Making a Toy Cannon (Part 2)

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Part 2

I've only ever had a few life changing purchases in my life (eg my first car, my wife's engagement ring, that jar of boysenberry jam a few weeks ago...) but my drill press is definitely one of them. The question isn't "What can you do with a drill press?" The question is "What can't you do will a drill press?" (So far, flossing and baking a cake are the only things I've failed at with it.) It has opened up all sorts of toy opportunities for me.
First rule of the drill press - don't be an idiot. Keep that in mind and no one will get hurt. Keep your hands away from the spinning and cutting parts and CLAMP EVERYTHING you are drilling. The bits can create a tremendous amount of torque; don't kid yourself into thinking you can hold something in place while you are drilling it. If you can't clamp it directly, take a minute and make a jig. It is well worth the effort.

Since our cannon has a solid body, we have to bore out the barrel to make it:

1. Look cooler and
2. Actually be able to shoot stuff!

Since the barrel has such an odd diameter, we can't just use a spade bit to drill a hole to place it and then lock it in place with a dowel. Instead I lined up two pieces of scrap and drilled a 3/16" hole through both of them. When the boards are upright, the barrel can be locked in place by a dowel straight through one board, through the side of barrel (the trunnion holes) and out the other board. This will keep it locked in place while you drill away.




Here are the measurements that determined what size holes I drilled.

• The total length of the barrel is 3 7/8"
• The barrel at its most narrow point is 1/2" in diameter so I went with a 3/8" bit for the bore.
• The depth of the 3/8" bore hole is 2 1/4"
• The plunger hole is 5/32"

With the jig firmly clamped to the work surface and the two pieces of the jig clamped to each other around the barrel we are ready to drill.


I drilled the bore first and then I just unclamped the jig and spun the barrel 180 degrees around the trunnion dowel and made sure I was lined up for the plunger hole before I clamped everything again. I replaced the 3/16" dowel as well since the bore passed through it. Hold on to the dowel pieces though, we have use for them in a few paragraphs.


The hole through the breech end of the barrel needs to be big enough that a 1/8" dowel will pass smoothly though it, but not so large that the spring that will live inside the bore could slip into it at all. I drilled a 5/32" hole through the breech until it was all the way through to the bore.

The last bit of drilling is to make a 1/8" hole in the center of a 1/4" dowel. This will be the plug on your plunger and it will live inside the bore. Again, a simple jig is in order. Just drill a 1/4 hole in a board and put a piece of dowel in it. Line it up, clamp it and drill a small hole.

Use epoxy or your favorite polyurethane glue to attach a piece of 1/8" dowel into the hole you drilled in the dowel plug. Make sure you have a good fit. I even lightly scored the 1/8" dowel to give a little more surface area for the glue to adhere to. Let it dry for the full curing time. You want this to be as solid as possible. After it dries, smooth and round off the top of the plug and test fit your pen spring. You might want to flair out the breech end of the spring to be sure it will stay clear of getting in the hole intended for the plunger.

Use a round file (which my dad always called a rat-tail file) to smooth out and slightly enlarge the bore. Take those scrap pieces of 3/16" and glue them into the holes of the side of the cannon. It's fine if they are too big right now because you can trim them to length later. After they have dried though, you'll want to use the file to be sure no glue or pieces of these dowels intrude into the barrel. For the cannon to work its best, you need a smooth bore.




Okay, you are in the home stretch now. With the spring in place, slide the plunger down the bore and out the breech hole. Pull the dowel back and forth a few times to be sure the plunger operates smoothly and the spring is not catching on anything it shouldn't. File and sand as needed. When you are happy with everything, place the bead you are using for the (ooooh, more cannon vocabulary!) cascabel (also known as the round thingie at the end of the cannon) on to the dowel. Pull the dowel back just to when you start to feel that the spring is engaged, and then mark the dowel where the back end of the bead is leaving about a 1/8 - 3/16" gap between the front of the bead and the back of the cannon. Cut the dowel where you marked it and then epoxy or polyurethane glue the bead to the dowel. Let it set up completely before you test it out and make sure that while it dries, it isn't gluing itself to back of your cannon.

Here is the cannon "at rest." The dowel goes completely through the bead. (Note the gap between the bead and breech)	Here is the plunger pulled back to its maximum. It doesn't take much to fling a little ball.

Time to take it out to the test range. I used 1/4" beads and small piece of 1/4 dowel shaped to look like an artillery shell. The range on this test make it seem like this really zings the projectiles, and it sort of does, but that target was really close. When I tested these for distance both types flew a little over 9' 6".



