Make Stuff with Your Kid

I like this book. You can tell that the author, Bob Gilsdorf, really likes these toys. He is definitely excited about making things and we like that here!  There are patterns to copy, enlarge, and print. This will be nice for folks not used to laying out woodworking projects. At the end of the book, there is even a section of woodworking tips.

I do have two complaints. First, some of the designs seem likely to break quickly. For example, there is a great motorcycle on  a stick design but the fork legs are made of tongue depressors.

Secondly, there are several of the toys that I would never give to my child. Many have some form of tiny projectile. They are either for older children, teens, or maybe office workers in their cubicles?

My favorite project is an airplane on a stick (It is a little Goose, Maverick, and Ice Man in the the training room).

All told, I am glad that I bought the book and I am building several of the projects. Just be thoughtful about the age appropriateness of the toys you build from it.

-Jim

Will it be his rosebud?  I decided that the boy needed a great sled.  I looked for a Flexible Flyer and they are not the same as the one I had when I was little. So, per usual, I headed into the shop.  Here are the results:

You can click on the pictures to make them larger.

The deck and ski’s are ash, the rails are cherry, and the supports are walnut.  I added a aluminum rub rail on the bottom of the skis.

If you have made a sled or you would like to make this one, I would love to hear about it.

Leave a comment on the post or email me at jim@makestuffwithyourkid.com.

Happy sledding!

UPDATE

One of our readers (Cullen) built a great looking sled from drawings I sent him. Here is a photo:

Thanks for the update Cullen.

So, I had a bunch of part cans of spray paint around in the basement and I got rid of three of them painting this boat…

For the base coat, I emptied a little can of red spray paint.

Once that dried, I put a couple coats of yellow on one side and a few coats of blue on the other and here it is. (Guaranteed the fastest boat in any bathtub!)

The high powered engine is the rubber band off a bunch of asparagus. (Even boat builders need to eat their veggies.)

Thanks for sticking with me through this project. If you have a specific project you would like me to make or if you have any questions or would like plans of this boat to print, send me an email at jim [at] makestuffwithyourkid [dot] com. I can also get you more information on the more complex boat pattern from the first post.

-Jim

Last time, we had just started drawing our boat pattern on a board. Now we will finish laying it out. When you are done, it should look like this picture.

If you want a full size pdf that you can print, cut out, and trace on your board, email me at jim [at] makestuffwithyourkid [dot]com.
After you have everything drawn out, go ahead and cut out the boat and paddle pieces with the coping saw.

Before you cut out the pieces, think about which parts you are going to leave and which parts you are going to remove. It is really easy to cut off a part that you meant to leave on. I have a lot of experience at this… A trick to help you remember what to leave is to draw squiggly lines on the parts that you want to remove. Be careful when cutting out the notches in the paddle pieces to keep them tight. The notch should be just barely wide enough to allow the other paddle to slide into it. If you have any question, cut tighter and sand until they go together. It will be much harder for you if you cut it too large.

Here is a shot with all three pieces cut out.

In the pic, I have placed the paddle pieces so that you can see how they will be assembled.

All that is left to do is sand, finish, and start playing.

Any sandpaper made for sanding wood will work fine but I think that one of the best inventions of all time is adhesive backed sandpaper.

As you can see in the picture, I tore a piece of adhesive backed sandpaper off my roll and stuck it on a scrap. For me, moving the boat over the stuck down sandpaper is easier than the other way.

Once you have sanded off all the pointy ends and sharp edges, you are ready to assemble, paint, and play!

Put a drop of glue on the inside surfaces of the paddles where they will touch and press them together.

Right now, I am going out to paint the boat with spray paint.

Tomorrow, after the paint dries, I will put up a pic of the boat all finished.

This last week, I got really interested in toys that you could take to the pool. I made a couple of these boats (seen above) and they are a blast.

The only problem was that I used quite a lot of expensive tools from my wood shop and I wanted to find a way that anyone could make a working toy boat - so here we go.

You need a four dollar board that you can get at the hardware store or a hobby shop. (I bought this 1/4″ thick piece that is 2′ long and 4″ wide in the bin at Cottin’s Hardware.) and an eight dollar coping saw like the one in the picture and you are in business…

The first step in laying out the boat is drawing a curved bow (or front end of the boat) on our new board. In my shop, I had a paint can that was about the right width but you could use anything that is near 4 inches. If you are feeling adventurous, you could also mark out a more traditional pointed bow like the boat at the top of the page.

When done, this particular boat is going to look a little like Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder.

marking bow of the boat

In part 2 of this post (coming this Saturday), we will finish marking out the pattern, cut it out, and assemble it.