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Making Heirloom Toys

Professional designer and woodworker Jim Makowicki's 22-project collection reflects uncanny historical detail and technical accuracy. Each ingeniously designed toy is a potential family heirloom, as a plaything or for display. Makowicki's sophisticated toy designs are extraordinary. Some projects have over 50 pieces; one, a handsome ferry boat complete with vintage vehicles has over 100. There are simpler toys, too, all suited to the average woodworker's skills. Projects are meticulously researched and include scale drawings that can be copier-enlarged into full-size working plans. Readers get step-by-step details, including safety, design and finishing information. Projects are mostly transportation toys: cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, boats and more.

Paperback: 160 pages

Publisher: Taunton Press; UNABRIDGED VERSION edition (October 1, 1996)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1561581127

ISBN-13: 978-1561581122

Product Dimensions: 9 x 0.4 x 11 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #153,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #12 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Crafts & Hobbies > Toys & Models > Wood Toys #64 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Crafts & Hobbies > Wood Crafts & Carving #75 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Crafts & Hobbies > Toys & Models > Toymaking

My first exposure to Jim Makowicki's toy designs was found on the inside back cover of the Nov./Dec. 1979 issue no. 19 of Fine Woodworking. Although no plans were included with the photographs, I made a couple of the toys from those photos for our children at that time by studying the pictures. I always wanted to make the ferry boat for our children, but never found time back then. I found & purchased this book recently just to make the ferry for our grandson. The patterns, material lists and written instructions were more than adequate. The entire ferry boat project took a little over 100 hours. I made each of the cars out of figured woods (birdseye, cherry burl, curly walnut & tightly curled tiger maple) and spent an average of 15 hours on each one. The wheels on the cars took about 1/2 hour each. The author suggested several construction methods that I was not comfortable using and I got the same results using different machines and approaches. A good example is the fenders for the cars. I simply traced them onto a piece of wood and cut them out on my jigsaw. It helps to have a good selection of wood working machines on hand and some wood working experience. It is very important to use the author's patterns and reproduce them as instructed to maintain the proper proportions. I copied all patterns (as instructed) that included hole layouts, then overlaid the patterns on the individual parts, including the deck rail holes, and centerpunched the hole locations through the pattern for perfect placement. Some of the measurements on certain parts seem vague, but the numbers are there and require some simple math to obtain dimensions. Some angles are not given and the use of a protractor helps. Rounded edges may require the use of a radius gage.

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