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Scooper Joints are screwed and glued except for the scoop, which is made from thin, oak box-making stock (or plywood) and joined with dovetails made by eye with a coping saw with fine blade and a 1/4"blade hand chisel (easier than you think—try it; just keep the chisel razor sharp). For strength, hardwood fillets (from the flying model or doll-making section of a craftsupplies store) are glued at inside corners of scoop. The wheels are held on by 3/8" wheel pegs glued into 3/8 holes drilled in the body. Gives the best-finished look, but the peg axle is relatively fragile and difficult to repair. To show off the joinery, parts are stained with contrasting colors, glued sparingly, filled, and spray-varnished to a craft-store shine.

Hauler Made with a 2"-3" softwood body with plywood base/bed. Wood wheels of this flatbed truck are held on with short 1/8"-shanked brass wood screws set into pilot holes drilled into hard dowel plugs that have been glued into holes into the softwood truck body. Be sure to use screws with round heads, as tops of flathead screws have sharp edges. Parts were filled and painted before final assembly, then, were given a several coats of clear.

Roller Body is made of three strips cut from a 916" x 2" strip of white oak scrap, notched to accept wheels, and laminated together with glue and brass wood screws. The fat, turned-maple wheels are attached with 3/8" wooden wheel pegs. The example pictured was left natural, filled, sanded, and sprayed with several coats of clear acrylic to produce a craft-store finish.

Finishing

Most children have to be discouraged from marking or coloring on toys—especially on smooth, carefully varnished, inside-use wood blocks and rolling toys. Our blocks are for outdoors, however, and I find that kids adore being allowed, even encouraged, to use crayons, markers, or paints to turn the building blocks into girders (or magic wands) ...and to draw spokes and mufflers (or a flowered border) on the wheeled earth-moving toys.

Probably most satisfactory to most young children is for you to soak the wood in a colorless outdoor sealer (made for decks), and let the children do a quick finish sanding and then decorate with water paints, crayons, or washable markers. The colors will wear off quickly, and I've found that the kids will get the urge to redecorate several times over a summer.

Some kids—mainly boys aged 6 to 8 who are future high school Wheelheads—love vehicles with wheels that leave aggressive-looking tread marks in moist sand. You can give your tread-maker a narrowedged wood file and let him make grooves or notches or crosses in the wheels of his favorite sand vehicle to leave personalized "treads." Black marker will give tires a satisfying color.

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