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Construction Grade Toys

75K views 27 replies 10 participants last post by  PurpLev 
#1 ·
Getting Started

I am planning on giving purely woodworking based gifts for Christmas this year. For my son I have settled on the Construction Grade Toy projects from Wood Magazine.

Wheel Wood Toy Font Machine


Both my Father and Father in Law are woodworkers, we have decided to split the set up amongst ourselves. I am taking the Crane and I am going to make a Modified Tractor Trailer into a Dump Truck. He will get one from each of us for Christmas and the other for his birthday.

First up the Dump Truck.

ps It is nice to get back in the shop!
 

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#2 ·
Getting Started

I am planning on giving purely woodworking based gifts for Christmas this year. For my son I have settled on the Construction Grade Toy projects from Wood Magazine.

Wheel Wood Toy Font Machine


Both my Father and Father in Law are woodworkers, we have decided to split the set up amongst ourselves. I am taking the Crane and I am going to make a Modified Tractor Trailer into a Dump Truck. He will get one from each of us for Christmas and the other for his birthday.

First up the Dump Truck.

ps It is nice to get back in the shop!
Sweet!

Nice to see you back in the works, and this looks like a great project. any idea what species you'd be using?
 

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#3 ·
Getting Started

I am planning on giving purely woodworking based gifts for Christmas this year. For my son I have settled on the Construction Grade Toy projects from Wood Magazine.

Wheel Wood Toy Font Machine


Both my Father and Father in Law are woodworkers, we have decided to split the set up amongst ourselves. I am taking the Crane and I am going to make a Modified Tractor Trailer into a Dump Truck. He will get one from each of us for Christmas and the other for his birthday.

First up the Dump Truck.

ps It is nice to get back in the shop!
I am planning to use what I have on hand, which luckly for me is Walnut and Maple.
 

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#4 ·
Getting Started

I am planning on giving purely woodworking based gifts for Christmas this year. For my son I have settled on the Construction Grade Toy projects from Wood Magazine.

Wheel Wood Toy Font Machine


Both my Father and Father in Law are woodworkers, we have decided to split the set up amongst ourselves. I am taking the Crane and I am going to make a Modified Tractor Trailer into a Dump Truck. He will get one from each of us for Christmas and the other for his birthday.

First up the Dump Truck.

ps It is nice to get back in the shop!
Cool idea … I have a grandson who would love these… may have to follow along with your journey.. may I also say nice to see you back..
 

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#5 ·
Getting Started

I am planning on giving purely woodworking based gifts for Christmas this year. For my son I have settled on the Construction Grade Toy projects from Wood Magazine.

Wheel Wood Toy Font Machine


Both my Father and Father in Law are woodworkers, we have decided to split the set up amongst ourselves. I am taking the Crane and I am going to make a Modified Tractor Trailer into a Dump Truck. He will get one from each of us for Christmas and the other for his birthday.

First up the Dump Truck.

ps It is nice to get back in the shop!
I need to do this for the grandkids.
Thanks for the tickle.

I will be watching you,
Steve
 

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#6 ·
Getting Started

I am planning on giving purely woodworking based gifts for Christmas this year. For my son I have settled on the Construction Grade Toy projects from Wood Magazine.

Wheel Wood Toy Font Machine


Both my Father and Father in Law are woodworkers, we have decided to split the set up amongst ourselves. I am taking the Crane and I am going to make a Modified Tractor Trailer into a Dump Truck. He will get one from each of us for Christmas and the other for his birthday.

First up the Dump Truck.

ps It is nice to get back in the shop!
Eagerly following along!
 

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#7 ·
Getting Started on the Dumptruck

The plans for the Dump Truck come from the July 2011 issue of Wood Magazine (just the Tractor Trailer) and from the April 1995 issue of Wood Magazine (the Dump truck). I will be using the Cab and Chassis from the Tractor Trailer and the Payload box from the dump truck plan.

I got started with the chassis and the hoist support. Since the dump truck was a bit smaller scale I had to do a bit of and upsize the hoist support. The next challenge was the one inch notch in the hoist support. You can see how I tackled it here:
Wood Wood stain Flooring Floor Tool

I marked my edges, setup a temp tall fence, cut the outside edges first and then nibbled away between. Note I made a small mistake by not pushing all of the way through on my right check cut and when I went back to clean it up I added an additional 1/32th of an inch to width. I will have to make that up later.

You see in the complete pic I am using a hand screw to hold my work. This is my first project that uses small parts like this and since I have typically done case work in the past I have gotten away with not having a vise in the wood shop (still needs to be moved from the garage).

