– A combination of simple living, anti-consumerism, self-work ethic, self-reliance, resilience, and applied capitalism

Of the woodworking I do, I find toy making to be the most fun. It’s an opportunity to get creative, and work on using lighter tolerances [much] Simpler carpentry, makes the child happy, and uses scrap wood.

Here is a picture of the train set I made. It’s made entirely out of scrap wood, save a $1 dowel, using hand tools

. The darker wood is Douglas fir and the lighter wood is a cheap SPH (spruce, pine and hemlock) frame that I planed straight. The nails (stacks and axles) are oak.

My only power tool is a small proxxon drill press that I use to drill pilot holes for the chuck and strut.

the train game

At first, the hardest part was cutting all the wheels using a fret saw, but it quickly became easier as I learned how to use it better. BTW I use it to post backwards on the push stroke, but whatever. The hardest part was sawing off the angles on the cowcatcher (yes, city folks, that’s really what it’s called). The kettle was made from 2 x 6’s, double glued and machined from flat block. The only thing that might be difficult for a beginner making these things is the precise cutting of the front part of the engine room. This has been cut and undermined much like a fit. Otherwise, if you think about it, the train is just a simple type of box with some extra wooden parts glued to it.

I have no idea how long it took to make it. I made each part using 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there. The total cost was $1 per stake. Otherwise, the rest of the wood would have been used as fuel for a fire.

Cost if you have to buy it? It’s hard to say. A quick Google search didn’t reveal anything for sale with the same level of sophistication (haven’t seen anything yet). A simpler model of similar size but without push bars costs $50 retail. Maybe this will sell for $75 at one of the fancy art stores? If you want to make your own game, head to the library and buy one or more of the many books on making games. Most of them seem to have been written in the 1970s before plastic toys and video games. In terms of tool and skill, you can make a lot of games if you have the ability to saw straight. This should be trivial with a bandsaw, but obviously you can also do it with hand tools if you’re leaning towards Neanderthal. Oh yeah, the dog’s name is

sincere