And then I had an idea!

The offcuts of timber were starting to build up in the workshop and rather than throw them out I decided to make something. 

The first project was a small truck (lorry).   As you can see in the photo below the painting is up to my usual poor standard.

Experienced parents will have noted the wheels are not painted.  This has been done in an effort to ensure the future small owner doesn’t embed black grooves in their mother’s lovely timber flooring.  The front of the vehicle is almost vertical.  I could have fitted a front bumper, lights, mirrors etc.  However a vanilla front means the damage to the house wall will be large and uniform.

The timber is all glued and screwed.  No nails for the little monster to injure themselves with when it’s violently disassembled.

The second project is a toy cradle and this is where I had to devise an idea for sanding the inside edges of all the curves.

Ends

Sanding the convex curves with the orbital sander was relatively easy.  It’s the concave curves that required a solution.  After sleeping on the problem I had an idea.

Using my hole cutter I cut disks from a scrap of 18mm plywood.

These we then glued together and inserted onto a long bolt.

I then marked a vertical pencil line down the side before cutting a 45deg slot with a hacksaw.

The groove and circumference of my new roller was then liberally coated with PVA glue and then wrapped with sandpaper.

 

If the glue holds I should have a cylinder covered in sandpaper with the shaft of a bolt sticking out of one end.  The bolt can be fitted into the chuck of my drill press which should give me a rotating sanding drum to do those concave curves.

My guess is I’m not the first person to think of this solution.