Customer Reviews

Making Mechanical Toys

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I've been making toys, as a hobby, for a couple of years. For the most part, I use ideas from 7-8 books that I have stumbled across. A really good book of clear and concise instructions is a rare find. I would rate this particular book as fair to good in that respect. For my taste and brain function the book is heavy on verbage and a little lacking in good materials measurements. For example, the Charlie Chaplin plan has several inaccurate pattern measurements. The same sort of mistakes are sprinkled throughout. Additionally, some of the mechanisms only function in counter-clockwise motion. I make toys for grandchildren and find this leads to some frustration with young children and some jammed-upped toys. Also, some patterns require "Mamod" flexible belt springs. Apparently, the author is from U.K., since I can't find a domestic source for the spring. That being said, I have made 4 toys using patterns from the book (the author instructs how to paint the toys, but my taste differs so I ignore those instructions). I have just learned to carefully read the rather long and wordy instructions, then cut the first pivotal piece and use it as a surrogate for additional meaurements. The book has nice photos of the toys