Free Plans For Bad Bob's Custom Motors Wooden Toy Cars

John Lewman over at ToyMakingPlans.com created these plans for me and released them in the forum. If you are not a member and you are interested in toymaking you should join the fun. My grandson loves these wooden toys.

Bad Bob's Custom Motors Wooden Toy Cars Green & Yellow

Bad Bob's Custom Motors Wooden Toy Cars Yellow

In the Shop - Blue & White Bad Bob's Custom Motors Coupe

Handmade Wooden Toy Car - Bad Bob's Custom Motors - Blue & White

Just out of the clamps. Painting with contrasting colors looks really good but, is tricky to pull off. You have to paint the parts separately masking off the spots where the glue will go.

Handmade Wooden Toy Car - Bad Bob's Custom Motors - Blue & White

Fitting all the parts together after they are painted is quite tedious. There is a risk of damaging the finish with tools or glues.  Being wood, fitment is not precise some parts need to be carefully modified to fit without damaging the paint.

Handmade Wooden Toy Car - Bad Bob's Custom Motors - Blue & White

 If you look closely at the photo above, you can see one tiny spot just above the fender where the paint was scratched off during assembly.

Handmade Wooden Toy Car - Bad Bob's Custom Motors - Blue & White

I learned the hard way that you must clean the jaws of your clamps before clamping painted parts together and be very careful not to touch the toy car with any of the metal parts of the clamps.

Small Quick clamps work well for this sort of clamping, The jaws are easy to clean and padded well. I've not had these stick to anything yet.

What kind of paint are you using for your Bad Bob's Custom Motors cars?

Bad Bob's Custom Motors

I use a variety of paints from various sources. I like the acrylic house paints the best. All of the paints are nontoxic when cured.

 I like to use a white primer to seal the wood and make the colors pop. In this case, I am using Zinsser B-I-N shellac based primer.

 I prefer to use an airbrush for painting toys but, I have to paint outdoors, and the weather where I live does not cooperate, and I have to wait or use a brush. I used an airbrush for these wooden toy cars. My airbrush is a Badger Anthem 155.

 I prefer acrylics over all other paints. They clean up easily, cover well, and are readily available in a vast array of colors. To clean, I flood with water to get rid of the bulk of the paint. The remaining paint is easily removed with ammonia-based cleaners such as window cleaner. I use household$ ammonia to remove dried paint.

 I used the following to paint these wooden toy car bodies.

Pink - Behr Acrylic House Paint
Green - Apple Barrel Gloss Green Acrylic Craft Paint
Blue - Behr Acrylic House Paint - Oops Paint
Yellow - Createx - Airbrush Paint
Red - Apple Barrel Bright Fed Acrylic Craft Paint
Lavender - Behr Acrylic House Paint - Oops Paint
Primer - Zinsser B-I-N

New Etsy Listing - Handmade Wooden Toy Car, Hot Rod 1927 T-Bucket From the Hot Rod Freaky Ford Series

Handmade Wooden Toy Car, Hot Rod 1927 T-Bucket From the Hot Rod Freaky Ford Series Pink

This one had a small problem. The hole for the peg doll wasn't drilled deep enough. I carefully set up my drill press and bit to extend the depth of the hole and added about 1/4-inch. The result was not what I was expecting. Either the bit was too small, or something was misaligned. The peg doll got stuck in the hole when I tested it. After trying several different tools sanding, I finally wound up using a diamond burr mounted in a rotary tool to enlarge the hole.

New Etsy Listing - Handmade Wooden Toy Car, Hot Rod 1927 T-Bucket From the Hot Rod Freaky Ford Series

Handmade Wooden Toy Car, Hot Rod 1927 T-Bucket

 

My first peg doll. It came out much better than I expected. I had this car and one other collecting dust waiting for me to get around to painting a peg doll.

Painting inside the hole is a problem. It's hard to do and get it to look good, and it makes the hole smaller. The wood swells a little from the paint and its hard to sand. If I paint after drilling the hole, I have trouble keeping paint out of the hole. I finally decided to try drilling the hole after painting.

After trashing a couple of paint jobs, I figured out that the way to drill them out is to wait until the car is assembled and painted. I put blue painters tape over the area where I need to drill and use a good quality brad point or Forstner bit that is very sharp.

Waiting until the car is finished ensures the hole is vertical. No jig is required to get the hole straight. I hold it by gently clamping with a padded hand screw.


 

New Etsy Listing - Handmade Toddler Puzzle, Rooster, Chicken, Very Easy Assembly

Handmade Wooden Toy Puzzle For Toddlers - Rooster - Chicken

Intended as a simple puzzle for kids and toddlers three years and older just getting into puzzles. The Cat has only four parts. It is more difficult than the White Rabbit sold separately but still quite simple. It is also a freestanding stacking toy. It is a bit tricky to do but, My four-year-old grandson can do it.

These puzzles have been thoroughly grandson tested for playing fun and durability.

 Handmade Wooden Toy Puzzle For Toddlers - Rooster - Chicken

Tray puzzles are much easier to assemble and store than your typical wooden puzzle. I think they are much more comfortable for children. The pieces are painted only on one side to make it easier for kids to put together.

The edges and backs of the pieces are unfinished.

