Oct 17 2011

Crossover Track (Straight)

Click picture to see slideshow After my son got his wooden train set for Christmas his birthday, I started building track for him, but my interested waned during the spring and summer. This fall I’ve started building some more wooden train accessories. As I’ve been documenting that process, I realized that …

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Oct 10 2011

Big Curve, Little Curve

Click picture to see slideshow My son’s preschool teaches writing with a system called Handwriting Without Tears. It is a much simpler character set to learn and can be represented by four simple shapes: big curve, little curve, big line, and little line. You can buy sets of …

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Oct 06 2011

Walnut Turner’s Cube

Click picture for slideshow A few weeks ago I was digging through the free bin at Rocker and I found a 2-1/2″ square walnut cutoff. The only defect it had was a slight check in the end grain that would hopefully disappear when I cut the hunk of walnut into a cube. …

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Sep 29 2011

Making Wooden T-Knobs

Click picture to see slideshow Sometimes you start a project because you wonder, can I make that? I made these wooden T-knobs because I was frustrated that one day when I needed some knobs, I couldn’t buy any locally. My goal was to make them as cheaply and as quickly as …

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Sep 22 2011

Making Another Toy Car

I’m taking a step back and showing how I made the wooden car I recently posted here. I first got the idea for this particualr design by looking at some of the wooden cars on the Arizona Wooden Toys website. I liked the design of their “Zoom Racer;” I thought the …

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Sep 15 2011

Storage Cubby

Click on Image for Slideshow Several months ago, I wanted to practice making cuts with my dado stack so I built this little cubby to hold some safety equipment like goggles, gloves, respirator, etc…

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Sep 13 2011

Finishing Another Toy Car

I swear I already wrote about my newest toy car design, but I can’t find an article on my site. I realize that if I can’t find what I’m looking for on my own site, you poor readers that have to dig through my ramblings are screwed if you need to find an article. I’m …

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Aug 26 2011

Slideshow: Making the Shake Shake Bridge

I’m experimenting again. In my quest to find new ways to present projects, I’ve imported a slideshow from Picasa Web Albums, soon to be Google Photos. We’ll see how this goes. *Again sorry to those of you reading on RSS if this doesnt show up properly.

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Aug 26 2011

Wacky Track or Shake Shake Bridge

In Misty Island Rescue, Thomas must cross the Shake Shake Bridge, a bridge that shakes violently when an engine crosses it. I didn’t intend on making a replica of the Shake Shake Bridge, I actually meant to make an imitation of Wacky Track, bendable wooden …

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Aug 21 2011

Yo-Yo Video

To help you get a better idea of the problems with my first yo-yo, I shot a short video. In the video I try to show how the yo-yo lists to one side and wobbles when it is sleeping. Then I take the yo-yo apart to show how it’s constructed.

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