PDA

View Full Version : Toys for Charity



tmerrill
11-06-2008, 05:20 PM
This past year I joined two local woodworking clubs. One club has been making and donating toys to local charities for over 20 years. The other club is doing it this year for the first time. The primary effort supports Christmas, but donations are also made to the Red Cross and local Sheriff’s Department, where the toys are used year round to calm children who have just been through a traumatic experience.

Both clubs were very interested in my ShopBot and after demonstrating it, we decided on what parts and pieces I could make to help the toy effort.

The most popular toy for little girls has been a cradle, provided with a purchased blanket and teddy bear. The ends were being cut on a band saw, which was very time consuming. So my first assignment was to design a simple cradle design and cut out enough ends for 160 cradles. Attached pictures show various stages of construction and the cradles are done! The ends were cut from ¾” veneer core plywood and the sides and bottoms from ½” plywood. Almost all the material was either donated by local businesses or purchased through them at cost. We did use some prefinished plywood this year, but generally the toys are not painted or finished because of liability issues.

Other parts I made were small animal outlines for a carousel toy, and a “yoke” and wheels for a small wooden wagon. Other members make cars, trucks, puzzles, etc.

All the design work was accomplished using VCarve Pro, which as always was a pleasure to use. The preview feature was very helpful to finalize designs via email.

This has been a very rewarding experience, and I would encourage anyone interested to look into doing the same.

Tim


1453


1454


1455

pezsez
11-06-2008, 07:44 PM
VERY COOL!!

Cmon fellow botters --lets all follow this lead!

Would you email the files to me please--or upload the attachemnt?

Pez

road_king
11-06-2008, 07:49 PM
Tim,

Nice Job!!! I agree with PEZ, VERY COOL indeed!!!

GB

chiloquinruss
11-06-2008, 09:40 PM
PART WIZARD!
PART WIZARD!
PART WIZARD!
PART WIZARD!
Good job Tim, but instead of posting here how about posting to Part Wizard so that they are available to all whenever needed. My wife's quilting group has been doing donation quilts for years as part of the Linus project. These quilts are used for police/trama/Red Cross child related occurances. These wooden toys be a great add on to that project. Good job Tim and your local wood clubs. Russ

ed_lang
11-07-2008, 06:18 PM
Great Job!

I too hope that this make it to the Project Wizard or at least posted here.

Since I had all boys, I have no experience with dolls.... Well GI Joe might count but that was years ago and he slept on the ground not in a bed! what size doll fits into the cradle?

tmerrill
11-08-2008, 07:41 AM
Thanks for the interest.

I haven't looked at Project Wizard for years. When I get a chance, I will.

Maybe someone from ShopBot can jump in here.

Tim

bill.young
11-08-2008, 08:28 AM
Hi Tim,

I'm guessing that my email yesterday didn't make it to you...could you send me an email at the address in my profile to make sure that I have your correct address and I'll try again?

Bill

tmerrill
11-08-2008, 09:32 AM
PEZ,
I sent you an email. Let me know if you didn't get it.

Ed,
The cradle is about 6.5" wide at the bottom by 5" deep. The length is 15", but that is easily controlled by the length you cut the sides and bottom (table saw operation). The dimensions seem to fit the majority of small to medium size dolls or stuffed animals and the end pieces are easily cut from a 12" x 12" piece of material, making nesting easy.

pezsez
11-08-2008, 09:03 PM
Hi Tim

Yup--got it--and thanks. I spoke to my staff about your post, and we plan to cut all the parts ahead of time on our BT 48, and on a Saturday have all 3 families and kids come into assemble/glue them together. We make aftermarket audio for Harley Davidsons, so we plan to deliver up to 50 these to the local Harley dealers toy drive.

Once again---fellow botters--lets follow the lead!

PEZ

myxpykalix
11-08-2008, 09:58 PM
here is an idea i had (posted to another section)

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/312/35774.html?1226199315

dollar store boxes

richards
11-19-2008, 08:01 AM
Tim,

Thanks for the idea and the encouragement. I just delivered 100 cradles made out of my MDF scraps to a local charity (Deseret Industries) for its Christmas Room.

myxpykalix
11-19-2008, 09:12 AM
Tim,
I had not heard whether you were sharing this file as I have a organization that has asked me to donate some work and this might be just the thing to go along with the dolls we are collecting for the kids. If you can share it I would appreciate it. Thanks

tmerrill
11-19-2008, 06:57 PM
That's good news Mike. Thanks for doing that and thanks for letting us know.

To all - I am working with Bill Young to get the cradle plans and instructions available to all for non-profit use. Right now I'm the hold up as we continue to make other toys for donation.

Tim

pezsez
11-26-2008, 09:22 PM
Hello All

My staff and I will be delivering 21 of the cribs this weekend for a community toy drive--Thanks for sharing the plans!

PEZ

tmerrill
11-27-2008, 07:10 AM
PEZ

Thanks for doing that!!!

My shop has 60 cradles and twenty-some wagons we will deliver next week. The wagons were a bear to do, but that's another story.

Tim

richards
11-27-2008, 07:56 AM
Making toy cradles has been one of the most rewarding things I've done with my Shopbot. The current count is 244. Except for the first 100, all the others have been sponsored by other businesses. The sponsors pay for the MDF material and the cutters and I do the work. It takes about five hours per 48 cradles, so it isn't a time hog.


1456

tmerrill
11-27-2008, 08:14 AM
Thanks Mike,

Getting these reports from you and PEZ only makes Thanksgiving more meaningful!

Tim