June 14, 2011
Wood Toy News www.toymakerpress.com
A light sleeper, Lee is in his shop by 4 in the morning cutting out toys.
An efficient woodworker with years of experience, Lee has developed a work style that makes it possible for him to crank out toys and boxes like these in large numbers. He’s always working on new methods to speed up his work, and a couple of weeks ago he attended an Intarsia class and discovered a new idea to apply to his toymaking projects. The instructor was using a Xyron laminator to apply adhesive to the back of scrollsaw patterns. Lee promptly ordered the laminator. It’s light years better than spray adhesives. There are no fumes to deal with and there is no mess to clean up from the spray can’s overspray. Lee says: There are several sizes on Xyron machines. I like the 5 inch for most of the items. However, I did decide to buy the 12 inch model this weekend to handle the larger papers. We took the book pages of ABC’s and copied them for the computer so my wife Jene could print them on 8-1/2 x 11 paper. She makes alphabets with them for hospital children in rehab. She uses the Xyron laminator to make the patterns for the same size 1/8 inch Baltic plywood. She then stacks the plywood sheets so she can cut out several at once. Important note: Judy Roberts at Roberts Studio says if you adhere the drawing on wood cut it out the same day. The longer you leave the pattern on the wood, the harder it is to remove.
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Toymaker Lee Beadles visits with John Lewman about Toymaker Press customer service. You asked about what I liked and disliked about Toymaker Press. Every time I have had a question about one of your drawings you have helped me. Customer service is great. And you have provided the widest array of toy patterns that I have seen. I started out with buying your Toymaker’s Library Set of 6 Books last year. Since then I have re-ordered that set and bought many more now in the eBook (PDF) style. I have found your eBooks to be more to my liking since I can print only the pages I need. And sometimes with a printed book I have problems with trying to get a page to lay flat. Also I have added your eBooks to my iPad library. Now when I am sitting with other toymakers we can talk about the toys and look at them on the iPad. When I am back in Wichita and have a free day I’ll drive up to KC and we’ll have a Wolferman’s english muffin together! 1
June 14, 2011
Wood Toy News www.toymakerpress.com
T.C. Timber Company was started by Marshal H. Larrabee II in 1936 as Skaneateles Handicrafters. It started out as just a hobby, but grew and grew.
Thomas the Tank wasn’t the first little wood toy train of this design! Just about every kid and parent today are in love with the Thomas the Tank wood train sets. But Thomas the Tank is not the original. The original design was created about 70 years ago by Marshal Hart Larrabee II and his wife, Elizabeth. Marshal was a 1931 graduate of the Wharton School. Unfortunately he was stricken with tuberculosis in 1932 during the difficult Great Depression. His recuperation was long and difficult and he had a lot of time on his hands. He took up woodworking to keep himself occupied and involved in creative activities to brighten the days. One day when he was out of ideas he asked Elizabeth what he should make next. “Make a little wood train that a child could hold in his hands,” she said. That simple statement lit a fire in Marshal and he bolted to his shop and began designing an incredibly fun play system for little wood trains. Marshal also devised wooden track sections for the little trains, with grooves about an inch apart for the train wheels to travel in. Different layouts could be made by putting together various combinations of straight and curved track sections. Blocks were used for buildings and as supports to make bridges. Marshal had made a simple,
wooden equivalent to the electric and clockwork train and track sets that were widely popular with the older children (and adults!) of the time. Larrabee’s train sets became instantly popular with family and friends. While traveling the U.S. in the late 1930’s, he began a sales promotion effort. By 1941, he had received a US patent for his train and track design. He had also landed his first major customer, Marshall Fields Department Store in Chicago, and founded Skaneateles Handicrafters. 2
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June 14, 2011
Wood Toy News www.toymakerpress.com
Marshal’s little wood trains were a great success. For almost 50 years he continued to produce tens of thousands of the little wood train sets. The design of Larrabee’s trains changed very little from the 1930’s through the 1970’s. His train sets were also widely sold under several different brand names, including Playskool and Creative Playthings. Larrabee sold his company to a German toy manufacturer in 1980. The company became the TC Timber/Habermaass Corporation. The factory produced German-style railway sets and most of Marshal’s original SH designs disappeared from toy stores. Toy production at the factory ceased in 2002.
Marshal’s toy line included military vehicles, cars, trucks, aircraft, ships, buildings, tunnels, bridges and many others.
