Letter from Editor Our Seven Questions I was trying to
think about what to write for this second installment of Wood Toy Weekly and thankfully I have a handful of ideas before that well starts to dry up a bit but then I thought maybe it would be fun to answer the same questions I send out to you Toymakers that want to get involved with us at WTW. So here goes... 1. How long have you been making wood toys? Professionally, about five minutes. But I have been digging through family scrap buckets and hand tooling shapes into toys and whatever else I needed at the time for about forty years. 2. Who or what was your initial inspiration? My initial inspiration came by way of desire. I wanted toys my friends had but my family was very frugal and outside of Christmas or a birthday, you simply didn’t ask for toys. But I was uber creative and was fortunately born with craftsmanship and creativity in droves, so I’d just saw, sand, drill and whittle my way to whatever I wanted. Many times it turning out far superior to my friend’s mass produced plastic garbage. 3. Did you have any early roadblocks, obstacles? My Pop was my greatest obstacle, in that I wasn’t allowed to use his power tools or saws. This forced me into learning and appreciating hand tools. To this day, I still prefer sitting on my stool and hand tooling a chunk of wood into something else. 4. What has been your favorite Toy Build project? This isn’t so much a toy but it was to me. Circa 1982 or 83 I see Arnold in, “Conan the Barbarian” he finds a sword in that movie and oh boy, did I LOVE that sword. Well obviously you couldn’t buy that but after about three days in my Pop’s shop, I had one. Even painted it up to match. Side note: A question back, I mentioned that my Pop was an early obstacle. He calls me over after seeing me playing with the lads and there I am swinging and wielding a sword.
It took a quick once over by my Pop to see the edge I was able to put on that wood “toy” sword and it was gone from my world. Most likely a safe decision. 5. What does Toy Making mean to/for you? There’s a lot to what I’m about to say but basically Toy Making is a present and future I NEVER dreamed or saw coming until, John Lewman called me and asked me to join his team. It’ll undoubtedly be a part of the rest of my life. 6. Favorite tool in your shop? This will make you scroll saw pros and sanding wheel folks cringe but my family came from England and had a Livery in Illinois. I work mostly in Osage (Bodark) and it’s like concrete. I find something so completely satisfying in removing wood by hand with my ancient set of farrier rasps. 7. If you could pass one piece of advice on to a new Toy Maker, what
would that be? Albeit fairly new to the Toy building world myself, I would always suggest being patient and going slowly and asking older builders, LOTS of questions. So there you have it, I’m a newby to Toys but pretty comfortable working with wood. So for many of you, we’re in this together. It’s been my experience in the Forum that these older pro’s are so giving, you just have to be willing to ask. Thanks everybody, feel free to drop me a line,
Clint M. Director of Design and New Product Development clint.metcalf@toymakingplans.com
Contents
1st Annual Wood Toy Car Show page 5
Meet Toymaker, Grandpa Bear Bit by the toy making bug page 4
Meet Toymaker, Peter Verhulst A lawyer with a toy making hobby page 8
Meet Toymaker, Connie Bringing ingenuity into her builds page 6
Toymaker Tips
Picking the right glue for your build page 10
Meet Nick (Grandpa Bear) Brandon I’m Nick Brandon from Hastingwood, Essex, UK. Aged 55 with a 11 month old grandson. Last time I did any real woodworking was at school 39 years ago. but only simple stuff. I’ve always liked making models when I was younger, but they were Airfix kits. Then when my son got into Warhammer in the 1990’s it was me who painted the miniatures, I got pretty good at that. 1. How long have you been making wood toys? I’ve been making wood toys for about 3 months.
“What I learned from this build, sand, then sand again. Don’t rush, be patient. Make all pieces and do a dry build. Most of all, enjoy yourself, I did.” Nick (Grandpa Bear) Brandon
Peterbuilt Construction Set is available at toymakingplans.com
2. Who or what was your initial inspiration? My inspiration was my Grandson. My daughter likes wooden toys and shuns plastic, wooden toys are so expensive that I thought I’d have a go at making some. 3. Did you have any early roadblocks, obstacles? Initial obstacles were only using hand tools, coping saw, chisels etc. It took ages so I bought a band saw from Ebay, it makes things quicker for me but not necessarily easier. 4. What has been your favorite Toy Build project? My favorite Toy build project has been the Peterbilt Construction set from John and Cynthia’s plans, they are so easy to follow and I’m pleased with the results. I’m also in the process of building Noah’s Ark complete with 2 of each animal, this is scratch built without a plan. 5. What does Toy Making mean to/for you? Toy making makes me feel proud that I am keeping scrap wood from being wasted and that I’ve turned it into something of use that someone will cherish. 6. Favorite tool in your shop? My favorite tool is my band saw, it’s a Godsend, once you learn how to use it correctly. 7. If you could pass one piece of advice on to a new Toy Maker, what would that be? My advice to novice Toy Makers would be, is to persevere when things don’t go exactly to plan, you can always modify the toy, then try again if you want perfection.