Since everything worked I finished up the kit pretty much as advertised except that I added spoked wheels that I made and put some clementine box wood over the trunnions to allow the barrel to pivot but still stay attached to the carriage. I painted the cannon, carriage and wheels with acrylic craft paint and finished it with polyurethane.

Although I used a $1 kit for this, any piece of dowel more that 1/2" thick could be used following the same plans. The projectiles are really light, but also very small, so don't make this for really little kids. Make sure that whoever plays with it knows you could hurt someone's eye with it and never to point it at anyone. I think that the scale is a little big for 1/32nd soldiers, but not so huge that it looks out of place and couldn't be used.

The finished cannon in all its glory.	Remember - Treat every cannon as if it was loaded.

Making a Toy Cannon
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Making a Toy Cannon (Part 1)

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Part 2

The toy soldiers of my youth were mostly the 1/72 scale tiny Airfix figures, but my family and friends also had a fair amount of 1/32 scale "Cowboys and Indians", some Vikings and the ever popular "Little Green Army Men." One Christmas I got a playset that had a cannon that used a pull back plunger to launch little shells across the rec room floor. Cool stuff. Even after the wheels broke, I continued to play with that cannon.

A few years ago I made this "pirate cannon" as a proof of concept toy. ("Proof of concept" is my way of say that I was just messing around with an idea so please don't look too closely at the quality.)

It has a 1/2" bore down the center of a 7/8" inch dowel. I have to tell you, I made this pre-drill press. It really helps if you have a drill guide... and a lot of extra dowels.


It can shoot a 3/8 wooden ball most of the way across our living room and continues to serve us well.

A few months ago I saw this kit for a dollar(!) at a local craft store. ZOINKS! A cheap wooden cannon for a buck. (Please take a moment to reflect on what a great country we live in... and the vast amount of wood and inexpensive labor available in China.) I snatched a couple up and got to work on turning them into something a little more realistic looking while still being a toy.

The kits come with "everything you need" (glue, pant, sandpaper, paint brush.) I put all those in the "I'll find a use for them someday" bin. The wood parts are good enough. I mean, what do you expect for a dollar? (Besides a new suit.) The carriage I pretty much used "as is" but the other two components were where some changes needed to be made. The wheels just don't cut it. Besides the axle holes not really being centered; they make the kit look a bit like something out of the Flintstones. Anyway, I'd already come up spoked wheels for just such a project.

The barrel isn't huge but it has a decent shape. At the mid-point is a 3/16" hole that holds a dowel to provide a pivot point for elevating the barrel (in case you are ever on Jeopardy, the technical term is the "trunnion" ) The barrel is just big enough that I can make a spring powered plunger that will allow it to actually shoot 1/4 balls and dowels pieces. The muzzle has a shallow hole and so does the breech. All I have to do is bore them to the correct diameter and depth.


The barrel that came with the kit is 3 7/8" long. It is tapered through the length of the barrel and is 1/2" at its narrowest and 13/16" at its widest. (I know, 13/16" ????? But hey, just keep telling yourself... I only paid a buck....)

Before we get drilling, let me show you what we are trying to do:

Next time - Drill press adventures.

Making a Toy Cannon
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Making a Toy Top (Version 1)

Tops are a seriously old toy. In Iraq, some tops from 3,500 BC have even been found. (Making them almost as old as my 7th grade teacher was.)


I have always thought tops were neat because of the tremendous speed they operate at from a simple pull or twist. As a kid I had a couple of commercial top toys, but never a wooden one. The two that stand out most are the immortal Battling Tops and a top/gyroscope called a Whizzer.

Epic Battling Tops gladitorial games still take place at my house.	My Whizzer eventually spun so fast it vanished into another dimension. (And yes, it really did a zillion tricks.)

In the past I'd made little tops out of... you'll never guess what...clementine box wood! Just a 1/4"dowel and a disk of the 1/8" plywood from a box, powered with just a quick twist of the fingers. They are fun to decorate and work well enough, but I wanted to make something more substantial.  That is where Bob comes in.


In looking for something else I found the general idea for this top at Bob LaFara's site - http://bobscrafts.com/bobstuff/top.htm
This design gets around my main top making obstacle namely: I don't own a full sized lathe.


