Toy Stove

While reading a friend's magazine, I noticed this neat little stove in it. After drawing it freehand from memory a couple of weeks later (I'm a terrible artist!) and after measuring my granddaughter well, I began putting some dimensions on it. Upon starting my project I thought - 'am I wasting my time & money - is it going to work?' Well as you can see, it turned out quite nicely. And right then I realized, making your own plans is really no big deal.

I had never built anything like this before but I did it. All you have to do is think it through carefully and do it! I'm sure I have no more talent than the next guy, and yet it worked. I was always afraid to try, but not anymore. You can do projects like this too, even if you are like me, with virtually no woodworking experience.

It is hoped that you can gain some confidence from the Grampa's Workshop site. Here's how I did it, and some of the things I learned along the way. You can do it if you try!

After getting an idea of just how big my granddaughter was, I decided that my stove should be about 36" tall and about 27" wide and 16" deep. This dimension was determined by the width of the wood which I was going to use. It's called Laminated Pine. The manufacturer assembles pieces of 1 x 2's or 1 x 3's of varying lengths, edge glues them into big sheets and then cuts them into various widths which are cut to 8 foot lengths. I chose 16" wide boards, because it seemed about the right depth for the stove.

The working surface of the stove I decided, should be about 21 1/8" high, so that's where the cross member should be. It would end up to be the working surface and the top of the cabinet on the lower left side - the bottom of the upper cabinet with the small window. I felt those cabinets should be 9 1/4" wide, so a vertical divider would go there. The burners and the oven would end up being 15 1/2" wide. With the left end (3/4") + the divider (3/4") + the right end (3/4") + the width of the left cabinets (9 1/4") + the oven/burner plate (15 1/2") = 27". The plan seemed to be comng together.

Incidentally, you will notice just under the ends of the white "gas control knobs", a horizontal piece of wood which looks like it's the front edge of a horizontal piece of wood, which is the top of the oven. That's the way it's supposed to look, but all it really is, is a thin strip which was carefully ripped from an edge of a scrap after that scrap had it's edges rounded with an 1/8" roundover bit. It was then cut to fit the board already there, and then glued & clamped on. It's a little finishing touch to dress up this piece a little more.

Without going through the rest of it, I think you can see how it was done. Similar planning decided where the bottom and top cross members would be located. The wood was cut to length and width for all the pieces. Where curved pieces were required, like the top and right side and the bottoms of the sides and front, a jigsaw was used. All the pieces were sanded, and rounded over with a router, and it was screwed together using 2" #6 countersink head screws. It was just about assembled except for the doors. The openings were measured, and pieces were cut which would be the doors, remembering to leave a little extra room for the doors to fit for sure. Hinges and painted knobs were added after it was all finished. Both the oven and the upper left cabinet have racks inside, just like Mom's. See the photos below.

The glass in the upper cabinet door is unbreakable and was obtained from a local glass company's scrap pile with their permission. It was cut to the size of the aperature and hot glued into the inside of the door. Applique wood designs were added to the upper portion of the back and lower front corners to dress it up a bit. The "burners" were just discs cut from 1/2" pine (using 2 different sizes of margarine containers as a pattern) with pieces of 1/4" dowel glued to it, in an arrangement to look like an old fashioned gas burner. They were all painted semi gloss black and glued to the working surface of the stove. The top shelf over the burners was given a 1/2" pine retainer 3/4" wide, held up by small drilled wooden balls. The supposed gas control knobs on the front of the stove were just crib spindles cut in half and cleaned up by sanding smooth, with the 1/4" tenon end glued into a 1/4" hole drilled into those little wood balls. Then another hole was drilled through the ball/spindle assembly, and it was bolted to the front of the right side of the stove. All screw holes in the body were counter bored, and filled with plugs which were cut from scraps with a plug cutter which was bought from Lee Valley Tools. The unit was finish-sanded and stained with Benjamin Moore Wood Finishes penetrating stain - Golden Oak #234-68, and topped off with 3 coats of a water based, satin finish Varathane.

The wooden balls, spindles, knobs, dowels and plug cutter were all purchased from Lee Valley Tools. If there isn't a store close to you, various mail order companies like Meisel Hardware Specialties in Mound, Minnesota, supply these too. In fact that's where I got the hinges and magnetic door catches for this project.

The whole point to this, is to try to show new woodworkers, that it is simply not that hard to take on a project like this. I sincerely hope that you gain sufficient confidence in your abilities, and that you'll try a woodworking project like this because, as I said before, and I really mean it: If I can do it, anybody can!

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