Santa's present to my sons

Sean Wright

Member
Messages
902
Location
WNY, Buffalo Area
My almost 4 year old (the one in the picture with me) likes to play with the wooden track Thomas the Train sets. My wife asked me (Santa) to make a table that could accept one of the pre-printed landscape boards, on which the kids lay the train track. To buy one of these tables, will run between $200-$300 USD..... aside from the printed pictures on the tables, there is nothing special about them...they aren't even particularly well built.

I built the table out of pine (as I had a decent amount of it in the shop), with the top edge made of cherry. I used cherry for the top edge, as I know that pine won't handle the kids' abuse well, but the harder cherry should do OK....plus it gives it a nice contrast. The pre-printed board is held up by a frame that is attached to the side frame with pocket screws. The legs are attached with 4 screws each, 2 pocket & 2 straight in. The outside corners are joined with through dovetails. I make these using my Leigh Super 24 jig. It is finished with salad bowl finish (incase the now 4 month old, decides to make a meal of it).

On Christmas morning my son exclaimed "this is awesome!".:D

In gluing it up, I finally needed the capacity of my 50in Besseys! I was sure glad the wife got those for me last year.

The last 2 pictures show the table with the salad bowl finish on it.
 

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i can see many miles on the train ride and whern its done ,, the train ride, i bet that dad can make it into a coffee table with alot of memioers attached..:thumb::thumb:
 
I built one for my son when he was about 4 also. Not nearly as nice as yours. Like many little boys he was a Thomas nut. The ones you can buy are really expensive for what you get. The wife and I went and looked at them and we had one of those "I can build that better and a lot cheaper" discussions. He's eight now and his has been a truly multipurpose table. He still uses it to play on today. Now it's transformers, hotwheels, and army men.
 
Very very nice. Have thought about buying the track cutting bits and for the male and female ends of the track so I can build my grandson's train track. He isn't quite two yet, although, the rate I complete things, I am two years behind already if it is to be done when he is four!!:rofl:
 
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