The next challenge was the hood. It was a big thick square to begin with so I used two maple turning blanks I had on hand to glue up to a large 3×3 blank. The parts were over sized, but the biggest challenge was how do I glue up four squares and not have them slide all around while drying. Here is what I came up with:
Wood Rectangle Flooring Floor Hardwood

I drew a line across all four pieces and brought that line around to the appropriate sides of each piece and since they were all 1 1/2 X 1 1/2 I was able to draw the X at 3/4" from the edge (trying to use the same edge on each block). I then drilled 1/4" hole a 1/2" deep on the marks and cut a 1/4" dowel at 3/4" lengths and placed them in the holes and glued the sides first (T1 and T2 - T3 and T4) let them set for about 10 minutes and then glued top piece to bottom piece. Unfortunately for me and my plans this is when my kids were dropped off and I didn't catch the fact that I had a diamond shaped gap towards the middle. I didn't find this out until a hour had past. So I now had to do what I was trying to avoid in the first place, fix up crappy glue lines. Let's just say more glue, more clamps and a couple more clamps fixed the issue.

Upon my return to the shop after the heat of the day and looking at my glue ups I wasn't happy the lay out of the end grain (I didn't pay attention to this bit earlier). I then decided to face grain to edge grain glue a board to the front of the hood assembly. I let that dry an hour or so worked on so other pieces and here is where I am at when I rolled up last night…..
Wooden block Wood Tree Hardwood Gas

Wood Rectangle Gas Composite material Road surface
 

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#8 ·
Getting Started on the Dumptruck

The plans for the Dump Truck come from the July 2011 issue of Wood Magazine (just the Tractor Trailer) and from the April 1995 issue of Wood Magazine (the Dump truck). I will be using the Cab and Chassis from the Tractor Trailer and the Payload box from the dump truck plan.

I got started with the chassis and the hoist support. Since the dump truck was a bit smaller scale I had to do a bit of and upsize the hoist support. The next challenge was the one inch notch in the hoist support. You can see how I tackled it here:
Wood Wood stain Flooring Floor Tool

I marked my edges, setup a temp tall fence, cut the outside edges first and then nibbled away between. Note I made a small mistake by not pushing all of the way through on my right check cut and when I went back to clean it up I added an additional 1/32th of an inch to width. I will have to make that up later.

You see in the complete pic I am using a hand screw to hold my work. This is my first project that uses small parts like this and since I have typically done case work in the past I have gotten away with not having a vise in the wood shop (still needs to be moved from the garage).

The next challenge was the hood. It was a big thick square to begin with so I used two maple turning blanks I had on hand to glue up to a large 3×3 blank. The parts were over sized, but the biggest challenge was how do I glue up four squares and not have them slide all around while drying. Here is what I came up with:
Wood Rectangle Flooring Floor Hardwood

I drew a line across all four pieces and brought that line around to the appropriate sides of each piece and since they were all 1 1/2 X 1 1/2 I was able to draw the X at 3/4" from the edge (trying to use the same edge on each block). I then drilled 1/4" hole a 1/2" deep on the marks and cut a 1/4" dowel at 3/4" lengths and placed them in the holes and glued the sides first (T1 and T2 - T3 and T4) let them set for about 10 minutes and then glued top piece to bottom piece. Unfortunately for me and my plans this is when my kids were dropped off and I didn't catch the fact that I had a diamond shaped gap towards the middle. I didn't find this out until a hour had past. So I now had to do what I was trying to avoid in the first place, fix up crappy glue lines. Let's just say more glue, more clamps and a couple more clamps fixed the issue.

Upon my return to the shop after the heat of the day and looking at my glue ups I wasn't happy the lay out of the end grain (I didn't pay attention to this bit earlier). I then decided to face grain to edge grain glue a board to the front of the hood assembly. I let that dry an hour or so worked on so other pieces and here is where I am at when I rolled up last night…..
Wooden block Wood Tree Hardwood Gas

Wood Rectangle Gas Composite material Road surface
I think the face grain to end grand "fix" makes it look more authentic as the grill is usually a separate piece, and the long grain on the hood flow better with the shape of the part.

looks like a great start!
 

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#10 ·
Little more work done

I got back into the shop late this evening and got a little more work done. As you can see from the pics the kit (wheels etc) for the truck came in today.
Wheel Wood Automotive tire Tire Automotive design

Bottle Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood

I had to recut the carriage piece this evening as it was a bit more narrow than the hood. The next and most important is I had to work out is the difference from the tractor trailer plan and the dump truck plan to get the Hoist Support and Hoist components of the dump truck box aligned to the tractor trailer. I think I have everything worked out. I am going to have to recut the Hoist piece as I didn't make up the width difference from the over cut of the hoist support. Next up are the small pieces and gluing the truck together. I hope to have more for you this weekend….
 

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#11 ·
Little more work done

I got back into the shop late this evening and got a little more work done. As you can see from the pics the kit (wheels etc) for the truck came in today.
Wheel Wood Automotive tire Tire Automotive design

Bottle Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood

I had to recut the carriage piece this evening as it was a bit more narrow than the hood. The next and most important is I had to work out is the difference from the tractor trailer plan and the dump truck plan to get the Hoist Support and Hoist components of the dump truck box aligned to the tractor trailer. I think I have everything worked out. I am going to have to recut the Hoist piece as I didn't make up the width difference from the over cut of the hoist support. Next up are the small pieces and gluing the truck together. I hope to have more for you this weekend….
looks like good progress. Why did you have to recut the carriage piece if it was narrower than the wood, did it not fit somehow?
 

