Woodworking projects

My woodworking skills are all self taught, which means they can be a little rough at times, but I'm trying.

Aside from musical instruments, most of my woodworking centers around making toys for my kids, and repairing toys for our local toy library.

Here are a few pictures of some of my more successful projects:

Fire Truck

	I got the plans for this excellent toy from the book Scrollsaw Toy Projects by Ivor Carlyle. I highly recommend it. The truck is made from 5mm hoop pine plywood. The wheels and axles are the only non-wood components. The wheels were imported from Hobbies (Dereham) Ltd in the U.K. Unfortunately the AUD$ being what it is, the wheels were quite expensive by the time I got them, but really worth it as they suit the truck image very well. The firetruck is over half a meter long.
	This was a 4^th birthday present for my son Callan. Callan is now 6 and one of the yellow winding knobs and three of the ladder supports have come off, but that's the beauty of wooden toys, it's just a short piece of dowel and a bit of glue and it's as good as new.
	There are four fire fighters, that come out to play, two ladders on the roof an extension ladder and two (rope) hose reels that are wound in by the yellow knobs on the back of the engine.
	Where's the fire?

Child's weaving loom

My daughter has a weaving loom from Ikea.

My son wanted a loom also, so we copied the Ikea loom, extending the rails slightly.

The project took the best part of the afternoon. Most of the time was taken in constructing a simple repartition cutting jig for the table-saw.

Possum box

I got the plans for this possum box from a National Parks web page. The box has since been painted olive green, to protect it from the elements, and to blend in with the Australian bush (our yard is full of Marri trees).

The possum box has been mounted on the south side of a tree, about 3-4 meters from the ground.

The possums are still living in our roof. I have to get around to persuading them to move out.

Cardboard tube boxes

	While not strictly woodwork, these boxes are constructed of MDF and heavy cardboard tubes. I have been collecting cardboard tubes from carpet rolls and the like with the idea to make some sort of musical instrument, however I also bought my kids a book of activities that suggested covering a notebook with fake fur. Of course my son wanted to make a money box instead. I started thinking about how to stopper up the hole in the bottom when he decided a box would be OK. So I stated thinking about tiny hinges and thinking this was getting all too hard for the afternoon. Then I remembered the cardboard tube I was hoarding and thought how it could save me making a box at all.
	The tube is cut to length on the bandsaw. A small ring is cut from the same tube, and a small section cut away so that the ring can be compressed slightly to fit into the base tube, to form a lip to hold on the top tube. I then cut 5mm MDF disks on the scrollsaw, to fit the base and lid. The lip and MDF are glued in with PVA. The photo shows the final result, with fake fur glued on, with PVA and a little help from me.

While not strictly woodwork, these boxes are constructed of MDF and heavy cardboard tubes. I have been collecting cardboard tubes from carpet rolls and the like with the idea to make some sort of musical instrument, however I also bought my kids a book of activities that suggested covering a notebook with fake fur. Of course my son wanted to make a money box instead. I started thinking about how to stopper up the hole in the bottom when he decided a box would be OK. So I stated thinking about tiny hinges and thinking this was getting all too hard for the afternoon. Then I remembered the cardboard tube I was hoarding and thought how it could save me making a box at all.

The tube is cut to length on the bandsaw. A small ring is cut from the same tube, and a small section cut away so that the ring can be compressed slightly to fit into the base tube, to form a lip to hold on the top tube.

I then cut 5mm MDF disks on the scrollsaw, to fit the base and lid. The lip and MDF are glued in with PVA.

The photo shows the final result, with fake fur glued on, with PVA and a little help from me.

Two sided child's easel

[have to scan this picture]
Child's workbench

[have to scan this picture]