Thread: Two trucks for a two year old

Welcome to the Forum.

I like the fact that you are multilingual and understand that a hood is also a bonnet, and that a trunk is found on an elephant.
Your pictures convey the story, obviously you are enjoying the build too much to record everything, don't worry we love watching your progress.

Look forward to your next post.

Charles,

Very nice work there. Glad you are posting your work on the Forum. Look forward to your next post.

Regards

Keith

That vehicle is coming along very nicely. I'm sure you will be making your own wheels before long.
Looks like you have some very nice gear in that shop of yours.
Great to see another new member here.

Hi YorkWoodwright,

Excellent toy making there so far looking forward seeing the finished toy truck and more of your work. Welcome to the forum.

Graham.

cool build

Originally Posted by York Woodwright

You can see that I purchased the wheels and axle pins — a few minutes on the lathe convinced me that consistent-appearing wheels were worth much more than the pride in saying I made everything myself.


Charles

If you are going to be making a lot of wheels, you can get bits for a drill press that will cut them consistently for you. Mcjings and carbatec have them.

G'Day & Welcome to the Great Southern Land and to a top forum "Charles".
What a top truck sir and the progress photos are excellent....
There are quite a few "Canuck" members plus the other North American country and the rest of the world.....
You'll find a heap of helpful & knowledgeable blokes & ladies on the forum and for most very willing to assist, especially the mob who frequent the toymaking section.
Make sure you keep showing off your handiwork as everyone loves a photo, especially WIP [Work In Progress] photos with build notes.
Enjoy the forum.
Enjoy your woodwork and toymaking.....
Cheers from On Top DownUnder, crowie

On the wheels, You could try Woodworks Ltd in Texas Wooden Toy Wheels & Other Unfinished Wood Wheels
and Casey's Wood Products in Maine Wood Wheels (Toy Car Parts) : Caseyswood.com: Maine based online supplier for wood craft parts
as Northern American suppliers...
I've purchased a number of times from Woodworks and got great service;
Casey's is another recommendation from another forum member who regularly purchases from them.

A nice introduction to the toymaking section. You have made a great start and I certainly look forward to seeing more of your work as time goes by.

Welcome to the forum. For your first try it looks great. It's sanded smooth, and all the parts are nicely aligned. That's not always easy with these small parts, aspecially for a beginner. Keep making toys, you are good at it!

BTW I have been making toys for a few years now, and really like the toys from Aschi's Toyshop as well.

Nice rig. I'll be back to check it out some more

Thanks for the heads up crowie

First, let me thank you so much for your extraordinary welcome and your very encouraging words. I'm delighted that I found this forum.

To complete the build of this stake truck, this first image shows the truck with the fenders and running boards added, along with the wheels. Fitting the fenders was a slow exercise in trial and error. And there were several fenders which ended in the firewood pile. I was concerned that they would be rather thin and because of the direction of the wood grain, might be easily broken. However, I applied ample glue between the fender and the side of the engine compartment in the hope of obviating this possibility. As well, I added a few details like the door handles. I turned the hub caps; they do the job but are not attractive.

Stake Truck 5.jpg

The stakes are painted in a red colour that matches the Canadian flag. As you can deduce, the vertical stakes (½ inch or 12 mm in size) are glued to the bed of the truck with a joint that mates the end grain stake to side-grain bed. Because it would be an inherently weak joint, I drilled ¼ inch (?6 mm) holes from the underside and inserted a ¼ inch dowel from below. Indeed, I strengthened several of the other joints in this model as well. It has to withstand a little boy.

Stake Truck 6.jpg

The underside shows the drive shaft, battery box (in walnut), spare tire and gas tank.

Stake Truck 7.jpg

The finished truck bears a few more details, of which you can see the headlights I turned. The model was based loosely on a pre-WWII American-built truck (perhaps a Mack truck?). Peter Aschenbrenner created this plan based on a scale of 1:20; this model is just under 16 inches (40 cm) in length.

Stake Truck 8.jpg

The last of these photos show the truck ready to be given to my grandson, whose name is Tobias. He was named after my Norwegian grandfather who emigrated to Canada in 1904 and formed a successful farm machine manufacturing company bearing his initials, the “TNB Machine Company”. Since my grandson’s initials happen to be TTB, I modified my grandfathers’ company name to match my grandson’s name. All the toys I am making for him have an accent in Canadian flag red and have the ‘TTB Machine Co.’ written somewhere on it.

Having made this truck, there are a number of things I would change, some visible and some not. For example, because the wheels are maple, they do not stand out from the vehicle as would black tires.

Next will be a cab-over tractor unit.

Your comments, criticisms and suggestions are most welcome.

Charles

G'Day Charles, WOW the truck has turned out great, a credit to skill and patience sir....

I love that you've personalized the truck for your grandson with it's a family heritage.

The other thing some personalization does is to add some strengthening timbers in what could be vulnerable spots.

On little boy proof, thicker & stronger timbers is the way to go though it does create some issues with the resizing;
doweling and good quality Tribond glue will also help [I generally use the "Original" as it tends to give less slippage in glue up clampings].

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, Cheers, crowie

PS - From your website I see you mill your own timber, have you used any of it in this truck??
AND the painting of the birds are magnificent....
You'll appreciate Trevor's bird photos in the forum Photography section
Scamander

Originally Posted by crowie

...good quality Tribond glue will also help [I generally use the "Original" as it tends to give less slippage in glue up clampings]...
PS - From your website I see you mill your own timber, have you used any of it in this truck??

crowie, thank you for your suggestion. I used Titebond 3 and it is frustrating slippery when mating two parts and trying to clamp them. I will follow your suggestion.

In response to your question about the source of wood, this truck bears no wood from the hardwood forest at the back of our farm (located in eastern Canada just north of Toronto). And the cab-over truck, which is next, bears little of our wood. But the two trailers I am making are formed of wood entirely from the property. I hope to show a couple photos of a Red Maple transitioning from tree to toy.

Charles

Originally Posted by York Woodwright

crowie, thank you for your suggestion. I used Titebond 3 and it is frustrating slippery when mating two parts and trying to clamp them. I will follow your suggestion.

Charles

I can't take the credit for the suggestion as it was another forum member who put me onto it a couple of years back so just passing on helpful information....