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#14 ·
Making Fenders ¡Ay, Caramba!

Stalled out a bit making fenders,. At about 1.5 hour a pair and then the router ate a couple of pairs and then one pair were not even close to a match, then another pair the wood fractured.

Here is a couple of pics of my first attempt. You can see one of the ways of working with small pieces is to mount you hand held tools like my ROS upside down and bring the piece to it.
Wood Artisan Engineering Tradesman Gas

The fenders turned out very nice but then the router ate them.
Wood Font Hardwood Wood stain Varnish


On the final attempt I then decided to glue the blanks together and then cut and shape them as one. This worked like a champ…..so here are attempts 8 and 9 at the bottom of the pic….
Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood Font

To resolve the issue with pieces tipping into the router bit I mounted a scrap piece of thin plywood across the router table and slowly raised the bit through the ply to make a zero clearance insert. I still got a small amount of cross grain tear out, but nothing that a little sandpaper cant clean up.
 

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#15 ·
Making Fenders ¡Ay, Caramba!

Stalled out a bit making fenders,. At about 1.5 hour a pair and then the router ate a couple of pairs and then one pair were not even close to a match, then another pair the wood fractured.

Here is a couple of pics of my first attempt. You can see one of the ways of working with small pieces is to mount you hand held tools like my ROS upside down and bring the piece to it.
Wood Artisan Engineering Tradesman Gas

The fenders turned out very nice but then the router ate them.
Wood Font Hardwood Wood stain Varnish


On the final attempt I then decided to glue the blanks together and then cut and shape them as one. This worked like a champ…..so here are attempts 8 and 9 at the bottom of the pic….
Wood Flooring Floor Hardwood Font

To resolve the issue with pieces tipping into the router bit I mounted a scrap piece of thin plywood across the router table and slowly raised the bit through the ply to make a zero clearance insert. I still got a small amount of cross grain tear out, but nothing that a little sandpaper cant clean up.
ah yes…. working with small parts… a whole different ball game than ripping and cutting large furniture size components isn't it? pair 8,9 looks great!
 

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#18 ·
Almost there

Now that I am out past the fenders things have progressed along very nicely, this past weekend I was able to get almost all the work done to complete the project sans finishing.

I am using birds eye maple for the box of the dump truck here is the bottom and the front
Wood Rectangle Flooring Creative arts Hardwood

Here are the sides, I finally get to use all of those itty bitty clamps given to me when I started my wood working odyssey several years back.
Tire Automotive tire Wheel Gas Bicycle tire

and without the clamps
Road surface Wood Rectangle Beige Flooring

And finally the body of the truck:
Wood Automotive tire Gas Rolling Hardwood


Today after wook I am hoping to get finnal assembley done. I will then put this to the side and move on to other projects for now, it was 112 degrees yesterday (in the shade) and I am quite sure that whatever finish I choose will harden in mid-air and bounce right off of the wood…. :)
 

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#19 ·
Almost there

Now that I am out past the fenders things have progressed along very nicely, this past weekend I was able to get almost all the work done to complete the project sans finishing.

I am using birds eye maple for the box of the dump truck here is the bottom and the front
Wood Rectangle Flooring Creative arts Hardwood

Here are the sides, I finally get to use all of those itty bitty clamps given to me when I started my wood working odyssey several years back.
Tire Automotive tire Wheel Gas Bicycle tire

and without the clamps
Road surface Wood Rectangle Beige Flooring

And finally the body of the truck:
Wood Automotive tire Gas Rolling Hardwood


Today after wook I am hoping to get finnal assembley done. I will then put this to the side and move on to other projects for now, it was 112 degrees yesterday (in the shade) and I am quite sure that whatever finish I choose will harden in mid-air and bounce right off of the wood…. :)
this truck is coming up nicely and really looks awesome!
 

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#24 ·
Dump Truck is done.......

Well I got this done finally a couple of days ago. As I said, I am going to hold off on finishing, so there is still a crap load of sanding to do along with the finish itself…..thinking Waterlox…..

Wheel Tire Motor vehicle Wood Vehicle

Wheel Tire Vehicle Automotive tire Motor vehicle
 

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#25 ·
Dump Truck is done.......

Well I got this done finally a couple of days ago. As I said, I am going to hold off on finishing, so there is still a crap load of sanding to do along with the finish itself…..thinking Waterlox…..

Wheel Tire Motor vehicle Wood Vehicle

Wheel Tire Vehicle Automotive tire Motor vehicle
VRRRRoooooom, vrooooom!

Looks fantastic! I need to build some construction toys… they look so fun.
 

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