We held our second Toy Workshop (TWS) for 2023 on Saturday February 4, 2023, from 9 am to 12. 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. This was a make-up workshop as we missed last Saturday due to inclement blustery weather/snow and wind.
The attendees at today's workshop (25) included Nick, Harley, Bob, Kathie, Rick, Grant, Rollie, Norma, Mary G, Julian, Keith, Lon, Ken, Dennis, Russ, Darwin, Lauree, Al, Frank, Jerry, Patsy, Stu, Gary G, Ed, and Don.
We continued tracing patterns onto 2" thick material today. We then cut the traced toys into individual pieces with the miter saw or the band saw. Lastly we put all toys of one kind into a box, labeled the box with an Assembly History Tag (AHT) and moved the boxes to the Work In Progress (WIP) store room. We also began cutting and drilling.
Behind the Scenes:
Rick brought in Chopper blades (125) that he punched out on his CNC router. Stu brought in Basketball Hoops (60) he made using his CNC router. Rick has finished cutting the tractor bodies (50) for the Woodworking Show. The sanding crew smoothed the edges of the tractor bodies and Chopper blades today. The dowels and wheels are ready foe quick assembly at the Woodworking Show in April.
Rick traced 25 crayon vans and passed them off to Bob for crayon hole drilling.
Bob traced 160 blanks including locomotives, rabbits and hippos. He drilled the Windows in the locomotives. These four boxes were loaded up for Keith today for cutting to shape at home. Rick has been tracing the new simple helos (100) and planning the straight blades. Jerry has been tracing giraffes, golf carts, and fire trucks. By efficiently using the scraps from these, he is also tracing "thin" Love Bugs as well.
Yesterday, Bob cut parts for two shelving units 4' x 6' x 16" to hold wood stock for toys. Today at the Workshop, Rick and Ken assembled the shelves and loaded them with wood. They decided one more pair of shelves between pillars would also be very useful.
BEFORE
AFTER
Grant is preparing a donated router by installing it in a table for using at the workshops; he has mounted it on a board and attached it to a cart/table.
Al is making small hammers with leather heads to more safely start axle pegs without damaging the pegs.
Gary Graves is building the smaller helicopters (25 so far). He's also looking into building a manned jeep.
Keith is building a ton of toys in his home workshop. He brought in a couple hundred Love Bugs last workshop all ready for final sanding and finishing and wheels. He also cut new toy Milk Vans (25) to shape and sanded them, and brought them in for the next steps.
Today Rollie and Russ traced the 2023 Turtle Banks. The traditional passing of the banks to Rick (with a tracer attached) was held. Rick starts by using a hole saw to drill out the centers. We are keeping our eye on these turtles; Turtles Banks have traditionally been known to ramble.
Our goal for 2023 is to build about 3,000 toys to donate to organizations who work with kids in South Dakota.
Results of Today's Toymaking Efforts:
Patterns traced: 28
Total toys traced: 904
More to come: we will be tracing for at least the next three workshops, as well as starting the cutting and milling. So today, we started phases 2 - 3 - 4 on the toys traced so far.
Today we celebrated Harley's 90th Birthday: Harley Schmadeke is a charter member of the RCWA, joining at our first meeting back in June 2008. Harley joins an elite group of members who have reached the 90s Club, as he joins Rollie Lynde who reached in September 2022.
Congratulations Harley and Happy Birthday🎂!
Happy Birthday to you!!!
Photos from today's workshop:
For more information, go to www.rapidcitywoodworkers.com.