Seeing as how I was recently named to Forbe's Magazine "Top 500 Cheapest Toy Making Dads in the World", I used a piece of 2x4, an old bed slat and a wine crate for the pieces I cut.
(I know I should use hard wood... but that would cost money! Like $4 or even maybe $5! Why, a new Studebaker should only costs eight bucks. Maybe nine with a full tank of gas.)


I used a 2 1/8" hole saw to cut out a disk from the wine crate wood (it is 5/16" thick.) I then used a 1/4" bit to drill a pilot hole straight through a 2x4 (which we all know is really 1 1/2" thick.)
This pilot hole let me start the cut on one side with the 2 1/8" saw and then after going a little more than half way through the board, I flipped it over and finished the cut.

Be sure the board is securely clamped and keep you hand out of the way.	Flip the board half way through and finish the cut from the other side.

Be sure to clamp everything securely and be careful not to touch the bit immediately after you finish. Trust me; it gets very hot, especially after the 2x4 cut.


I took a 1 1/4" hole saw and repeated the process twice on a 3/4" thick bed slat leaving me with two wood cylinders. Take one of these two and re-drill the center hole through it with a 5/16" bit. This will be the "handle" of the top.


 At this point I could have cut another thinner disk with the 1 1/4" saw to be final disk at the top, but I decided to use a store brought 1" toy wheel instead. I think it looks good and it has a slightly raised hub to help the handle spin. It also comes is slightly smaller than the handle, so that helps in holding and releasing it without touching the rest of the top.


Sand the disks smooth, get some glue and a 1/4" hardwood dowel and start final assembly.

The disks in order - 2x4, bed slat, wine crate, bed slat with larger center hole, toy wheel.	The dowel is actually straight. The shadow and the angle of the photo make it look this way.

Four of the five disk are then glued to the dowel. The handle is not. Make sure there is a little play between the handle and the pieces above and below it (for a total of about a1/8" gap.) You want this to be free spinning. The dowel can be trimmed to size after the top has been glued, clamped and is finished drying.

Glue the red sections to the dowel running down the center. Do not glue the (green) handle.	The second (red) section is what you will wrap the string around. Hold the green, free moving section while you pull the string to start the top spinning.

The dowel should extend about a 1/4" past the bottom of the top and be flush with the top of the top. (Wow, that is an odd sentence.) Shape the end of the dowel into a point. I did this with coarse sandpaper pinched on the dowel while I spun it by hand.

Okay, now you are ready to literally give it a whirl. Wrap two or three feet of string around the second section from the bottom. Hold the handle piece and don't let your fingers touch any other part of the top. Get close to a hard floor. Give the string a quick pull and then let go of the handle. It should look something like this -



I found that the more I sharpend the tip, the better the spin was.


I will paint this guy at some point, but I think the plain wood looks pretty classy for the time being.

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Gee-Haw Whammy Stick/Whimmydiddle

I was in 5th grade when I was first introduced to this toy. We had a group of people come in one day and show us some Appalachian crafts. One of the toys was a stick with notches cut along its length. It had a small propeller at the tip which spun when the stick was rubbed along the notches by someone using another stick.  The woman demonstrating it said it was called a "Gee-Haw Whammy Stick" and that name and the simple action of the toy really stuck with me over the years.

Know Your Haws
Hee-Haw	Gee-Haw

The propeller can be made to change direction as it is spinning and that is where the name comes from. For the most part (on this side of the pond at least), "Gee" is a command to a plow animal to turn right. "Haw" is the command to turn left. This being a folk toy, the name made sense to people in the days before horse were primarily used for racing or for beer commercials.


I built this one about eight years ago and even though it shows some wear, it has hung in there really well. I used:

• 10" long 3/8" dowel. This will be your Whammy Stick.
• 1 3/8" long x 1/8" thick x 3/16" wide piece of...you'll never guess...clementine box wood!  This will be your propeller.
• 7" long 1/4" rubbing dowel. (3/16" or a pencil would work as well.)
• A little brass nail.

Cut a series of notches in the Whammy stick. I used a coping saw, but use whatever you are comfortable with. Mine has nine notches that start about 1 1/2" from the front end of the stick. Each notch is about 1/4" wide and doesn't quite go halfway through the stick. Each notch is about 3/4" from center to center. (Okay, you're asking "What gives with all the 'abouts'?" - No worries. This toy is usually made with hardwood twigs and a sharp knife. It really doesn't need to be exact.)


Sand and round off the edges of your propeller. Drill a small hole right through its center. Make sure the hole is larger than the diameter of your nail so that it can spin freely.

