Toy-Making at Home: How to Make a Hundred Toys from Odds and Ends

by Morley Adams

A toy which is always welcome to boys and girls is

A Pair of Scales.—Moreover this is a toy which can be made quite accurately with the aid of a few quite ordinary materials. To a pair of scales—or a balance, as it is sometimes called--there are generally these parts: (1) a balancing arm, generally called the beam; (2) an upright standard on which the beam is supported; (3) two scale pins, and chains (or strings) to suspend them; (4) a base board to which the upright standard is fixed. Fig. 72 shows the sort of thing we mean.

Fig. 72.

Now of these things not one presents any real difficulty. For the base board any piece of wood about a foot long, 5 in. wide, and 3/4 in. thick will do quite well. For the upright standard you require a piece of wood about 9 in. long and 1 in. square—one end of which must be fixed to the base board. The method of doing this will depend very largely on your degree of proficiency in the art of carpentry. If you know how to make a mortise and tenon joint, that will be the most suitable. If you cannot attain to that, then perhaps you can make a hole just as large as the standard, and sink the standard in the base. If you are not at all an expert, then you must just nail or screw your standard to the centre of the base.

Before you do this, however, there is something to be done to the other end. You must cut a slot 1/2 in. wide and 1-1/2 in. deep (Fig. 73a); then you must cut away small triangular pieces from the centres of the tongues left (Fig. 73b); and finally you must nail to the sides of the V so formed two little strips of tin (Fig. 73c).

Fig. 73.

The next thing to be constructed is the "beam." For this you will need a piece of fretwood (or other thin wood) about 9 or 10 in. long and about 1 in. wide. To support this on the metal V pieces you will need a thin piece of steel—such as a piece of an old pocket-knife blade. This will be driven through the centre of the beam, and will project equally on either side (Fig. 74). Remember, it must fit tightly; so when you cut the slot for it, do not make it too wide.