CHAPTER VIII

HOME-MADE MECHANICAL TOYS

Those of you boys who have examined the little mechanical toys sold upon the street corners just before Christmas probably have been surprised to find how simply they are made, and perhaps it has never occurred to you that you might make toys equally as good for presents for your younger brothers, sisters, or cousins. Most of the smaller mechanical toys are not only easy to make, but they require materials which cost little and can usually be picked up at home. Sometimes it takes considerable thinking and planning to discover just the things which can be adapted to the various parts of toys; but that is where part of the fun of toy making comes in.

=A Buzz-saw Whirligig= is an interesting toy (Fig. 108). Lay out a disk about 5 inches in diameter upon a piece of cardboard, locate the position for the spool-end on the center of each face, and make four rings outside of this. Divide the circumference of the disk into sixteen equal parts, and lay off the teeth as shown. (Fig. 111.) The spool-ends used for centers should have two holes drilled through them for the twisting cord to slip through, and should be fastened to the disk with glue or brads.

A cotton string is best for

=Operating the Whirligig.= After slipping it through the holes in the spool-ends, tie the ends together. To work the toy, slip the first finger of each hand through the loop of each end, and whirl the disk in one direction until the string is twisted from both ends as far as the center. Then pull firmly on the ends of the string, and the disk will whirl in the opposite direction until the string is untwisted and twisted up again in the opposite direction. As the strings twist, slacken your hold upon the ends, and when it has wound up tight pull again to make it whirl in the opposite direction. The disk should whirl very steadily when working right, and the knack of making the string twist so the disk will do so is attained with a little practice.

=The Clog-dancer= (Fig. 109) is an easily made loose-jointed doll. His dancing-stage is a shingle or piece of stiff cardboard held on the edge of a chair beneath your knee. He is held by means of the string attached to his head, so that his feet rest lightly upon the stage, and he is made to jig by tapping the outer end of the stage with the free hand. With a little practice the figure can be made to go through the steps of the most eccentric clog-dancer.

The more grotesque the dancer's appearance is, the more amusing his dancing will be, so the cruder you make him the better. Figure 112 shows the working details for his construction. The center part of a thread-spool forms the _head_, and a spool-end and the rounded end of a broom-handle form the _hat_. These three pieces are nailed together. The _body_ is a piece of a broom-handle, and a spool-end nailed to it forms the _shoulders_. Drive a nail into the end of the body, tie a string to this, and run the string up through the hole in the head, and out through a hole in the hat; tie the string to a fancy-work ring.

The _arms_ and _legs_ are made of sticks whittled to the lengths marked in Fig. 112, and about 1/4 inch in diameter, and are jointed by driving tacks into their ends and connecting these with heavy linen thread. Figure 112 shows how the feet and hands are cut, and how tacks are driven into them for the thread connections. Paint the clog-dancer's body, arms, and legs white, his head, hands, and feet black, and mark his eyes, nose, and mouth upon his face in white.

=A Toy Jumping-jack= is always amusing, and Fig. 110 shows a simply constructed home-made model. You will see by Fig. 113 how the figure is made. The peaked _hat_ is half a spool tapered down from the end to the center; and the _head_ is the center from a darning-cotton spool, shaped down at one end for a _neck_, and with eyes, nose, and mouth cut in on one side. Figure 113 shows the diagrams for the front and back of the _body_, the _arms_, and the _legs_. These are cut out of cigar-box wood. Cut the neck stick A long enough to run through the head and hat, with a square block on the end to fit between the body pieces. The blocks _B_ should be of the same thickness as block _A_. Bore the pivotal holes through the arms and legs in the positions shown, using a small gimlet or red-hot nail with which to do the boring, and tie a piece of heavy linen thread through each as shown. The arms and legs are pivoted on brads driven through the front of the body into the back.

When the body has been fastened together, bring the ends of the threads together, and tie to a small ring; also knot the threads close to the body to keep them together. In painting Jack, you might provide him with a red coat, blue trousers and a blue hat, white stockings, and black shoes.

=A Cricket-rattle= is about the liveliest form of rattle ever devised (Fig. 114). After constructing one for your sister or brother, you probably will decide to make one for yourself. For this rattle, first prepare a _notched spool_ (_A_, Fig. 116). The notches in this need not be cut as perfectly as shown, but the notches in one end of the spool must be exactly opposite those in the other end. Whittle the _handle B_ to the shape and size shown, cut the strips _C_ out of cigar-box wood, and prepare the block _D_ as shown. The groove in the edge of _D_ is cut of just the right width to receive the end of the wooden strip _E_. The length of _E_ is best determined after nailing the ends of strips _C_ to _D_, and slipping the handle through the holes in strips _C_ and spool _A_. It should extend from the groove in _D_ into the notches in _A_. Make it as wide as the spool is high. Paint the rattle red or blue.

=The Turtle Toy= which crawls along the floor when you alternately pull and slacken a thread that runs through its shell, has always been one of the most popular of mechanical toys, and you will be surprised to find how easily our home-made model shown in Fig. 115 is put together. The _shell_ is a small tin mold such as is used for molding jellies. One about 4 inches long costs 10 cents. A mold having the form of a bunch of grapes is a pretty good form for the turtle shell, as you will see by the illustrations.

The _head_, the _tail_, and the four _feet_ are cut out of tin from a can, and bent into the forms shown in Fig. 117. Then slits are cut through the narrow rim of the mold by piercing the tin with the point of a nail at the proper places for attaching them, as shown in the small detail drawing, and the tab ends are pushed through the slits, bent over, and clinched with a pair of pincers.

A thread spool 1-1/4 inches long forms the _wheels_ on which the turtle runs, and two rubber-bands 1-1/2 inches long propel it. Cut a piece of a lead pencil a trifle longer then the spool, split it into halves, remove the lead, and insert the rubber bands in the groove; then slip the piece of pencil into the hole in the spool (Fig. 118). The rubber-band ends must project an equal distance beyond the spool-ends. Before fastening the spool to the tin mold shell, tie the end of a piece of heavy linen thread to its center, and then wind about twenty turns about it. Pierce a hole through each side of the mold a trifle in front of the center, and after slipping pieces of string through the ends of the rubber-bands (Fig. 118), tie them through the holes pierced through the sides of the mold. Pierce a hole through the shell, directly over the center of the spool, slip the free end of the thread wound on the spool through this hole, and tie it to a fancy-work ring (Fig. 117).

=To Make the Turtle Crawl=, place it upon the floor, pull on the ring, and as the thread unwinds from the spool the rubber-bands will twist; then slacken the thread, and the turtle will crawl along the floor. As the rubber-bands untwist, the thread will wind up on the spool again. Continue pulling and slackening the thread alternately, and the turtle will continue to crawl.