Apply these easy how-to’s to make your own track for today’s playful Thomas the Tank style toy trains. To make wooden track out of the recommended white birch, maple or European beech you need three different bits. One bit makes the female connector with a single pass, another makes the male connector in two passes, and the third makes the tracks. The single-track bit works well for both straight and curved tracks.
The Rockler Train Track Bit Set lets you create unlimited amounts of track for classic, collectable wooden train sets. You can learn how easy it is to make curved and straight track at a fraction of the cost of “store bought” sets! TOOLS: Router, Router Table with Fence, Rockler Train Track Bit Set (Rockler #23613), Band Saw, Sandpaper, Drill and 1/4’’ drill bit.
Making straight tracks in one pass requires the dual-track bit. Three different companies sell bit sets for making wooden train tracks: Rockler, MLCS, and Hartford Tool. There’s are two different track styles. The MLCS bits make the tracks that work with Thomas the Tank Engine sets. The individual bits are $20 to $40 when purchased separately. Kits with all four bits from Rockler and MLCS are around $100.
Download the Free Train Track Plan at:
http://www.rockler.com/plans/TrainTrackPlan.pdf
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June 14, 2011
Wood Toy News www.toymakerpress.com
“ During my five decades of designing and making toys I have never had this much fun! ” John W. Lewman
Everyone loves little wood toy trains and I am no exception. In 1948 I was living out on the windy prairie in the tiny southeastern town of Montana, Kansas with my Grandpa and Grandma. In the winter I’d sit by their wood stove and try to sketch out little toy trains that looked like the big boy trains that roared through the little town. In the Spring I’d go into grandpa’s barn and nail together wood toys from scraps and tree limbs. The five trains in this article are my effort to keep faith with that prairie child spirit of long ago. The Pufferbilly Train Set is a carpet scooter! There are no rolling wheels. This makes the train a snap to make and it can be built in just a few hours. I used common lumber to build the toy. My only tools were a scrollsaw and electric drill.
The Madagaskar Monkey Train was inspired by a Greyhound bus trip my brother and I took by ourselves from Kansas to California in 1949. I was 5 years old and my brother was 9. What an adventure that was. We stayed the summer in California because my mom was very ill. We lived with my Mom’s sister and often visited Monkey Island at the zoo. To keep us out of his hair, Uncle Ralph gave us an allowance each week to spend at the local hobby shop. It was walking distance from the house and we went there every day to plan for next week’s purchase. I built a little wood Tom Thumb toy train, of course! 4
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June 14, 2011
Wood Toy News www.toymakerpress.com
We also had the thrill of attending a real Barnum and Bailey three ring circus. There was a crazy animal train of clowns that would weave through the three big rings. This design is a little more sober than that incredibly funny bunch of performers.
My mom gave me a brand new set of alphabet building blocks for my birthday. I loved those blocks and played with them often for years. It was one of the reasons I knew my alphabet and numbers when I started first grade. I even knew how to spell my name, long before I entered school and would stack the numbers and tally the sums. Those colorful blocks really gave me a head start in learning.
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My folks moved to Oregon so my Dad could build little frame houses for the boys coming home to start a new life after World War II. Dad built the cabinets in a shop at home and let me have all the scrap wood for toymaking. By the time I was ten he let me use all of his tools, including the table saw! It’s where I learned how to design and build tools using the table saw for all of the parts. Continued next page. 5
June 14, 2011
Wood Toy News www.toymakerpress.com
Oregon was a dream life for me as a boy. We lived in the foothills of the Cascade mountains where my father used a bulldozer to slice a notch out of the side of a steep high hill. He built our house and wood shop there. I attended school down in the valley from first through eighth grade. Every morning around 3:45 AM I could hear the old steam engine that took loggers from Bawlie Woodard’s enormous lumber mill to the woods to chop down more trees to make into lumber. In the evening I’d hear the train again as it steamed back to the mill. The owner was called Bawlie because he bawled like a bull as he bossed his men. My Dad built the cabinetry for the Woodard mansion while Mom worked as a waitress at the Chinese cafe.
The five trains featured in this article are all from the book “Build Big Wood Toy Trains” by John and Cynthia Lewman. The book contains five complete train sets with all of the full size plans required to build each of the train sets. The book is available as a download and will also be available as a hardcover full color printed book around the first of August, 2011.
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