Turning Toys with Richard Raffan Turning Toys with Richard Raffan Turning Toys with Richard Raffan t Text © 2013 by Richard Raffan Photographs © 2013 by The Taunton Press, Inc. Illustrations © 2013 by The Taunton Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Pp The Taunton Press, Inc., 63 South Main Street, PO Box 5506, Newtown, CT 06470-5506 e-mail: [email protected] Editors: David Heim, Christina Glennon Copy Editor: Seth Reichgott Indexer: Jay Kreider Cover Designer: carol singer | notice design Interior Designer: Rosalind Loeb Wanke Layout Artist: Tinsley Morrison Photographer: A ll photos by Richard Raffan except for the top photos on p. 99 by Richard Heddington LRPS. Illustrator: Melanie Powell The following manufacturers/names appearing in Turning Toys are trademarks: Dremel®, Henry Taylor®, Velcro® Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Raffan, Richard. Turning toys / Richard Raffan. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-62113-010-9 (paperback) 1. Wooden toys. 2. Toy making. 3. Woodwork. 4. Turning (Lathe work) I. Title. TT174.5.W6R34 2013 745.592--dc23 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ABOUT YOUR SAFETY Working with wood is inherently dangerous. Using hand or power tools improperly or ignoring safety practices can lead to permanent injury or even death. Don’t try to perform operations you learn about here (or elsewhere) unless you’re certain they are safe for you. If something about an operation doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Look for another way. We want you to enjoy the craft, so please keep safety foremost in your mind whenever you’re in the shop. Acknowledgments B efore I tackled this book, the only toys I’d made were sets of spillikins (pick-up sticks) and spinning tops. It’s unlikely I’d have undertaken Turning Toys of my own volition, so I’m very grateful to Peter Chapman, who suggested the project and signed me up. My thanks go to Jane McClintock, a niece and mother of two small boys, who provided some useful insights into how children play and respond to a range of toys and games. For me, the creation of Turning Toys became a stimulating 3-month challenge that involved 12- to 14-hour days of writing, photography, a long-suffering but supportive wife, and even a bit of woodturning. Throughout those hectic weeks, David Heim provided an enjoyable and accommodating editing experience, making Turning Toys a better book than it might have been. Contents IntroductIon 2 1 safe desIgn 4 2 tools 8 3 wood & preparIng blanks 17 thIngs we forget 4 24 (but shouldn’t) turnIng cylInders 5 30 & dowels 6 turnIng wheels 40 projects 54 7 wheely bug 56 8 racIng car 65 9 peggIes 72 10 wands 80 11 stackers 88 12 spheres 98 13 fruIt & vegetables to “cut” 106 14 croquet set 115 15 teether & rattle 122 16 nestIng tubs 131 17 goblet 139 18 bIlboquet 146 19 spInnIng tops 152 20 balance tray 159 21 table skIttles 166 fInal touches 176 further readIng 183 Index 184 Introduction T his is a book about toys and games for kids that you Photos and a few drawings show you what to do, step by can turn on a lathe. It’s nearly impossible to come step; you’ll see exactly how the tools are used, how the cut- up with anything new in this area, given that ting edge should relate to the surface you’re cutting, and the humans have been making toys for kids for thou- sort of shavings you can expect when everything is going well. sands, and possibly tens of thousands, of years. My intention In the text I warn you of potential problems and offer ways to is to provide a clutch of projects that are quirky variations on circumvent them. traditional themes, at the same time offering you some won- My aim is to give you more than enough information to derful skill-building exercises for which a big lathe and fancy overcome the problems you’ll run into as you work through tools are not required. each project. Many of them may appear similar, but each Almost every project has been turned and photographed offers its own set of challenges. If you want to learn about on my smallish Vicmarc 150 lathe, seen in its entirety on turning in greater depth, I refer you to the Further Reading p. 13. The VL150 swings 113⁄ in. (300mm) and accommo- list on p. 183. 4 dates 133⁄ in. (350mm) between centers. To make the book Even if you don’t have kids in your life, a son or daughter, 4 comprehensible to readers everywhere, measurements niece or nephew, grandchild, or even brother or sister, there throughout the book are in both metric and imperial and for are lots of kids out there with nobody to make stuff for them. the most part are rounded up to the nearest 1⁄ in. or 5mm. You can make as many toys and games as you like knowing 8 The projects will teach you about chucking and measuring that, sadly, there are millions of kids who would be delighted and will develop your tool technique. My aim is to provide to have anything you’ve made. You can reach those kids you with more than a set of designs or plans to follow. This is through charitable organizations and church groups, who an ideas and techniques book, so once you have the principle always welcome anything that might enrich the lives of the of how to go about it, you can take an idea and make your kids they help. own version. Many of the skills you learn here can be applied Repetition is the key to mastering any craft, and toys tend to a wide variety of jobs on the lathe. I’ve included simple to involve lots of repetition in the form of wheels, beads, and techniques for mounting wood, some you might not have spindles. You can get plenty of practice executing simple proj- thought of. There are ideas for enhancing a basic turning ects for small kids, who can’t have too many peg dolls, balls, with carving, staining, drawing, and painting. and things on wheels. With practice, you’ll discover ways of 2 salvaging a situation when things go wrong, as they inevitably next. Few things are more satisfying than making gifts for do. Turn disasters into design opportunities, keeping in mind people you know, let alone love, especially when you can that often what looks like a disaster to an adult doesn’t faze a watch them using and enjoying the products of your labors. child at all. My hope is that this book will help you spend many happy When I first came up with possible projects for this book, and fruitful hours at your lathe, interspersed with some I was thinking of the objects I could make for kids rather quiet times painting and decorating, creating heirlooms for than how I’d make them. I knew they would be round and your succeeding generations. that was about it. I soon realized that almost every project involved some form of spindle turning and, consequently, the use of a skew chisel, a tool that scares the daylights out of many a novice turner. Needlessly, I might add. The skew chisel catches that unnerve most novice turners, those that happen when turning spindles, are rarely dangerous; mostly they just mess up the wood. The dangerous and occasionally life-threatening catches are those involving scrapers and gouges on platters and bowls nearing completion. It is those catches that often result in serious injury, trips to the hospital, and stitches. If you are new to woodturning, the best thing you can do is come to terms with skew chisels by spending time turning some sort of spindle. This book is full of projects that are ideal for anyone in need of skew-chisel practice—and that’s all of us. Skew-chisel practice is to a woodturner what scales are to a musician. Finally, anything that survives being used by one genera- tion has a good chance of being tucked away in a box for the 3 introduction