In 2013, he said, he discovered the book Tremendous Toy Trucks by Les Neufeld. The book includes instructions for 12 toy trucks, and “I made them all,” John said. “The first one I made was the Monster Truck. After that, I was hooked on model making.”

He started out making simple models for his two young daughters to play with or give as birthday presents to their friends. As his models became more detailed and complicated, however, John decided to display them at model exhibitions throughout Ireland, where he lives.

John had learned the skills to do woodworking with a high degree of accuracy in his work as a carpenter/joiner, especially when he worked in London on projects that included the restoration of buildings dating back to the 14th century. He has applied those skills of accuracy to his models, which are now all replicas of real vehicles: trucks, cranes, excavators, etc.

“When I decide on the model I want to make, I go online to research it. I look for photographs of every angle of the machine. I study videos on YouTube. Finally, I look for a spec sheet to give me overall dimensions, spacing between axles, etc. This can take 50 to 60 hours before I start to make the model.”

All John’s models have moving parts. “I try to make them do what the real machine does as realistically as possible,” he said. It can be a challenge, however, to cut and shape the small parts for his 1:20 scale models. “Sometimes they break; sometimes they fall on the floor and can’t be found, and sometimes the idea just won’t work, and I have to try something different,” John said.

Most of John’s models are made from hardwood floorboards. “I’ve collected leftover boards and offcuts for years,” he said, with friends in the building trades also collecting for him. The exceptions are his model cranes, which are made with engineered pine.

“The larger parts I need for the crane models need to be stable,” he explained. “If they started to warp or twist, the various parts of the crane would not fit together.”

John got started making cranes after a crane driver acquaintances saw one of his model trucks and asked if he’d ever tried to make a crane model. “Once the ide was planted in my head, it wouldn’t go away,” he said. He learned the basics of crane making with a model of a 100-ton Terex Demag mobile crane.

Since then, he’s made six more cranes, with the models becoming more complicated and realistic, culminating in the most recent model, a Terex Demag AC 500-2. The real world version is a 500-ton crane. John’s model, when fully assembled, is about 18 feet high and does everything the real crane does — “except lift 500 tons.” John says he’s found that making cranes is his favorite type of model making “because it’s a tremendous challenge.” Kavanagh Crane Hire, the largest such company in Ireland, has four of his cranes on display in their headquarters reception area.

Both his cranes and his excavators also use some of the few metal parts in his models. Since both need to be capable of rotating through 360 degrees smoothly and safely, John uses a metal bearing to accomplish this. The cranes also need ballast to keep them balanced, which John achieves by making the crane weights hollow and filling them with scraps of metal. Black electric cable models hydraulic hoses.

One of John’s recent projects was a fully functional model of the 90-ton Caterpillar 390F L excavator. “It’s the first model I’ve made with working wooden tracks,” John said. “The tracks were not easy to make, but they turned out better than I had hoped for a first attempt.”

Eventually, John would like to turn his model making into a source of income, but regardless, he said, “model making is a marvelous hobby, and I know it will give me years of pleasure and a great sense of achievement.”

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Clamp-It Clips are available in two sizes to fit 1/2- and 3/4-in. nominal stock, and they are designed to work in tandem with two other Clamp-It products. The clips slip onto the top corners of mating pieces and hold them at 90 degrees, while the bottom corners are secured in Clamp-It Corner Clamping Jigs and Assembly Squares. The 1/2-in. clips also can be used alone to align and hold stock for shallow drawer assembly.

The clips’ smooth faces provide a secure hold on solid wood and plywood but won’t mar the workpieces. Openings in the clips provide access for driving fasteners, and large splines on the top ends improve gripping for easy removal. The clips are made from durable plastic, with integral slots that allow for compact, nested storage.

Gray Clamp-It 1/2-in. Clips (item 58225) and blue 3/4-in. Clips (item 58849) both are priced at $9.99 for a pack of four. The Clamp-it Corner Clamping Jig (item 58918; $19.99) and Assembly Square (item 29190; $9.99) are sold separately. All can be purchased at rockler.com, its nationwide retail stores or through Rockler’s printed catalog.

