Who is Richard Raffan?

• Internationally renowned Australian professional wood turner.
• Acclaimed for his gallery-quality work and his teaching.
• Author of books and magazine articles.
• The club has a Richard Raffan bowl on permanent loan from David and Judith.

His book on turning toys

• Book, “Turning Toys with Richard Raffan”, discusses basic wood turning techniques.
• And wood turning tools
• Basic safe workshop practices ~ Reprinted in Woodturning Magazine September 2015 pp 83 – 85
• Safe design
• And then goes on to projects.

Safe Design

• Avoid choking hazards.
• Rules vary by country
• He uses a 1¾” hole in a scrap of wood as a guide.
• Very difficult to find out British Standards without shelling out £300+ for a full copy of the rules, but we have found a small parts cylinder ~ see post on club website.
• If selling you can’t make a toy obviously for a toddler, then cover yourself by saying not suitable for under 3s.
• No sharp points.
• Smooth surfaces.
• Non toxic paints.

Templates

• He advocates the use of homemade templates for ease of sizing different components.
• I made one for sizing the diameters of the drivers, front wheels and rear wheels.

His toy cars consist of

• Axles
• Wheels
• Car body
• Driver and perhaps passengers.

He Suggests

• Experiment with cheap wood to determine the size/proportions of the car you want to make.
• Age of the child?
• Potential use as a weapon against siblings?
• Don’t use lignum vitae! Lighter wood is better, ash or sycamore.

Car Body

• Don’t intersect driver hole with axle!.. I did!

Show marked Block,

• we homed in on these dimensions, but they are not sacrosanct. 
• Block                     40 x 45 x 150mm ash
• Doesn’t have to be square,
• oblong may make a wider car for 2 people to sit beside each other.
• wider and longer may make a bus.
• Driver position       45mm from rear
• Axle position         15mm from base, 40mm from front, 20mm from rear.
• Holes drilled 1” for driver/passenger, axle holes 0.5mm bigger than axle.
• If a flat boot lid is required ~ bandsaw a section off first.
• If a recessed grill or exhaust is required ~ Forstner drill in Bench drill first.
• Off centre turning ~Steb centre, (or spur centre), determined the position of rotation ~ on centreline 15mm from base.
• make sure you leave enough room for the steb centre or spur centre to get a good grip.
• I showed an early example which was not turned enough off-centre and  became a cylinder.
• Further off centre, get a flat bottom.

Demo of body making

• Sand to the finish you require, depending on whether you’re going to paint it or not. 

Wheels

• Whole chapter on wheels.
• Axle options.

Sizes

• Front            45mm dia.
• Rear             55mm dia.
• People          1” dia ~ determined by the Imperial Fostner drill set we have!

Demo of wheel making

• 15mm wide, hole depth 10mm, tread/no tread ~ inside against car body a little concave?
• Rough cylinder to right size, mark the width, then using tool of your choice (skew, spindle gouge), turn the wheels.
• Drill the hole before it’s parted off. Use a depth stop or measure very carefully and mark your drill.

People 

• 1” dia body with 1”diameter head could make 25mm if you prefer, or any safe size.
• Piece of wood, rough it to size, shape the head and body,
• can make a shapely lady if you’re so inclined, (and have a good imagination!)

Axles

• He can make narrow spindles ~ sometimes using odd tools.
• I bought 6mm doweling from TAS in Castle Douglas. (our sponsors)
• Rolf says this is not sturdy enough and 12mm oak axles are better!
• G&S Specialist Timber, Penrith sell dowelling in a large range of different timbers and diameters.

Finish

• Paint…non-toxic
• Or food safe oil
• Or Treatex, which is toy safe, and will give a lasting finish.
• Add transfers, but cover with sealer of some kind if for a young child who may pick them off.