One issue with waste today is that the majority of kid’s toys are 100% plastic. Cheap junk most of it, which will find its way into landfill before it is a year old. There is another way, of course, and that is to make your own. There is an article about toymaking here and there are suggestion on books about toymaking here.
I wanted to have a go at toymaking and to start out by making a playboard for my granddaughter and I chose the idea of a playboard for several reasons –
We could use bits and pieces hanging around the house thus recycling material we already have,
- It is comparatively easy to make.
- It is robust and will last for years.
- Her mother asked me to make one for her!
To make a playboard, you start out with a base board of some description and then affix things to it that do stuff! Things that turn, move, latch, unlatch, click, jingle, jangle, make noise and generally do fun things. While it would have been easy to include battery powered lights and noise makers etc, part of my design philosophy was that the inclusion of bits that required batteries which needed to be bought and replaced were to be avoided.
This is how I made mine –
Base Board
First choice was to use something hanging around and while we do have particleboard that would have done the job, particleboard can off-gas formaldehyde so it was off the list. I did have some small pallets that were composed of a plywood sheet with other timber nailed to it, which seemed pretty robust. The board, once removed from the pallet was 10mm thick, by 1060mm wide and 610mm deep. I cut it in half so I could double it up, giving me a bit more depth for fixing screws to penetrate, so that the final base board is 20mm thick, by 530mm wide and 610mm deep.
To make the baseboard a bit more presentable I gave the best face a quick sand and then after hunting through the garage found a small tin of gloss white paint that was still (thankfully) liquid. This allowed me to give the front and sides of the baseboard three coats of the gloss white paint.
Activities
After a troll around through the garage, my spare parts boxes and sundry cupboards and sheds (I KNOW it’s here somewhere!) I came up with a number of things that made sense to me to be included on the board. Some things which I was positive that I had I was not able to find, and some of the things I did find came as a surprise to me. After reviewing what I had, I decided that I wanted a few more items, requiring a quick trip to the local hardware. I suspect that the local op shop would also be a goldmine for such things as well.
What I wound up with is –
Jingly things – I had an old bicycle bell in the garage so that was a no-brainer, we also had (I thought) a push button desk bell but a full search of the house didn’t turn it up, and I really wanted one so I was forced to go out and get one, but it did prove to be somewhat cheaper than I expected.
Turny things – I found an old doorknob, I think it was taken off the linen cupboard doors when one side broke and had been sitting around for yonks, it still turned so was a good bet. On closer inspection I found the turny bit extended below the base of the door knob, so to fit it I had to drill out a hole with a space bit, big enough to take the turning mechanism. Easily doable!
I also found a wheel, still in the original plastic packaging, which I had bought probably 30 years ago and never used. The wheel would be secured to the playboard by a coach screw and with a washer between the wheel and the board to ensure it could be turned easily.
Slidey Secury things – I already had a collection of a couple of bolts in my hardware/parts boxes so they were easy. The green gate latch was also in the box too, so after some consideration I decided to put that in as well. I had a hook latch which was also new in its packet, and who knows how old it was and I included it too!
Jangly things – I thought that keys are fun to play with but they would need to be attached to the board, we have plenty of keys we no longer have locks for! Thankfully the bottom part of the bracket that was designed to hold the bicycle bell to the handlebars was no longer needed and would work perfectly to hold the keys in place. I had also seen a door chain bolt on a pic of someone else’s playboard, and thought it would be a fun addition, but we didn’t have one so I had to buy it.
Bangy Things – The hinge was easy, another bit of hardware I had bought over the years but was still sitting in the parts box in its original packaging. Again I had seen the doorknocker on the pic of the other playboard, and thought it would be nice shiny, noisy and fun, but it was a new buy, because I really didn’t have anything like that which would do.
Clicky things – I was a bit disappointed because I was sure I had some spare electrical switches of one sort or another, but after spending the day ratting around in the garage, sheds and various cupboards it seems I was mistaken. Both the rectangular set of four switches and the single round one, needless to say, were new buys.
Zippy things – Also one of the things I noticed on the other playboard was a zipper secured to the board by four screws. Linda has a collection of haberdashery and sewing stuff analogous to the contents of my hardware parts boxes, so I had quite a few to choose from.
Rolly/turny things – Something else I found in the deep dark bowels of the spares boxes were two different sizes of casters, the wheels rotate on their axles as well as on their bases, so they are guaranteed to be fun.
With the board painted it was actually a fairly simple, if time consuming, process to set up all of the activities on the board in some semblance of order that made sense to me. Some of the hardware bits had screws included while others, particularly some of the stuff I found here, did not. This required a continuous back and forth between the garage and the dining room table where the construction was being carried out.
After half a day, I deemed the playboard to be completed and was very happy with how it turned out and on the day it went over very well!
