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He Adds Motors To His Carved Toys
“This is my baby. It even sounds like a real Model T,” says Beryl Buffington about his amazing motorized toy pickup. He reaches behind the front bumper, flips a switch, and the toy he built sputters to life and starts to move.
A little larger than 1/32-scale, it’s one of 3 motorized toys Buffington carved out o
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He Adds Motors To His Carved Toys AG WORLD “This is my baby It even sounds like a real Model T ” says Beryl Buffington about his amazing motorized toy pickup He reaches behind the front bumper flips a switch and the toy he built sputters to life and starts to move A little larger than 1/32-scale it’s one of 3 motorized toys Buffington carved out of 1/8-in thick cellular vinyl from old advertising signs It’s flexible to cut shape sand and glue together – right down to details such as oil filters throttles and brakes Finished with genuine implement paints the pieces look like metal but their feather-light weight gives them away As a retired lumberyard owner the Woden Iowa man has more hoarded material to work with these days His stash includes hundreds of battery-operated motors from handheld sprayers remote toy motors and gears from old computer printers The battery-powered sound and motion for the pickup come from the gears from an old printer and a worm gear he extended with heavy copper wiring that goes to a belt-driven motor to make the differential in the back A 1905 Kelly Springfield steamroller has a toy remote racecar motor that Buffington geared down to 14 rpm’s with pencil sharpener gears A 1954 Deere M Crawler runs off a lawn sprinkler motor “The challenge with a motorized model is to get it laid out so it moves and yet looks like it’s supposed to ” Buffington says He puts together the mechanical parts first and then builds the toy around it All his models – motorized and non-motorized – represent many hours of work and attention to detail “The most challenging of the non-motorized models is a 1650 Oliver tractor with a front-mounted 4-row cultivator ” Buffington says He starts with photos he finds on the internet and in Farm Collector magazines to design his models Some take 80 to 90 hrs to complete Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Beryl Buffington P O Box 111 Woden Iowa 50484 ph 641 926-5380; berylsharon@wctatel net
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