Prep for Next Workshop (week of 10.30.2022)

 Temperature Monitoring

Snow expected by Thursday afternoon.  Will need to complete all spraying and sealing tasks by Wednesday night.

Rocking chair building

Cutting the heart on Rocker back panel using CNC router

Touch up of pickup trucks and small tanker trucks

Ready for inventory!

Seal toys - and then hand sand

Spray toys

Jewelry Boxes

Julian has finished building the jewelry boxes.  

Remaining tasks:  Seal/sand/finish/lining/necklaces

Tops need some touch up before sealing.

Basketball hoops

Produced by Stu on CNC.

Next:  Remove tabs with pattern bit, sand edges, router edges with 1/8" roundover.  

Next:  Drill two pilot holes in backboard.

Then glue hoop to backboard; after glue dries, attach securely with two screws.  

Seal, sand, finish.  

Install on base sub assembly.

Pattern bit for removing small tabs from hoops.

Basketball Game - Bases

Caravans

Tasks remaining:  Fit checks between car and trailer will be done next.  Will require trimming to get proper fit.   Hitches need to be hand sanded.  Wheels can be installed, and pegs inserted and trimmed.  Then will do touch up of hitches to complete the toy.

Wheels - Rick is spraying a bunch of wheels with a finish

Needed a few more Axle Pegs for 2022 toys - spray with 2022 Orange Paint

Paul Douglas is bringing in 1,000 more pegs on Saturday.

Paul Douglas painted another bag of pegs (1,000) orange this week and will  bring them to the workshop.  He brought in his pegboard pieces he uses to hold the pegs for spraying to show us how he sprays the pegs.

A few things still left to do before workshop:

Make a few more Tugboat Stacks - Tugboat stack stock (1 3/4" long x 1 " diameter) - need 3/4" holes 3/4" deep drilled in tops using 3/4" Forstner bit)

Results of today in the shop:

1. Found smoke stack stock, but having chuck issues on newer radial drill press.  Will bring jig to workshop to drill holes in stack stock.

2.  Setup the router for 1/8" round over - finished all hoops (40).  [These hoops are 1/4" wider than previous hoops.  This was a design improvement.]

3.  Found a box of pickups made and wheeled last year.  Also found 1 1/2" dowels for tankers.  Needed to router the tanker pieces and put a flat side on the dowel.  Tried to remove my fingertip and fingernail on belt sander.  Oops.  Will bring tanker pieces to workshop tomorrow to build some tanker trucks.

4.  Trimmed and round over the edges of Jewelry Box  tops (36).  Still needs some handsanding.  Will bring to workshop.

5.  Found some hoops with holes drilled.  Can be used as golden setup for full box of back boards already at Wood Shop.  Plan to setup and drill at Workshop.

Snow about 3 pm on Nov 3 - Temp is 31 degrees.  Was 76 degrees on Nov 2.  Long week.

For more information, go to www.rapidcitywoodworkers.com.

RCWA

Toy Workshop (TWS2022-21) 10.29.2022

We held our 21st Toy Workshop (TWS) for 2022 on Saturday October 29, 2022, from 9 to noon.  This was held at the Wood Shop at 910 Wood Ave in Rapid City.  The shop is in the basement of the annex to Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.

The attendees at today's workshop (25) included Harley, John, Bel, Bob, Jerry, Patsy, Stu, Rick, Grant, Mary Jo, Nick, Rollie, Lon, Henry, Norma, Ken, Russ, Frank, Al, Lauree, Darwin, Gary G, Dennis, Tony, and Don.  Three guests also dropped by.

