  I sort of disguised it as a propane tank.  I really did not like a handle and crank on the side.

I learned that I need to be careful how close I drill to the end of the board.  I originally had an 1/8" between the front of the chassis and edge of the wheel well.  That ripped apart when I drilled it.  Fixing was easy, just cut out the broken material.  This is reflected in the plans that are for sale.


This is also one of the projects where I am glad I have a 3d modeling system.  I was struggling on how to attach the mast to the chassis.  My original plan was to dowel it through the mast sides.  When reviewing the model, I noticed that the dowels were sticking into the wheels.  This is why the mast bottom was added and finishing became a little more complicated.  The joints of the mast need to be taped before the finish is applied