Project Information
First of several holiday projects completed. I've always wanted to make a set of blocks but when my kids were young I didn't have the tools and then never a reason to as they got older. Well now there's a granddaughter and I thought why not. I worked on these while other projects being worked on were clamped up and gluing or at various stages that would just take too long to work on during the week. Found a nice 4/4 piece of maple about 10 feet long at the lumber yard and another about the same length but only around 5 inches wide. I admit there are a lot of blocks and I went a bit overboard but I was having so much fun figuring out what shapes to make and cutting them up I just made as many as I could from the wood. A couple of passes through the planer smoothed everything up. I made a quickie crosscut sled which really helped when cutting to size. The edges were all chamfered on the router table and all rough ends and edges were smoothed on the belt sander. No finish. I didn'dt want to get into what was and wasn't safe. I also thought about a set I had as a child and don't recall any finish on those. My grandchild will be just over 1 year old this Christmas but the nice thing I like about this set is there are enough small pieces that can be played with now and larger ones to use as she grows. My wife purchased a canvas tote bag from Lands End with her name on it to store them. Let me tell you they weigh a ton. We'll give them to her at Christmas dinner when everyone is together. Guaranteed there will be a group of us playing with these after dinner. We had some friends over for dinner a couple of nights ago whose daughter has twins and commented how much they would like a set. I guess I'll be picking out some more wood soon.