Testimonial: Josh builds the Amazing Train!

A few weeks ago, Ponoko, the company that cuts our laser cut kids approached me to have one of my models at their Makers Fair event in the United States… of course, the first model that came to mind was the Zulu Main Battle Tank. Not only is it massive but really showcases everything that is possible using only 2D wood, complete with rotating and shooting parts! After a few discussions, they settled on the Amazing Train 😉

Zulu Main Battle Tank: 3D Assembly Animation

Amazing Train: 3D Assembly Animation

Josh from ShoppingZen.com volunteered his time and glue to build this really cool model and enlisted a 7 year old child to draw a picture on paper that makes-up the boiler… for that authentic look! Below are all the construction photos along with his notes along with suggestions he had.

He did have a problem with axles being too short which was puzzling as I had my nephew built this train without the wheel problems Josh experienced, we later discovered this was due to the wheels being cut using 5mm thick plywood instead of 4mm. Due to time constraints, there wasn’t enough time to get another board cut at 4mm for the wheels but if this had been a customer, a new copy of the wheels would have been sent at no charge. This is one reason why all future models after this one use the same board thickness for all the pieces, this not only reduces costs but also prevents these sizing issues from coming into play.

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For the most part the train model went together easily but there’s a couple spots I ran into some slight issues.

• Wheel axles were short. I’d say half a wheel thickness. I got them on but the result is some rub on the body of the train as they had to be tight to stay on.
• Front Wheels bind on another piece. Didn’t see until glue had dried.
• Modified the front a little, not so much a problem but gave me a cleaner look.

I used one of the unused circles to make the front thicker and close off the paper end. So the paper goes one ring deep and the front is 2 rings thick, versus the plans that have the paper going all the way to the front and the front cover going inside the paper tube.

Included is a bunch of other photos of the opening and building process that you might find useful.

You can also find the train in some of the Ponoko images of their booth at Makers Fair on flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/ponoko/4637462608/

I was at the booth one day and plenty of people took a look at it as they came through.