Odin's Toy Factory

Creating precision toy truck parts with the help of hardboard templates and nails to mark the axle holes.     My Goimagine Shop I've been making toys and other small projects for over 40 years. When I first started, I used templates. However, everything changed when I discovered the power of Inkscape, a free and open-source vector graphics editor. When I first started using a scroll saw, I made project templates. I would trace the pattern and create a template using plastic laminates, hardboard, thin plywood, and posterboard. Eventually, I had boxes full of unorganized templates and a pain to search through. Once I had a scanner and could print paper patterns, this changed. When starting a new project, I scan the pattern and convert it to SVG format. From that point, I can make the lines any size and print as many as I want. The lines on paper are much easier to see and follow. Clear, precise lines can be essential for projects requiring precise cutting. Using Inkscape, I can ...

I'm not an expert with either of the software packages discussed here. Once I know what I want to do I ask the Google oracle for help and it always provides. If you have questions, you should ask Google. There are a lot of videos on YouTube, and some books are available. The learning curve is steep. If you are only going to make one toy and don't intend to make batches or modify the patterns, it may not be worth the effort to learn about these tools. This isn't a tutorial. It is a simple explanation of how I use Gimp and Inkscape in my toymaking. The first step I take when making something for the first time is to convert the patterns to SVG. I load the bit map patterns into Gimp and clean them up. The bitmaps get copied into Inkscape and converted into the SVG format. Why? First I get sharp, precise lines when you print the patterns. When you print from bitmaps the edges of the lines are jagged and fuzzy. If you want to enlarge the pattern, it gets worse. With the ...