Sharkey

Sharkey is a pint-sized kayak made stitch-and-glue style. The frame is made from 3/4" plywood and the hull is mahogany door skin plywood. In the unfinished photos, the hull has just been glued together with a fiberglass resin & woodflour paste mix. It was built so that a 'Bumbo' foam rubber child's seat will fit inside the cockpit. After it was put together and glassed, I painted it gray with a short napped roller to give it a little texture. Adding a gaping mouth and scary eyes complete the effect.

Usually we add water-noodles for sort of training wheels for the boat. Also, we often add about 10 lbs of weight in the rear hatch compartment and 8 in front to keep Sharkey even more stable. Matt loves it, and his only complaint is that I don't tow it fast enough.

Dozer Under Construction

Here's a few shots of the Dozer under construction. For this one, I used 1/2" MDF baord. After cutting out and fitting the pieces together I disassembled it and finished all the parts with joint topping compound to get the metallic look.

Bulldozer Bed

Here's Matt's new Bulldozer Bed. A standard size toddler mattress fits inside the chassis, he sleeps in there with the monkeys.

There are two big drawers that pull out from inside the tracks (the yellow rectangles) and two more smaller saddlebag cabinets for toys. I made a scoop-style dozer blade so it looks like he's pushing toys around his bedroom. Matthew enthusiastically supplies sound effects.

Introduction

Hi! Welcome to Rick and Matt's Woodshop! This page shows some of our woodworking projects, big toys for small boys. Matt has the toys he needs right now, but we'd like to make a couple more. Keeps us out of trouble and out of the house. If you see something here you'd like for your little one, or if you have an idea for something else just let me know.