- [Voiceover] The Wood Whisperer is sponsored by
Powermatic
and Clear Vue Cyclones.
Marc: On today's show we're going to make a critter
for my little critter.
Hi five.
All right.
Mateo: Oh go paint.
- Okay.
♫ (lyrics) Hit it. ♫
(lively music)
- It's hard to believe that in just a few months
my son is going to be three years old already.
Now he loves coming in the shop
but usually he just runs around in circles,
plays my drums and watches cartoons on YouTube.
So I decided you know what,
it's probably time for him to put a project together.
Now he's still a little bit young
to use any sort of cutting tools or anything like that.
But we could certainly assemble a project together
that he could really get the pride of craftsmanship
in building something himself.
And if I can instill that early,
and I think I've done my job as a father.
There's a few other things I might do as well,
but that's an important one.
So what we're going to build today
is this little cricket.
Well, I guess it's more of a grasshopper.
Whatever you want to call it.
As you can see it's pretty much your classic
wooden pool toy,
as the wheels move, it moves the legs.
A lot of fun for a little kid to pull this around
or a big kid like me.
So it's 100% wood construction,
not a metal fastener to be found on this thing.
And you could make most of it from shop scraps
and some of the parts are actually premade
that we bought from the craft store.
It's just a whole lot easier for certain pieces here.
And speaking of the pieces,
let me show you exactly what you're going to need
to build this little grasshopper.
- [Voiceover] The main body is eight inches long
by three inches wide
by an inch and three quarters thick.
The skinny legs are five inches long
by three eights of an inch wide
by three eights of an inch thick.
The fat legs are four and a half inches long
by one inch wide
by eleven sixteenth's of an inch thick.
The wheels are premade
and measure two and a quarter inches in diameter.
The axel pegs are also premade
and measure seven thirty seconds
of an inch in diameter
by one in a quarter inches long.
The axle shafts are made from
three eights of an inch dowels runs.
And some optional fun stuff
including googly eyes, pipe cleaners, bells,
some string, and a spool.
Draw the shape of the body onto the body blank
and make marks for the various holes as well.
Cut the shape with a bandsaw or with a jigsaw
and then clean up the rough edges with a sander file
or sanding block.
Drill a three eights of an inch holes for the wheels
all the way through the body.
Be sure to back the work piece up
with a piece of scrap to help prevent tear out.
Now drill the seven thirty second of an inch hole
for the leg attachment.
In case you don't already have the marks in place
locate them four inches in from the front
and an inch and a half up from the bottom.
This is a non through hole that gets drilled
on both sides.
As a decorative treatment,
the body receives a chamfer all the way around.
As an alternative simply break the sharp edges
with sandpaper.
To cut the dials to length
I installed them with washers in place of spacers.
With one end flushed to the outside of the wheel
mark the other side with a pencil
and cut it to length.
You can use the first one as a gauge
for the second dowel.
Now drill a seven thirty second of an inch hole
into the rear wheels
in the thickest part of the outer ring.
The skinny legs are cut from three eights
of an inch stock
to a width of three eights of an inch.
The length is five inches.
The thick legs are cut from three quarter inch stock
that I plane down to eleven sixteenth of an inch
and cut to one inch wide
and four and half inches long.
The skinny legs then received
a seven thirty seconds drill hole
a quarter inch in from each end.
The fat legs received the same hole
three eights of an inch in from the edge.
Using a French curve,
I draw drumstick stick shape
onto the fat legs and cut them to shape
at the bandsaw.
I cut the straight portion using the fence and a stop
and then freehand the curves.
The ends of all the legs are then
rounded at the sander
and each piece is given a small chamfer.
Now after a quick-dry assembly,
I could see I need to trim the axle pegs
that go into the wheels.
It looks like I need to take off about a quarter inch.
The ideal fit here is one that bottoms out
and leaves just a little bit of wiggle room
between the leg and the wheel.
A quick test run confirms that everything
is working properly.
Now some of the movable parts feel tight,
grab your drill bit and ream the holes a bit
to loosen them up.
If you want to embellish your grasshopper,
drill some holes for the antennae
and insert a couple of pipe cleaners.
And if you plan on making this pool toy,
drill a hole near the front of a body
for some string.
The string will be pulled through
and tied in a loop.
At the other end the small wooden spool
will make a great handle for little hands.
- Now of course I sanded all of the pieces
so they're safe for little hands,
and I've collected the parts here into a little kit.
And I've actually got two of them
because Mateo has a friend who
is coming over to help.
So, bring on the kids.
(lively music)
- Let's paint.
(lively music)
(chattering)
- [Voiceover] After painting
of course the kids lose interest
and it was up to the dads to finish the assembly.
If you have paint in the holes
make sure you clean them out with a drill bit first.
The glue up starts with the wheels
and just put some glue on the end of the dowel
and insert it into one of the wheels.
Be sure to wipe away the squeeze out.
Insert the dowel into the hole
and then glue on the other wheel.
For the rear wheels,
orient the holes 180 degrees from one another
to give the grasshopper
a more realistic leg movement.
Now put a little glue into the leg hole in the body
and attach the leg.
Use a toothpick to apply the glue
and be sure the legs still moves
after inserting the peg.
Now put some glue into the to fat leg hole,
and attach the skinny leg.
The skinny leg should move freely.
Next put a little glue into the wheel hole
and insert the peg through
the other end of the skinny leg.
Let the glue dry and give it a test run.
Now it's time to bring the kids back to apply the eyes,
the antennae and any things they want to adore
in their grasshoppers with.
(lively music)
(chattering)
(lively music)
- Well Mateo and his little friend had a great time
putting together the grasshoppers,
and they were playing with them all night long.
So these are definitely a crowd-pleaser.
And you could see we've already got
some wear and tear on there from the concrete
in the backyard,
but ultimately a good toy
should look like it's been used.
Should I'm pretty happy with the end results.
Now there are a couple of things
that you can do to improve the performance
of something like this
if you notice that the pieces are sticking
or it's not moving as smoothly as it could.
The first thing you may want to do
is use a clear coat on this.
You'll protect the paint,
and it will make it easier for some of this moving parts
to slide pass one another.
Speaking of which,
you may want to apply a little bit of wax
to the moving parts
to let them go a little bit smoother.
And finally, because you have
a lot of spacing issues here,
where if the leg moves out a little bit
or the wheel moves out a little bit too far,
things may lock up a little bit.
You may want to start using washers here.
And the washers will help keep the spacing
between the body and the wheels
and then also between some of these parts
which we have a little bit of wiggle room
and we need that.
So if you have a little washer there
that's going to help a lot.
But it's up to you whether you want to include
metal washers in your final project.
Now the final thing I'm going to do
is add a little bit of CA glue to the bells
and also to the nuts and the pull string
just to make sure this things don't fall off
or come apart.
Now just a quick safety disclaimer.
Now I don't make any claims whatsoever
as to the safety of this toy for children.
We live in a very litigious world this days,
and unfortunately I got to cover
my butt by saying that.
But I think it's perfectly safe for my son,
I have no problem letting him play
with this all day long.
But you have to make that decision for yourself
and for the child you're going to give this item to.
It's a shame we have to even talk about this.
Anyway, my son had an absolute blast building it.
He does seem to look at this thing
a little bit differently than the toys
that are made of plastic and wrapped in shrink wrap
when they're presented to him.
This is something that he had to hand
in bringing to life.
And I hope he'll cherish it,
and hopefully it will make it
for the next few years, we'll see.
All right, so hopefully you'll be able
to build one of these
for the little one in your life
and it's a very gratifying project.
Thanks for watching.
(lively music)