RULES
1. Must be completely made of wood 2. Must be a car built from one of our three selected car plans (Hill Billy Hot Rods, Hot Rod Jamboree or 1930 Rat Rod) 3. Must be shipped to the TMP office by November 25th. Judging will take place the first week of December. (cars WILL NOT be sent back, we will donate them afterwards to one of our chosen charitable organizations) Best in Show - $200 Home Depot Card The PISTOL Trophy, A Feature in the Wood Toy Weekly 4. MUST HAVE FUN BUILDING IT! Best Painted & Best Natural $50 Home Depot Card
PRIZES
Two Honorable Mentions $25 Home Depot Card Ship entries to:
Toymakingplans.com c/o John Lewman 5900 Woodfield Court Parkville, MO 64152 Questions:
contest@toymakingplans.com
Meet Toymaker Connie L (Connie) Connie is a software engineer. Woodworking allows her to flex her creative muscles, while also decompressing from the day/week.
Noah’s Fun-Time Mini Ark is available at toymakingplans.com
From a recommendation she picked up on the forum, Connie made plywood templates from scrap to trace directly on the wood without adhesive.
Play Pal Cars are available at toymakingplans.com
1. How long have you been making wood toys? About 3 years. 2. Who or what was your initial inspiration? My daughter and my granddaughter. The very first toy I made was a rocking horse that I designed and built for my daughter, as a one time project. Years later when my granddaughter was born, I wanted to make a special gift for her first birthday. I made a little chair that folds down to a step-stool. During that project, I was inspired with ideas for other projects. And, that started my journey into woodworking. 3. Did you have any early roadblocks, obstacles? The first time I attempted to use the scroll saw, it was a disaster. I ended up postponing the project I wanted to make for a Christmas gift until I could build more skills. I switched to something easier for that year. My amazing and encouraging husband bought me the “Scroll Saw Workbook” by John Nelson. My skills improved drastically within the first few of lessons! I made the project for the following Christmas and it turned out great. 4. What has been your favorite Toy Build project? From ToyMakingPlans.com, the Noah’s Ark is my favorite. Searching the web for a Noah’s Ark pattern is actually how I found this site. I did a mash up, building the ark from one plan and the animals from another plan. One of the things that made this build fun was choosing different hardwoods to reflect the animals’ coloring. I found Poplar at my local HD in three very different colors: a dark green for the alligators, a gray for the elephants, and a creamy beige for the camels. People keep complementing the amazing staining work. They are surprised every time when I tell them there was no stain used, that is the natural colors of the hardwood brought out by a bee’s wax and mineral oil paste. From my own designs, my favorite is a toy camera. The lens twists, the film advancer turns, and the button pushes down and springs back up. There is also a see-and-draw screen (chalk board) on the back and a secret stash door opens to hold a piece of chalk. I spent many hours thinking about the features that would make this a surprising toy and researching how to execute them. I really enjoyed that part of the project. Seeing John’s designs and reading the forum show me there is even more that can be done 5. What does Toy Making mean to/for you? For me, toy making (and woodworking in general) is about connecting with family and friends in a unique way. It is a gift of time and love. While I am deciding on what to make, planning, prepping, building, and finishing, I am thinking fondly about the recipient, praying for them, considering how they will use the gift, and analyzing along the way what I can improve to make it a better fit. My thing this past year has been to add a little feature or detail that will surprise the recipient. 6. Favorite tool in your shop? It is between the Dewalt Scroll Saw and the Dewalt Portable Table Saw. The portable table saw has been the biggest game changer for me, especially after making two sleds: one for regular blade and one for dado blade. Almost every project begins on my table saw and having a quality saw makes getting started so much easier. That said, I spend the most time on the Dewalt Scroll Saw. I started with a Wen Scroll Saw and upgraded to the Dewalt after knowing how much it would get used. 7. If you could pass one piece of advice on to a new Toy Maker, what would that be? I tend to be a perfectionist. The possibility of a mistake would sometimes cause me stress on longer projects. As I got further along, the cost of a mistake went up and this sometimes caused me to hesitate on steps that required new skills. If you find yourself in this struggle, then take your time, research, practice on scrap wood, and remember to enjoy yourself. If you make a mistake, it is often recoverable. You will probably be the only one that will notice the change/correction you made. If it is not recoverable, it’s not the end of the world. You can most likely buy another piece of wood.
Meet Toymaker Peter (Peter V) Verhulst Peter Verhulst is a sixty-six year old lawyer that lives in the
Netherlands. He and his wife have been married for forty years and have two grown children and a lovely five month old grandson. Having flown for the military and worked for the Homedepartment before starting his own lawfirm, Peter V isn’t one for sitting in front of the television and not using his hands. don’t miss Peter’s answers to our seven questions on page 11.
