Old-Timey Toys From Christmas Past

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Little Slugger

You could look forever in the toy stores and never find this one , cause its "works" are actually copied from the innards of a sixteenth century clock! (We've transformed the mechanism into a toy simply by perching a baseball player on its top.)

Make the batter by scaling his pattern up on a 1/2" grid and then trace him off onto a scrap of 1/8" x 4" x 5-1/2" wood (wall paneling is fine). Cut Casey out with a coping saw, drill a small hole in his open hand, sand the figure smooth and paint on the details (make both sides the "front," if you like).

Then find a 1/2" x 2" x 10" piece of wood and drill a 3/8" hole through its center, a 1/8" hole 2-1/2" in from each end, and a 1/4" hole 3/4" to one side of the 3/8" hole that you made in the block's center.

Next take a piece of 3/8" x 1-1/4" dowel and saw a small notch in it (the notch is started about 3/4" from one end of the dowel and is slanted at a 45° angle toward that same end). Make the same cut in one end of a 3/8" x 2" dowel, and add a 1/4" deep slot to the 2" dowel's other end. This is also the time to cut out a 1/2" x 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" block of wood and drill two holes (one 7/16" and the other 1/4" in diameter) through it, spaced 3/4" apart.

Glue the shorter 3/8" dowel into the large hole in the toy's base and glue the batter's feet quite firmly down into the slot on top of the longer 3/8" dowel. Then push and glue a 1/4" X 6" dowel down into the 1/4" hole in the base and mount and glue the 1/2" x 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" block on top of this dowel so that its 7/ 16" hole is positioned directly over the short 3/8" dowel that you've just glued into the center of the base.

Slip a 1/2" flat washer, a plastic garden hose gasket and another 1/2" flat washer up over the 3/8" dowel that you've glued to the batter's feet. Then slide that dowel down through the 7/16" hole in the small block of wood and stretch a medium-sized rubber band between the "hooks" (the 45° cuts) that you've made in the two 3/8" dowels.

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