Shopsmith Forums

This is the second car in the Halloween version of the Hot Rod Freaky Ford. The body is made from two layers of 3/4 inch MDF laminated together. In these cars I cut the MDF before gluing them up. I can't cut them well enough on a scrollsaw so there was lots of sanding involved to get the two halves to match. I can glue them and cut both at same time but with 1-1/2 inch thick material you have to cut very slow. I'm not sure yet which works best for me but I'm leaning toward the glue first method. Glue first makes getting the windows right much easier. Sanding inside the windows is quite difficult.

Since you're practically in production mode with those cars, I'm thinking that an overarm pin router would be the perfect tool to make the bodies. Once you make a duplicating fixture, you could crank copies out in very short order, and they should need very little finish sanding. If you use a slightly larger guide pin for roughing passes, you could make a couple finish passes around the entire perimeter with 1" long straight bit. Ditto for the inside of the window.

Tweaking guide-pin radii is easier than it sounds. For small adjustments, I simply wrap a few turns of celophane tape around them. That works just fine, and you can adjust your cut edge by about 0.002" per wrap.

Mighty, mighty fine. I do mine from 2 X 's scrap and use a 1/4" bandsaw blade. To get my windows I use a drill pit to make front and back of the opening and then use a mallet and chisel to clean it up. Not nearly as nice as yours, but the children don't seem to care.

Let's ride!

A pin router is in the planning stage. I have one still in th box that I haven't set up yet. These cars are 1-1/2 inches thick. Is there a router bit that will cut material this thick? I understand that I would need to make multiple passes to cut it out.

I have recently acquired a second band saw with the intention of permanently mounting a Carter guide so I can cut the thick toy bodies faster. I discovered quickly that changing out guides every time I wanted to switch from scroll cut to resawing wasn't something I wanted to do. If the Carter guide doesn't do it for me I'll probably try the pin router next.

I don;t know if I would call what I'm doing right now production although that is the end goal. What you are seeing is a bunch of experiments with materials and techniques coming to and end. A lot of stuff went into the trash. I hope to be into serous production by fall.

swampgator wrote:Mighty, mighty fine. I do mine from 2 X 's scrap and use a 1/4" bandsaw blade. To get my windows I use a drill pit to make front and back of the opening and then use a mallet and chisel to clean it up. Not nearly as nice as yours, but the children don't seem to care.

Let's ride!

I find that the sape of the windows is critical to the look of the toy. This doesn't seem to affect the little ones but id does attract the adults.

From several good sources I head that adults go for the wood look and the kids go for the colors. Using my grandson as a test subject I showed him photos of toys one color and one with a clear finish or bare wood. He picked the painted ones almost every time. So I'm trying to learn efficient, inexpensive, and safe painting methods.

rlkeeney wrote:A pin router is in the planning stage. I have one still in th box that I haven't set up yet. These cars are 1-1/2 inches thick. Is there a router bit that will cut material this thick? I understand that I would need to make multiple passes to cut it out.

I have recently acquired a second band saw with the intention of permanently mounting a Carter guide so I can cut the thick toy bodies faster. I discovered quickly that changing out guides every time I wanted to switch from scroll cut to resawing wasn't something I wanted to do. If the Carter guide doesn't do it for me I'll probably try the pin router next.

I don;t know if I would call what I'm doing right now production although that is the end goal. What you are seeing is a bunch of experiments with materials and techniques coming to and end. A lot of stuff went into the trash. I hope to be into serous production by fall.

Looking at the Whiteside online catalog, it appears that 1/4" dia. router bits max out at 1" cutting length, but 1/2" dia bits go up to 2" cutting length.

http://www.whitesiderouterbits.com/catalog.html

Eyeballing the window profile in your photos, it looks like you'd need a 1/4" bit for those, unless you can live with a bigger corner radius. The 1/2" x 2" bits should work fine for the outside perimeter cut, assuming that chatter isn't a problem on a full-width cleanup pass.

Rough-cutting the outside on a bandsaw makes sense. You could bore the axle holes even before roughing out the blanks, and drop them onto alignment pins on your OPR duplicating fixture after roughing. A single cleanup pass on the OPR then might be all you need -- no hogging required.

RL Keeney
IT'S NOT OUT OF THE BOX YET!!!! You're worse than me!!!
Bill V

wa2crk wrote:RL Keeney
IT'S NOT OUT OF THE BOX YET!!!! You're worse than me!!!
Bill V

I had a chance to buy one very cheap unused still in the box and jumped on it. Until I started the serious toy making I never came up with anything to use it for. I did take it out of the box and look at it.

I know ' I know!!! I sent it to you!!
Bill V

BuckeyeDennis,

I try to make toys where I don't have a radius smaller than 1/2 inch. It make sanding much easier. In unfortunately the design of some toys just will not work with 1/2 inch radius. Sometimes a different shape will work. I'd just need to try it.

Would it be possible to cut part way through with a pin router turn it over and cut from the other side. I would need some way to index it so it would line up. I'm

It just occurred to me that if I cut it from 3/4 inch stock with the pin router then glue the half's together I could use a flush cutting bit to make them match. Might work. I know I can get 2 inch flush cutting bits.

I'm thinking I should use spiral up/down cut bits for the pin router. Am I wrong?