Christmas Toy Drive

Last year, I donated 33 hand built toys for the annual Salvation Army toy drive. I started earlier this year and I expect to increase my donation. I use construction grade lumber for almost all my ‘give away’ projects, some of which is recycled. Sometimes I use hobby store wheels and sometimes, I make my own from scratch. Some projects are finished with child friendly paints and sometimes, I use the bee’s wax finish that I use on cutting boards and other kitchen items. Sometimes, I use a pattern cutting bit in a router to quickly produce clean shapes and for some complicated parts with small details, I use only the band saw and scrollsaw.

The panel glue up jig is simply a frame made of 1X2’s with pegboard on both sides. The hold down strips with the knobs have pins that line up with the pegboard holes and can be adjusted for various widths. The panel pieces are glued and the hold down strips are place across the panel. Small wedges are then pushed between the pins and the edges of the panel to hold the pieces tight against each other. The wedges are stored inside of the body of the jig. Waxed paper protects the pegboard and the hold downs from glue squeeze out. A little scraping of squeeze out and perhaps some light sanding and the panel is then ready to go.

The strip ripping jig holds the material tight against the fence so as to produce a consistent thickness while keeping hands out of harm’s way. It locks in the channel in the table saw and can be adjusted to hold the proper tension on the material. The bearing allows the wood to move smoothly into the blade. I can safely cut very thin strips for panel glue ups with this jig.