Sorry for the bad lighting in the photos – I wasn’t patient enough to wait until daylight to take pictures…
Our school has an auction yearly to raise money to keep tuition affordable. Each classroom does it’s own “box” with a theme that is then auctioned off to the highest bidder. My oldest son’s box theme was farming toys. If you have ever looked at buying a 1:16 or 1:32 scale tractor, you know that that was not going to happen! So, my husband and I decided to make a set of wooden farm toys to add to the box.
Hubby helped cut the small 1/2″ strips from some 1x lumber we had around. I used the chop saw to cut off all the pieces to the correct size and he set up a jig on the drill press to make sure all the holes were drilled in the same spot!
I used my new air nailer that I got for Christmas – yay (thanks hubby!) to tack everything together. I used wood glue along with nails on the feed bunk and shed.
It isn’t perfect, but I think it turned out well – and saved us a ton of money!
The fence folds into a solid block for storage and can be maneuvered to make different sized “yards”.
A closeup of the feed bunk and shed.
You can actually turn the shed over and store the fence and bunk right inside – not that it ever happens that way at our house!!!
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I love this! I’m not sure how you used nails that allow the fence pieces to move. If you ever have a free moment (yeah, I know that’s probably got you hysterical right now), I’d love to understand that part of the project. And while I’m being a pest, could you tell me the sizes of the other wood pieces. I’m not great at this stuff but would love to try this. Thanks.
Hi Baye – I’ll do my best to explain and hopefully it makes sense! The fence pieces were a 1×6 cut in 1/2″ strips on a table saw. We were just using what we had so no rhyme or reason for the 1×6 part. I then set up a jig on our miter saw to cut 10″ pieces. You do need to have some precision with this project just to make sure everything folds together correctly! My husband set up a jig on the drill press so that holes were drilled in exactly the same spot on each end of the 10″ pieces. The drill bit size was the size needed to fit a 1/4″ dowel – fitted but not really tight. To assemble you stack 5 pieces and slide the dowel through them all. I used an air nailer to tack the dowel to the top and bottom rail of the fence. Separate every other rail and add the corresponding rails on each side tacking as you go. You can make the fence as long or short as you want. I used some filler pieces on the last section of fence just to strengthen it. They are glued in between. I really hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any questions!
That makes sense! Thanks for taking the time to answer. It is so nice to see projects that boys will love, too.
You’re welcome! Years ago my husband and brother-in-law made a set for my oldest (I think he was 1 at the time). They are still as good as new and been played with countless hours!
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