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With a Head Cutter installed, a standard chainsaw now can be used to accurately cut laminated beams, landscaping timber, thick planks of hard or softwood, fence posts, large structural panels and more.

The company recently has added a 75-degree Head Cutter XL with an oversized base plate measuring 14 x 20 in., in contrast to the standard Head Cutter’s plate that measures 10 x 16 in. A built-in handle on the XL also adds more control and stability. The Head Cutter XL can accommodate wider chainsaw bars ranging from 2 to 6 in. and from 14 to 44 in. long.

Made in America from 6061 aircraft aluminum and steel, the standard 75-degree Head Cutter (item CS-75HC) sells for $259. The 75-degree Head Cutter XL (item CS-75HCXL) sells for $349. Both can be purchased through various distributors shown on BigFootTools.com and are backed by a 1-year warranty.

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Tim Inman: There have been many such ideas offered for accomplishing the goal of stopping finishes from gelling or hardening in the can as they sit on the shelf. I don’t know of any that really work or are long-term effective. Sucking in some air and holding your breath until the oxygen is gone, then blowing that carbon dioxide- and water vapor-rich air into the can just before clamping down the lid quickly is one of the more weird ones. There are commercial products that tout the ability to prevent in-the-can hardening. Usually, they are nitrogen-based and come in some form of an aerosol. The idea is that you puff in some nitrogen and then slam the lid on before it can get out. Here is my better suggestion: Buy smaller amounts. Keep the lid on tight. (If you’ll punch some drain holes in the bottom of the can ring where the lid pushes down — on a conventional paint can — the lid can be pushed all the way down and seal better. Once the lid is on, shake the can to coat the inside of the container, forming a sealing paint. Or, buy some smaller cans and re-can the product. Keep the smaller cans full so there isn’t air space above the finish. Regardless of what you do, finishes like urethanes will cure in the can over time. They react with water vapor as well as oxygen. Buy just enough to do the job, and buy more later when you have another job. Old varnish has caused me so many questions to answer over the years, and they have caused so many disappointments to the users, too. Get fresh varnish when you need some, and you’ll be happier.

Chris Marshall: I use small glass canning jars for the purpose Tim describes, because I rarely buy finish in containers larger than quart sizes. When those cans are about half or less full, I’ll transfer the varnish to a jar and fill it to the top, then label the metal lid with a permanent marker. This way, once I use up the finish in the jar, I can clean and reuse it again. The glass also makes it easier to see just how much finish remains, and the marker I.D. is easy to wipe off with denatured alcohol.

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– Roger Robinson
Dover, OH

See the Gallery Below:

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“I related so well to your opening comments about doing demos for fellow woodworkers.They do come in all shapes and sizes, to say nothing of the age range. If we ‘old heads’ do not pass along the knowledge and skills and techniques that we have learned over our years of trial and error, our favorite hobby will pass away silently.

“I, too, do demos at the closest Rockler Partner Store. I greatly enjoy visiting with mostly a new group every time even though I have some that come back to see put on my dog and pony show.  I think the repeat visitors come back to see if I tell the same story a different way. I always have a stack of my business type cards on the table for people to pick up and I tell them to call if they need to ask a question or even if they happen to be in my area to come by and visit my shop; that is, ifthey are not allergic to cats, since I have three that live in my shop.

“I had a fellow who flies for FedEx attend my demo on band saw boxes one time. We visited after the demo and he told he that he was on an extended downtime so he made the demo. A week or so later, my phone rings and it is this fellow in Phoenix in the Rockler store and he wanted to ask what size router bit I used to ease the edges on my boxes. You are right on point about our tribe being a good group.” – Charles Buster

The same reader also had comments (see even more discussion on the article page) regarding last week’s question about spiders in the shop. – Editor

“In reference to Branden Watts’ question on how to handle spiders, Tim and Chris are right on consulting a professional. Unlike roaches and the like, spiders do not lick their legs as or after they walk, so a poison on the floor really is not the answer, but again, the professional will tell you all that. I live in the good old south where we have the old bodock/bois d’arc/Osage orange trees. The horse apples they drop are said to ward off spiders. Just put them in the basement every six months or so and all done organically. I wish I had a bunch to send Branden, but I am a city boy now and do not have access to any.” – Charles Buster

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