Handmade Wooden Toy Puzzle For Toddlers - Rooster - Chicken

Every part of the puzzle is non-toxic. I made the tray and puzzle parts from premium grade pine, not construction lumber. The bottom of the puzzle tray is hardboard. The tray is hand finished with three or more coats of amber shellac carefully sanding between coats. I painted the puzzle parts with non-toxic acrylic craft paint.

Not intended for use by children under three or children who like to chew on things.

Handmade Wooden Toy Puzzle For Toddlers - Rooster - Chicken

Height 3.5 inches
Width 3.5 inches
Thickness 0.75 inch

These puzzles are handmade from real wood. Each piece, even from the same board, is different. The puzzle you receive may not look the same as the one in the listing photos.

Handmade Wooden Toy Puzzle For Toddlers - Rooster - Chicken

I sell these individually instead of in sets so you can pick and choose only the ones you want. Shipping per item gets lower as you buy more of them. There are four puzzles in the set.

Handmade Wooden Toy Puzzle For Toddlers - Rooster - Chicken

I combine shipping for multiple items and strive to give my customers the lowest rates possible. The more you buy, the lower the cost per item. For example, you could buy eight to four puzzles or other similar size items from my store and your shipping cost would be the same as one. I refund excess shipping. If Etsy charges you $8 to ship and it costs me $6, you get a $2 refund.

Handmade Wooden Toy Puzzle For Toddlers - Rooster - Chicken

Custom orders are welcome. I can make these from Pine, Oak, Poplar, Plywood MDF and other materials. I can make sizes up to 8x10 inches in thickness from 1/4 to 3/4-inch. Please contact me for custom order pricing.

Handmade Wooden Toy Puzzle For Toddlers - Rooster - Chicken

If you don't see a puzzle, you like or want something different. I can probably make it for you.

Replacing My Harbor Freight Bench Top Drill Press With A Grizzly G7943 Drill Press

I have a harbor freight bench top drill press that I have used for several years for small bits. It is almost too small and required some fiddling to get the holes drilled in the right place. Not having a crank to raise and lower the table was a real pain. It had a keyless chuck that I found difficult to use and often would get a bit installed crooked.

Harbor Freight - Central Machinery - Bench Top Drill Press

I had already decided to get something different, and through a process of elimination, I chose the  Grizzly G7943 as the best solution.

Grizzly G7943 Drill Press

A few weeks later a used one popped up on Craig's list. Mit must have been fate. I have kept a search running for Grizzly tools on crags list for several years. Hits are rare and most things I don't want, high prices, or poor condition. This is the first drill press I have seen.  I had to buy it.


According to the seller, it is about ten years old. Not a big deal since they have changed very little and it wasn't in a commercial shop. It did need some TLC.
The user mounted light was a mess. The head was about to fall off. I repaired the light and wired it directly into the drill.  I had to remove the top of the drill press to get at the wiring.  Getting the spindle pully off turned into an all-day job.  It's amazing how many different ways they have come up with to mount a spindle pulley.

The built-in light would not work with LED bulbs. After the tom was removed and I could get the light socket out I discovered there was a 1/8-inch lip on the light socket that was keeping the bulb from seating. I was on my way to Home Depot light socket in hand to see if I could find an LED bulb to fit.  At the door I thought, I can get a new one from Grizzly if I screw this up, I'm going to remove the lip. Belt sander to the rescue. My Shopsmith belt sander took the rim off in a few seconds. The LED fit perfectly. With these two lights, I now have 1500 lumens on the drill press table.

The lights I use are GE Lighting LED Bright Stiks Daylight LEDs. I highly recommend these LED bulbs.

The pulley nut has left handed threads. I had to rig up something hold the spindle in place while I turned the nut. I didn't get the drift key with the drill press. In fact, I didn't know what a drift key was until I got deep into this project. I have a large drill press I bought several years ago that came with one. I think I threw it away because I never figured out what it was.

Grizzly G9378 - Forged Drift Key Set - 4 pc. Set

 

The idea of having two drill presses id to have one for the larger bits and heavy work and one for the small stuff. The big drill press will take up to a 3/4-inch shank bit, but it will not go much lower than 1/4-inch. Scrollsaw work requires a lot of precisely drilled holes 90 degrees to the surface. Some toys also need small holes, and I don't want to be changing chucks every time I drill a hole.
The arbor on the drill was scored. It looked like the chuck had been installed with debris on the arbor or chuck and it had slipped. Arbors don't cost much so, I ordered a new one.

South Bend SB1454 - Drill Chuck Arbor MT2/JT33

The chuck was metric and far too large for my purposes so I ordered a new one that will take bits down to 1/32-inch. There are some chucks go down to zero but, all of them were keyless, which I don't like on a drill press,  and the reviews did not leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling. The companies were all in China and if I got one that I didn't like I would have thrown my money away. I bought mine from Grizzly. I have past experience with their customer service and I know that if there is a problem they will make it right.

South Bend SB1370  DRILL CHUCK 1/32"-1/2" JT33

I also ordered new knobs.  Some of the existing knobs were broken and improperly glued back. You can't glue plastic and vinyl to steel with polyurethane glue.

There is a little rust on it that needs to be cleaned up. Mostly on the table where the previous owner had mounted a larger table bare wood against cast iron is asking for rust.

Is it worth it? I'll have to wait and see. I haven't drilled a hole with it yet, and I already have a good feeling about this drill press. If it saves me as much time and effort as I expect it too, it will be.