Thursday, December 15, 2005

Baufix


In addition to Brio Builder (formerly Brio Mec), several other companies have made wooden erector-type sets. One of the more interesting is Baufix.

Tuesday morning I was printing out several pages of Baufix designs I thought I might be able to use for inspiration with my Brio parts.

Tuesday afternoon I stopped on a whim at Me 'n Moms (I really, really want to write "Mom's") to see if they had anything interesting. There was a bag of mixed wooden construction toy parts. Some Brio. Some Baufix. The gods do this sometimes to tease me. I don't mind too much.

When I went to build something last night, I discovered that all the Baufix designs I had printed included wheels with tires, and I had no tires. Only two "pulleys," or wheels without tires. When I tried building with just those, the "wheels" failed to reach the ground, and the airplane wobbled on a bolthead instead.

On my way to my psychiatrist appointment this morning, I stopped at Rockler Woodworking and chose some halfway acceptable wheels from their wooden toy parts selection. The axle holes were too small, so I drilled them out with a dull spade bit I found in the basement. I'm not claiming the holes aren't a bit wobbly, but hey -- the wheels aren't all the same size anyway.

They'll do.

2 comments:

Herman said...

the plane is very cool

Alan said...

I should have put something in for scale.

It is about ten inches long with about an eight and a half inch wingspan.

Also, it really is blockplay - those central things are very nice wooden cubes with threaded (and unthreaded) holes.

Blocks for sure.