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by
Art Mulder
photos: Roger Yip
illustration: Len Churchill |
PUSH & PLAY |
This
noise-making mower is sure to be a hit |
I’ll
warn you right up front: this push mower makes lots of noise,
but it was fun to build and kids love it. That said, in my experience,
noise is exactly what all kids like in a good plaything. As
they push it across the floor, the noisemaker blocks swing back
and forth, knocking on the dowels, making a rhythmic “clack-clack-clack”
sound. Its unique character draws lots of attention. Young visitors,
as well as the young-at-heart, often want to have a look, a
push and a listen. The curves, the wheels, the contrasting wood
colours and the complex appearance of the mechanism all work
together to make it a nice project. And because I’ve used
an “old-fashioned” reel mower to cut my lawn for
years, it only seemed appropriate to make a push toy in the
shape of such a mower for my son.
|
Contrasting
wood highlights the mower's mechanism. It is an
intricate work of art |
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Choose Your Materials
The biggest piece of lumber you will need for this project is
only three feet long—most are under a foot. That means
this is a good time to raid your stash of “too good to
toss” wood scraps.
Using different types of wood
for the project’s parts dramatically affects the look
of your toy. I used maple for the uprights and darker woods
for the noisemakers. Using walnut uprights with maple noisemakers
would give you a completely different appearance.
When you prepare your wood, leave
the upright strips about six inches longer than the finished
length to allow for slippage when you laminate them together.
The noisemaker dowels should also be left a bit long and trimmed
to their final length as part of the building process.
Construct a Curve
The first step is to build the clamping jig for making the curved
uprights. Fasten three pieces of scrap 3/4" particleboard
together and transfer the curve to this wood, then cut your
stock to shape with a jigsaw.
After you sand this lamination
nice and smooth, fasten it to another scrap piece of particleboard
to serve as a backing. Lay some waxed paper over the clamping
jig to prevent the uprights from sticking to the jig during
glue-up.
Next, soak the curved upright
strips in warm water for about an hour to increase their flexibility.
Take three of these strips and coat them with cold-cure epoxy
to make one finished upright. This type of adhesive even cures
underwater, making it a good choice for working with wet wood.
Polyurethane glue is another excellent water-tolerant adhesive
option. Place three strips on your clamping jig, add another
layer of waxed paper and three more pieces of wood before clamping
everything tightly to the jig. Both uprights will be laminated
and curved at the same time using this method.
Once the glue has cured, use an
oscillating spindle sander to clean any glue squeeze-out and
leftover bits of wax paper from the uprights. Set them aside
to allow all the water to dry from the wood. |
YOU
WILL NEED |
PART |
MATERIAL |
SIZE |
QTY |
Curved
upright strips |
maple |
3/16"
x 1 7/8" x 28" |
6 |
Handles |
hardwood |
1
1/4" x 5 1/8" |
2 |
Crosspiece |
cherry |
7/8"
x 2 1/2" x 9 1/4" |
1 |
Crosspiece
dowels |
bloodwood |
1/4"
dia. x 1 1/2" |
4 |
Wheels |
birch |
7/8"
x 6"-dia. |
2 |
Noisemaker
dowels |
maple |
3/4"-dia.
x 8 3/8" |
4 |
Thin
noisemakers |
purpleheart |
3/4"
x 2 1/2" x 4" |
2 |
Medium
Noisemakers |
cherry
& birch |
7/8"
x 2 1/2" x 4" |
4 |
Thick
noisemakers |
walnut |
1"
x 2 1/2" x 4" |
2 |
Reinforcement
dowels |
bloodwood |
1/4"-dia.
x 1" |
4 |
Axle
pins |
hardwood |
5/8"-dia.
x 2 3/4" |
2 |
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PART 1 | PART 2
| PART 3 |
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