A Toy for Noah

Very soon Sylvia and I are headed to Germany. Last month, or so, Sylvia was breezing through my WOOD magazine and saw one of the many cheezy projects they feature. This one happened to be a wooden toy crane. Sylvia's Dad was a crane operator for a good portion of his career (he helped build the Porsche plant in Stuttgart). So, I was asked to build this for our nephew Noah. It's not what I would consider woodworking, but what can I do? I adore my wife and love the little devil known as Noah. If any of you have ever checked one of these toys out, you know it's a little woodworking and mostly assembling a kit. Come to think of it, it may be a good thing to get my tools awake.

I have not forgotten about Bisket's stand. Hopefully, I'll have time to finish that before we head to Germany. The last few weeks I have been focusing on getting the shop a little more functional. When I started Bisket's project, I soon started freaking out because the shop was sooooo disorganized. Since I'm not gonna be building any cabinets in the very near future, I put some exterior doors on some sawhorses and that has helped. I still have a lot to organize, but at least I can somewhat function in the space now. I spent the majority of this morning getting Ken's jointer all ready for work.

On Thursday, Ken and I went to the warehouse and got a few slabs of birch. I looked at some wood that a local place sells and was appalled at the price. Even though this project uses hard maple and walnut in the magazine. Birch will have to do. I really hate sacrificing these for a toy, but again, what can I do?
The really nice thing about this is being able to use my new bandsaw for the first time. LOVED that!! I spent a few hours laying out the pieces I'll need and doing some rough dimensioning. Here's where I am so far.
My buddy Ken said this is called "Canoe Birch", due to the fact the Native Indians in our area used the bark of this particular birch to make canoes. I think it also has more color than other birch wood I've seen.