Dave Ware’s Carousel
Dave Ware writes: The horses for the carousel were made from a photograph of a real carousel horse. My wife traced them and colored them for me. Flashing lights were added to the base.
Dave Ware’s Hand Operated Airplane Ride
Turn the crank and duck!
Dave Ware’s Parachute Jump
Dave Ware writes: This is the model as revised by Gilbert in 1949. Use of the OI segment of 72 tooth gear allowed for a simpler mechanism. This innovation and the increase of the height to almost 6 feet made for a much improved model. The action was now completely automatic. Parachutes were homemade using silk cloth and swizzle sticks.
I am attempting to build the parachute drop, but struggling. If anyone has pictures of the upper portion and could post them here or send them to me at Ken.tucker21@frontier.com. I will be very grateful.
Hi Ken. I just emailed you some pictures of my parachute jump. If you need more pictures or have any questions, just let me know. The parachute can be challenging to get to operate, but it is a lot of fun. Good luck with your project!
Nathan Good
I have a WORKING parachute jump, with LEDS on it to nightlight my living room! if u need more pics or help, I would be happy to help. The hardest part is getting all the set screws to hold the round parts on round axles. I found grinding a flat in the axle with a Dremel is the only way to keep it running. And loctight. The design in the book creates a terrible twist in the middle, so I added 6 part I 21 hole strips at a diagonal to get it straight. I also added way more complexity to the top. The strings jump off the AQ pulleys, so I made wire holders out of bus wire. Also, the 4 P7As have strings pop off, so I added bus wire there also. The 8 H strips at the top, move all over, so I added a ring of bus wire up there to keep them straight, and keep the strings from popping off as it all freewheels down. I also added lead fishing weights to help them reach the bottom. (The parachute open and work!) I believe all this is a necessity to keep this machine operating properly, and even with all this, it is not that robust. It is a “kids toy”, not a production built machine, operating on the hairy edge of working, as shown in the manual. (I am an degreed ENGINEER). And getting the strings to work out is difficult. I added a fishing swivel where the 4 strings change to one, plus a bit of superglue! Took some adjusting to get everything to wind up properly. And it helps to bend the Ms out wider where the strings wind, plus I use magnets to keep the motor (MD) in the proper position.
I have a working record player from a 10073 set under it. I make the parachutes from scratch when needed. It is a shame to use perfect original parachutes to run this toy for long periods. They are typically frail from 70 years of aging. It takes 21 pieces to reproduce them. Close cloth is available from Walmart! The wood struts are easy to reproduce from coffee stir sticks, and the red struts can be duplicated using bristles from a broom sold at Lowe’s! They are perfect, except not translucent. Very hard to tell they are not originals from a few feet away, my couch! I love running it! Watch for motor temperature!