I made this one the fall of 2018 for my granddaughter the same time I was working on the Lobster Push Toy. This was based on a version we saw in a toy store. I added one more shape (I’m not sure which but I think it’s the triangle).
The wood is cherry harvested from a local forest and a 1/8” plywood door. One trick was getting the shape and the opening sizes such that each piece would only fit in the correct hole. Once the holes were made a bit oversized there wasn’t a lot of room for error. The square and the circle were the trickiest if I recall correctly.
The shapes were cut on the table saw – except for the dowel which was a bit of lathe work. The “X” shape wasn’t that hard once I figured out the cut sequence. The triangle took a bit of thinking as well.
Openings were cut into the holding tray with a scroll saw and then a floor was glued on.
It was a fun toy to design and make. It turned out to be a bit of challenge to keep finding all the pieces though.
Update: I put together a plan view of the holder. The dimensions are for the openings. I put a small chamfer on the openings which creates the double lines. The blocks are 1/32" smaller per side or 1/16" smaller overall. Here are the dimensions of them:
I use TransTint Dyes with alcohol. Then it is a matter of getting the saturation up. That usually requires a few extra drops of dye in the solution. Extra coats can help but sometimes the new coat wipes off some of the previous ones. Yellow needs the richest concentration.
I've got a gray one I'll post in the future that was done with reducing the black dye and testing until I liked the result.
I like this but all my grandkids have outgrown toy like these. However, I want to try making items like this for shelters. Thanks for the added drawing!
