I love working with wood and try to do at least one woodentoy project a year. This is pure therapy for me… No one will ever check themwith calipers or micrometers. They just have to work like the real thing andlook good on my shelf.
I like working with Douglas fir. It’s not an exotic hardwood but I think it has a beautiful and bold exaggerated grain for projects at thisscale. I use mahogany for the dark details. I never stain anything, just clearcoat. These two examples are some of my favorites. As you can see by the Coke can used forscale, they are about 1/16 scale.
The Dozer is patterned off of a late 50’s early 60’s cableblade bulldozer and its esthetics are patterned somewhere between a CaterpillarD9 and a IH TD-25. The crank in the rear turns the winch in the front to raiseand lower the blade. Tracks are also fully functional. The toy is intended toteach the child how pulleys work that raise and lower the blade. This alsodemonstrates what a mechanical advantage is and how it can be applied.
The cable backhoe pretty much works likethe real thing (including fully functional tracks) and is influenced by both a1950’s era Bucyrus Erie and Northwest cable backhoes. Like the dozer, this toy this toy is intended to teach the child how pulleys work and how cables can be used to manipulate levers to move in multiple directions.
I like working with Douglas fir. It’s not an exotic hardwood but I think it has a beautiful and bold exaggerated grain for projects at thisscale. I use mahogany for the dark details. I never stain anything, just clearcoat. These two examples are some of my favorites. As you can see by the Coke can used forscale, they are about 1/16 scale.
The Dozer is patterned off of a late 50’s early 60’s cableblade bulldozer and its esthetics are patterned somewhere between a CaterpillarD9 and a IH TD-25. The crank in the rear turns the winch in the front to raiseand lower the blade. Tracks are also fully functional. The toy is intended toteach the child how pulleys work that raise and lower the blade. This alsodemonstrates what a mechanical advantage is and how it can be applied.
The cable backhoe pretty much works likethe real thing (including fully functional tracks) and is influenced by both a1950’s era Bucyrus Erie and Northwest cable backhoes. Like the dozer, this toy this toy is intended to teach the child how pulleys work and how cables can be used to manipulate levers to move in multiple directions.
