New contributor, old member

[johnre]

As the title says, I've been a member a while, but never chose to post anything. I have gone in and searched out specific information about shop configurations and floor plans - more on that later - and found some posts quite useful. So thanks, anonymous members!

I do have a small, real woodshop off of the garage, shared with a sort-of mechanical / automotive shop. It all has to fit in a 10' x 14' space, so this was a challenge. It involved careful planning and locating the air compressor and dust collector out of the room in a crawl space next to the shop, to conserve precious floor space. At some point, I'll post the plan I put together and executed all on my own to do this.

Projects are currently wooden toy trucks and formerly wooden dinosaurs for my young grandsons - I used David Wakefield's book. Executed in maple and Jatoba, they are extremely durable, and the finish is a child-safe buffing and carnauba wax, as they will of course at some point put them in their mouths.

- John

 

[mike93lx]

"welcome"! Awesome little toy, please share more and your setup

 

[nadogail]

Welcome Aboard from a former Webfoot, I am now in a much drier climate.

 

[johnre]

Awesome little toy, please share more ....

These are 100% wood and glue construction (OK, a bit of leather was used on the pterodactyl for the wing hinges).

Legs move, wings flap, heads bob, and jaws snap as the toys are rolled; some other parts sometimes move as well if they can be cammed off of the wheels.

Here's the book that has all the patterns; the toys are well-designed and it's an excellent resource:


And sorry, shop layout will have to wait - I don't want to be running afoul of rules and padding post count here!

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

That is pretty cool. Do you make them for your kids/grandchildren. A buddy makes small items on his lathe. Says it is therapeuti, I say good for him!

 

[Shiftless]

These are 100% wood and glue construction (OK, a bit of leather was used on the pterodactyl for the wing hinges).

Legs move, wings flap, heads bob, and jaws snap as the toys are rolled; some other parts sometimes move as well if they can be cammed off of the wheels.

Here's the book that has all the patterns; the toys are well-designed and it's an excellent resource:


And sorry, shop layout will have to wait - I don't want to be running afoul of rules and padding post count here!

Posting your specific shop layout and engaging others in critiques and suggestions for improvements is certainly NOT post padding.

Post padding is just replying to 10 different someone’s projects with an extremely short post like “That’s cool!”

 

[johnre]

Do you make them for your kids/grandchildren.

So far, that's been the plan. They will grow and I'll have to stay age-appropriate, of course.

My wife also likes them, and she has gotten a couple of the first ones I built simply because that's the one I built to just figure out how to make the subsequent ones last in the hands of the young ones. Here's what happened to the T. Rex, for example, early in his life after being dropped 1 meter to a tile floor - the jaw was initially done in walnut (too brittle, mistake #1), and the grain orientation was along the wrong axis (mistake #2):



Here's how it was redone in Jatoba, which is great for doing the small parts that are exposed (and this picture also shows how the jaw action works; it's cammed off the main axle with a pushrod running up through the body to the jaw):

Posting your specific shop layout and engaging others in critiques and suggestions for improvements is certainly NOT post padding.

So noted. I'm a moderator over at subaruoutback.org (where I actually found out about GJ), and I've seen enough attempts at rule-skirting from members with rather bad intentions. And at times I've also been the one who has had to deal with it. Thus, I just made up my mind to always read the rules first and keep my nose clean.