ISSUE 9
What’s Happening In The New Shop page 2
Builder Spotlight with
Kevin O’Keeffe
page 4
Making Resin Wheels
page 6 1
Letter from Editor What’s Happening In The New Shop
customers.
Now that we have our new shop set up at toymakingplans.com headquarters, we have been busy building and prototyping toys. And making sure that we maintain a high quality standard for the plans that we design for our
On the cover you see John T Lewman, son of John W Lewman our Founder and Master Toy Designer. John T has watched and participated as his father designed and prototyped new toys since he was a little boy. A few of the toys his dad made for him are still like new. In his hands is the beginning prototype for a toy soldier and cannon set we’re working on. As you can see, we go through a lengthy design process. We start with the open idea phase. Next are the various sketch ideas, which eventually become the fullsize drawings John W makes on large cardboard panels. All the toy parts are prototyped to insure proper fit and that everything lines up plus the scale is on point. If everything checks out we’re ready to move on to making the final plan set. Our workshop is in English Landing in Parkville, Missouri close to our office. The workshop makes it easy to go from idea sketches to prototyping to final design 2
and a complete plan set. It helps for a quick turnaround as we can just go to the shop in a matter of minutes to adjust on the fly. This also gives us an opportunity to provide quick responses to those of you who have questions and who want video tips and tutorials for a problem you may be having in making your toys or even woodworking in general. We are committed to providing the best wood toy plans in the world, and our new shop will help facilitate that. We are super appreciative of the support we receive from the toy makers around the world who are a part of our wood toy making family! Kenneth Smith Creative Marketing/Social Media Director Submitting Your Story Want to see your work highlighted in the pages of WTW? Just drop us a line, telling us 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 us at: woodtoyweekly@toymakingplans.com
Contents
Visit Us on Social Media
Follow our Community on these social media platforms as well. facebook.com/toymaking
Kevin O’Keeffe page 4
Making Resin Wheels page 6
twitter.com/toymakingplans
instagram.com/toy_making_plans www.pinterest.com/ woodtoyforumgallery/wood-toy-plans/ www.toymakingplans.com
Submitting Your Photos
Photo Gallery page 8
Free Patterns page 10
The New Shop page 2
Try to include a broad selection of images providing the reader with a comprehensive view of your work. Include vertical as well as horizontal format images. Consider your background, try to not have too much going on in the background. Nothing beats a good workshop setting. We especially want to see your work made from our plan sets. Good photos greatly increases the chance of material being accepted. Digital images shot at high resolution with a camera of at least 6 megapixels assures a decent image. Low-resolution digital photos don’t work well. Please e-mail images with up to six images attached to each e-mail. You can send them directly to us at: woodtoyweekly@toymakingplans.com
3
Meet Kevin O’Keeffe Hello, my name is Kevin O’Keeffe. I live in Wellington, New Zealand. I am a 67 year old retiree who previously worked in the water industry most of my life. I have always enjoyed making things, something I probably got from my father. I decided to setup my own workshop after reading an article about using the scroll saw. As a retired person, woodworking has become a hobby which I greatly enjoy. Initially I began making items for my grandchildren and friends. I now go to a local craft market twice a year to sell toys and any items I have made. It is a good means of recovering the costs of my building materials. My hobby has turned into people calling in orders for toys for their children, and also for custom builds. This gives me the ability to challenge my skills with something I have never built before and to become a bit of a designer as well. In the early days I found the cost of buying scroll saw blades and craft parts in New Zealand to be quite expensive. I was making wheels in a somewhat crude fashion with a hole saw and a sander. I now find it much easier to buy the wheels and scroll saw blades online. 4
I don’t necessarily have a favorite toy or project build to date, although I really enjoyed making the Noah’s Ark plan set from toymakingplans.com and the many trucks from their plan sets as well.
One of the projects I have been building lately has been puzzles. These are really cool designs and they are very popular with the children. My inspiration for toy building is because of the joy and excitement I see in the children’s faces when they receive them. Like the projects I have built, I don’t exactly have a favorite tool in my shop, although some of my specialty tools, like my forstner bits are really fun and cool to use. My advice for anyone interested in being a toy builder, is to start off small and persevere, as I can assure you that most children love to receive and play with wooden toys! Editor’s Note: Thank you Kevin for your contribution to the Wood Toy Weekly. Awesome story and awesome toy builds!
More Of Kevin’s Builds
5
Making Resin Wheels Richard Pincombe from the UK has always been someone who liked a good challenge. So one day Richard decided to see if it was possible to make his own toy tires or “tyres” as the British say. Richard had been toying with the idea of making wheels from casting resin and then decided to give it a full test. Here’s what Richard did: Hot glue some wheels to a board. Then surround them with 1” walls to make a box out of pretty much anything to create a dam to hold the mold material. You can make the box out of wood or cardboard. The walls of the box have to be glued tight to the board.
little rough is because the silicone ran under the wheels slightly. This is easily avoided. You could roll out a thin strip on plasticine/PlayDoh to create a seal under the wheels. I haven’t tested that theory yet but it should work well. Next mix up a batch of resin and add a black pigment and pour into the mould. After 24 hours simply pull from the mould. With a small amount of cleaning up you’ll have a perfect wheel.
Spray the board, the walls and the wood wheels with mold release. A common mold release you can purchase on Amazon is Smooth-On Universal Mold Release.
Then mix some silicone rubber and pour into your box to create a mold. After 6 hours the mould is dry and ready to use. Above is how the mold looks when dry, I found out that the reason the mold looks a 6
I am really pleased with how these turned out. Now I can have a steady supply of wheels for toy building.
Finished Resin Wheels
Side by side comparison to real wood wheel.
Optional: You can also make rubber wheels using the same process, but instead of using resin you can use a polyurethane liquid rubber, and pour it into the same silicone mould. With the rubber wheels it takes only 2 hours to cure.
7
WTW Photo Gallery
Built By Forum Member: russandray
Built By Forum Member: Alan
Built By Forum Member: FarsideCarvings Built By Forum Member: Wooddawg
8
Built By Forum Member: highlander
Built By Forum Member: ddilucchio
Built By Forum Member: kenbod
9
Fun FREE Plan Bats! Simply print this page, cut out the pieces and stick’m to some wood and start making sawdust. Remember that there isn’t any scrap wood, just pieces not yet used.
Best cut from 1/4”, 1/2”, or 3/4” wood stock. 10
11