Yes Shed Plan

Zany toys

I picked up a super book this week at the library: Zany Wooden Toys That Whiz, Spin, Pop, and Fly: 28 Top-Secret Projects You Can Build from the Toy Inventors Workshop by Bob Gilsdorf.

Most toy-building books for woodworkers showcase highly detailed and complicated projects: model trucks that look like heirloom pieces and would take a pretty high level of skill to build. I doubt many of them are ever actually played with by children.

Bob Gilsdorf has created wonderfully clever projects that any kid would absolutely love. Not only that, but they are perfectly simply to build, even without power tools. In fact, older kids could make these toys themselves. Ingenious devices that, well, literally whiz, spin, pop and fly: marble shooters, coin flippers, launchers, gumball machines, and a lot more.

The book is colorful and the projects are nicely detailed and explained. I went to Bobs web site and sent him an email asking if I could make a video of one of his projects, but I havent heard back. Theres not much on the web site, basically its just an ad, but Ill let you know if I hear back. I dont usually make someone elses projects, and I suspect it wouldnt be a problem if I plugged the book in the video, but Id prefer his consent. This is fun stuff!