Note the authentic rough nature of the notches.	The business end of the toy. Many have a "dumbbell" shaped prop.

Almost done. Make a small pilot hole in the end of the Whammy stick for the nail. (This will make it easier to get centered and less likely to split when you sink the nail in. Next, thread the nail through the propeller. Make sure it spins freely and then tap the nail into the hole at the end of the stick until it is secure. (But not so deep that it interferes with the propeller.)


Hold the Whammy Stick firmly, pointed away from you. Take the rubbing stick and rub it along the side of the notches. Rubbing on the right side makes the propeller spin to the left. Rubbing on the left makes it spin towards the right. (Remember the whole Gee and Haw thing.) Rubbing down the middle turns it into a cheap rhythm instrument but tends to make the prop just bounce around and never really get going.

So there you go. Start to finish less than 30 minutes.

This is a toy that really is ancient and is very simple to make. I think part of the charm/mystery of it is that it seems to be a cousin to a magic wand or divining rod. A fair number of sources in print and on the internet (as if you can believe ANYTHING you read on the web) makes mention that this little toy has been passed off as a lie detector in the past. You can put a positive spin on that and call it a "truth detector" and try it out on and little ones. Just remember to make it Gee or Haw the way it should depending on the question you ask.

Be sure to leave a little mystery before you tell them how it works.

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Wood Woodpecker

The Wood Woodpecker. This was one of those "proof-of-concept" projects that just ended up working well enough that he became an actual toy. He is really simple to make and doesn't take much time to complete.

A good friend and colleague of mine, ummm let's just call her "Martha" (because that is her real name), had this folk toy humming bird on her desk for years. You just give him a little tap and he pecks his way down a 10" pole. The motion is very smooth and the toy is very cute and simple to use. Of course, the first time I saw it I wanted to make one.

The hummingbird is cute but I decided that I liked the pecking action of the toy and wanted to make a woodpecker instead. Afraid that my toy wouldn't be ornithologically correct and I'd lose any chance of ever sitting on the editorial board of "Toy Woodpeckers Quarterly", I searched for some inspiration and came up with this fellow: Picoides pubescens - The Downy Woodpecker. Simple colors and I figured I could make him interesting and fun without spending months to get him to look just right. 

The body on Martha's hummingbird is carved. My carving skills are, how can I put this delicately without hurting my own feelings... well, I stink at it. I tried to carve a little bear once and instead, I really did a number on my thumb. (To add insult to the injury, everyone I showed the finished bear to said, "Oh, is that a pig?" Real nice.) To be safe, I decided to go two dimensional and use my favorite bit of scrap wood that always seems to around - 1/2" pine. (It is the potato of the toy making world. It can be used in just about everything.)

I cut him out with a bandsaw but a coping saw and a little bit of patience would have worked just as well. From head to tail he is 1 3/4" long and 3/4" from beak to back of head. He has a 3/16" hole drilled in his body about a inch down from his head (just a little past his midpoint.) I painted him with acrylics, sealed him with polyurethane and glued on the googly eyes. 


The spring that makes this toy works is 3/16" in diameter and I stretched it slightly to make it...well... springier. As everyone knows I am really cheap and love the idea of reusing found and leftover stuff. This spring was actually one of the few usable pieces that could be salvaged from some obsolete equipment we were getting rid of at my old job. (The funny thing is that those machines originally cost $600 so, in a way that is how much this toy cost. Just, not to me.)


The pole on the hummingbird is smooth but I went with a threaded 12" long 1/8" rod purchased from the local Meglo-Mart. I think the threads help slow him down and it also meant I could attach him to the base using a T-nut. The base is just a block that I had around. It can be any size but mine is 3/4" thick and about 3 1/2" x 4 1/2".

What a T-Nut looks like. Drill a pilot hole in the base and then tap it in.	I used a little epoxy to hold the pole in the T-Nut just to be sure it wouldn't wiggle out.

The last thing to do is attach the spring to the bird and to the bead that slides down the pole. I drilled pilot holes and used epoxy to hold it in place. After that dried I put the bird on the pole and then glued another wood bead to the top of the pole so that a) the bird wouldn't take a walk and b) it just finishes it off nicely. The beads are from the craft store and are about 1/2" in diameter. They already had a hole just a bit larger than 1/8" through the center so that worked perfectly.

So, that's that. This toy only took a few dollar and a couple of hours to build but has lasted for years.

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