Here was the plan for the day:  TASKS FOR TOY WORKSHOP 10-29-2022

1. Log in completed / filled bags of blocks (about 6)

2. Look for filled block bags from 2021 (maybe 4). 

3. Put one Necklace in each heart box (about 50)

4. Wheels on toys (several boxes).

5. Dachshund dogs-- add ears and  wheels  (will be more next week too).

6. Caravans – cut hitches – sand – polyrub - add pegs +wheels

7. Cradles – sand ends – 19 pairs

8. Pickups - add flat beds or tankers 

9. Tugboats - sand before finish

10. Backboards – need to drill holes in back boards – before gluing on hoops

11. Blocks - Sand/Router Blocks, put in bags when finished (10 long, 10 short)

12. Paddle Games - add strings  + balls – put in one gallon bags

13. Cup & Ball Game- add ball and string  - put in bags

14. Ring TOSS Games- add string + balls  - put in bags

15. ICU items – to and from Gary Graves.

Today Darwin and Tony trimmed caravan hitches (and basketball hoops) with scroll saws.  Rollie rounded the trailer hitches using the 1" sander.  After sealing the hitches, wheels can be installed, and pegs inserted and trimmed, to complete this toy.

Patsy, Mary Jo, Norma, and Don hand sanded Tugboats that had been sprayed with shellac.   They also sanded a box of sealed toys.  

Patsy and Jerry provided coffee and cookies today!

Al worked on ball and strings for cup and ball games, and ring and strings for ring toss games.  He was assisted by Patsy, Mary Jo and Norma.

Harley, John, Bel, and Don installed wheels on toys today.  There were 272 toys packed and moved to inventory today.

Nick and Jerry built flatbed pickups and small tanker trucks.  The wheel guys installed wheels (with orange pegs).  The flatbeds and tanker parts will need to be sealed before packing for inventory.

Outside today, there was power sanding and round-over routering in 63 degree weather.  Many boxes of toys and blocks were worked on,  moving them to the next operation.  Ken, Russ, Rollie, Rick, and Stu made up the parking lot crew.

Gary Graves brought in basketball games bases that survived ICU, along with a box full of surviving wheeled toys. He also picked up a bunch of toys for ICU.

Stu brought in 36 basketball hoops he made on his CNC.  This will enable us to  complete this year's basketball games.  Thanks Stu!  Tony trimmed the tabs to separate the hoops from the sheet of plywood.

Grant continued to improve the library.  He put the new bookcase in place and filled it with magazines and books.   Looking very classy!

At the end of the day, there were 5 boxes of toys ready to be sealed with shellac, three boxes of toys ready for final spraying, and more basketball bases ready to finish before final assembly with the hoop/backboard assemblies.  Several boxes of blocks were almost ready to be bagged as well.

Today was also the day to blow out the sprinklers at the church.  While blowing out the lines, the main line from the compressor failed and blew a big hole in the hose where it came in the back door.  So  there was a very loud high pitched whistle going on for a while, until the guys doing the purge who were on the other side of the building could come back and turn off the compressor.  This wreaked havoc with anyone wearing hearing aids, but the flailing hose was knocked down by Dennis, preventing any damage to anyone or the building.  It really did get our attention!

We had a visitor during today's workshop; Mike Ray from the Ray Tree Farm on Nemo Road delivered a donation of some bug pine slabs to us for our toy making efforts.  Mike says that they have a small sawmill and the main products are pine slabs.  Al Oines will be coordinating a shop tour for next spring at the Ray Tree Farm.  Thank you Mike for the wood delivery today.  (Check them out on Facebook.)

Mike has attended our Tool Sale for many years and was excited to see our facility and our toy making operations.  He was very happy to be able to help us out with the wood donation!  (Mike's one of our happy radial arm saw customers!)

Another visitor today was Sue Jorgensen from YFS.  Sue and Connie are working on a special project using some of our toy cars, so we were able to provide them to Sue today.  Sue enjoyed seeing the toy shop in action and was able to meet several of our members during her visit.  She very much appreciates our support of the YFS over the past 14 years!

Photos from today's workshop:

Rick is using a safe and sane technique to router all edges of the blocks for blocks bags.  This video demonstrates the technique using a router table with a fence and a miter fence.

For more information, go to www.rapidcitywoodworkers.com.

RCWA