These plans, Peterbuilt Tractor Trailer & Hi-Loader, Mercedes Truck, 1927 Bi-Plane and Winnebago are all available at: toymakingplans.com
Peter Has most recently been working on the Classic Winnebago, plans are available at toymakingplans.com. We’ll show Peter’s finished product in a future issue of Wood Toy Weekly.
Can’t get enough of your Follow our Community on these social media platforms as well facebook.com/toymaking
1. How long have you been making wood toys? Several years 2. Who or what was your initial inspiration? The initial inspiration was seeing a picture of the Land-Rover 3. Did you have any early roadblocks, obstacles? Not really, but it took a while before I got myself a table saw. At first, did the most by sanding and ´converting´ fractional measures into mm. I don´t put the drawings directly tot he wood but cut the out and then take the contours over to the wood. I do find it hard to recognize (types of) wood, don’t know nothing about characteristics such as splintering, warping and the color of the wood when finished (with oil), so selecting wood for some contrast in and on the toy, I have to learn. 4. What has been your favorite Toy Build project? The Peterbilt 389 with Lowboy and Shovel/Hiloader. The Mercedes truck was also very much fun to build. 5. What does Toy Making mean to/for you? Permanent source of inspiration and ideas, nice and friendly forum, good advice and very open in their communication(s). 6. Favorite tool in your shop? Hard to say, are multiple items such as the tablesaw (Proxxon), oscillating sander for round curves. 7. If you could pass one piece of advice on to a new Toy Maker, what would that be? That is hard to say, when you have the patience, take your time, the more beautiful the end result will be. But when you are less interested in details, there is still the fun of building a toy or model). All in all it is far better than sitting in front of a tv. And use the forum, there’s a lot of knowledge is available and will be shared-given.
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Submitted Editorial
Want to see your work highlighted in the pages of WTW, just drop me a line, telling me a bit about yourself and answer our seven questions. 1.How long have you been making toys? 2.Who or what was your initial inspiration? 3.Did you have any early roadblocks? 4.What has been your favorite Toy Build project? 5.What does Toy Making mean to/for you? 6.Favorite tool in your shop? 7.If you could pass one piece of advice on to a new Toy Maker, what would that be? We especially want to see your work made from our plan sets. Please e-mail images with up to six images attached to each e-mail. You can send them directly to me at: clint.metcalf@toymakingplans.com
Forum Tips & Tricks The Right Glue for Your Builds Knowing the right glue for your project can be a bit confusing. Sometimes we need the tight grip, sometimes a faster set time is what we’re after. Nearly every project calls for a different type bond. I found some nice tips off the forum and spent some time on the Titebond website in hopes of clearing some things up.
Titebond Original Wood Glue is the industry standard for woodworking. It provides a strong initial tack and fast speed of set to reduce clamp time. It also develops a bond stronger than the wood itself, offers excellent sandability and is unaffected by finishes. It is ideal for wood, hardboard, particleboard, leather, cloth and most other porous materials. Titebond Original is easy to use, non-toxic and cleans up with water.
Titebond II Dark Wood Glue is a dyed-version of Titebond II Wood Glue. It provides a strong initial tack and fast speed of set to reduce clamp time. It also develops a bond stronger than the wood itself, offers excellent sandability and is unaffected by finishes. It is ideal for wood, hardboard, particleboard, leather, cloth and most other porous materials. Titebond Dark is easy to use, non-toxic and cleans up with water.
Titebond II Premium Wood Glue is the only leading brand, one-part wood glue that passes the ANSI Type II water-resistance specification. It is ideal for exterior woodworking projects, including outdoor furniture, birdhouses, mailboxes, planters and picnic tables. Titebond II Premium provides a strong initial tack, fast speed of set, superior strength and excellent sandability. It is FDA approved for indirect food contact (cutting boards.)
Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue is the first one-part, water cleanup wood glue ever offered that is proven waterproof. The waterproof formula passes the ANSI/HPVA Type I water-resistance specification and offers superior bond strength, longer open assembly time and lower application temperature. Titebond III is non-toxic, solvent free and cleans up with water - safer to use than traditional waterproof wood glues. It provides strong initial tack, sands easily without softening and is FDA approved for indirect food contact (cutting boards).
Titebond Quick & Thick Multi-Surface Glue is the thickest, fastest-drying water-based glue available for use with porous and semi-porous materials. It is ideal for wood, pottery, ceramic, stone, glass, fabrics, leather and most craft-type materials. Titebond Quick & Thick Multi-Surface Glue provides a strong initial tack and fast speed of set, yet allows realignment of working pieces. It also develops a bond stronger than the wood itself, dries clear and is unaffected by finishes.
Latest Release
Plans from this issue