OK - Add some axles to those wheels, and you are real close to having a toy! I think that is my Grandpa Drake's handmade wooden mallet. I've got a few things from my Mom's parents, and that mallet is one of my favorites! The best however, has nothing to do with our toy business - it is the wooden rolling pin that they bought when they got engaged, complete with a hand repair that Grandpa made to it when one of the handle ends broke.
Above, Elizabeth and I assemble the wheels onto the Rolls Royce cars. Behind Elizabeth is a pile of airplanes with the wings clamped in place while the glue dries.
Above, a nice example of some of the very crude jigs we made over the years for various purposes. This one was just a bit over the width of the car bodies, and the wheels would rest on the sides so we could drill a 1/8" hole through the wheel, and into the axle. Below, Elizabeth hammers home the little wooden pegs that insured that the wheels would not fall off with hard play! The little notch in the side of the jig makes a spot for the spare tire to fit once that is in place!
I hope I can find more pictures of some of the many jigs we made over the years. They were pretty much always pretty crude, and intended to make some oft repeated operation quicker and easier. I always intended to make nicer jigs later, after I proved that the basic design worked well. However, I almost never made a new jig as long as the original one was working OK.
No comments:
Post a Comment