# Construction Grade Toys



## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

*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.










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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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


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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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


I am planning to use what I have on hand, which luckly for me is Walnut and Maple.


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


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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## SPalm (Oct 9, 2007)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


I need to do this for the grandkids.
Thanks for the tickle.

I will be watching you,
Steve


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


Eagerly following along!


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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

*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:








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:








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…..


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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 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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## JohnFD (Aug 5, 2011)

sIKE said:


> *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 agree with PurpLev on the grill. I look forward to following this project.

JohnFD


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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

*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. 
















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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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


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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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


The hood and the carriage are supsosed to be the same width so it was eaiser to cut a new carriage board a bit wider than cut the hood narrower.

I made a bit more progress today but realised that I never took off the extra length on the hood when I added on the face grain to edge grain glue up. I have glued the hood to carriage and it looks like I am going to have to tune up the bandsaw and some delicate work to fix this issue .

Wish me luck!


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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


Good news! I did make the adjustment to the length of the hood before I glued it, so I didn't have to fix this imagined issue!


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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

*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. 








The fenders turned out very nice but then the router ate them. 









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….








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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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


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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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


This is why I only do miniature parts on my scrollsaw and then sand them by hand. I tried making small parts using things like my table saw, router, and such. After my hearts stopped fluttering from the scare I got and I went to change my britches (you know why), I declared never to try that again. The scroll saw is perfect for small tasks and a lot safer. I have often accidentally shoved my finger into the scroll saw blade while doing tiny parts. I have scratched my thumb pretty badly a few times, but never went deep enough to bring blood.


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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


Yeah, once you get out past "square" the table saw/miter saw/radiam arm saw get to be quite scarry devices of destruction, I have a very small blade on my benchtop band saw and have quite an aggressive blade on the scroll saw…..


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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

*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








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.








and without the clamps








And finally the body of the truck:









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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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


this truck is coming up nicely and really looks awesome!


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## degoose (Mar 20, 2009)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


Fabulous… can't wait so see this finished.. should be outstanding..


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## sbryan55 (Dec 8, 2007)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


The truck does look pretty good. I have been following this and, even though it is hot, it does sound like you are having fun.


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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


Thanks Scott nice to see you again….


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## LeeJ (Jul 4, 2007)

sIKE said:


> *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.
> 
> ...


Very nice job.

Lee


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## sIKE (Feb 14, 2008)

*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…..


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## Brett1972 (Nov 5, 2010)

sIKE said:


> *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…..


VRRRRoooooom, vrooooom!

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


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## LeeJ (Jul 4, 2007)

sIKE said:


> *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…..


Looks Good. Very nice job.

Lee


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## DanLyke (Feb 8, 2007)

sIKE said:


> *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…..


Inspiring! Thanks!


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

sIKE said:


> *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…..


came out great!


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