Building a homemade monster truck yourself isn’t as hard as you may think.  If you are pretty handy and have a few tools you will be able to create your own wooden toy. The expense is minimal and it’s a great project for you and your child.  Here’s how we built ours!

• Start with a piece of 2X4, depending on how large you want your car to be. I started with a 10” piece.
• Lay the piece on its side and draw the profile of your vehicle.
• Take a jig saw or if you have access to one, a band saw would work great to cut out your vehicles body.
• Mark and drill the holes where your vehicles axles will go through the body.  I used a ¼ dowel for the wheels, this way it will be strong enough to handle fairly rough play.
• Sand all edges of the toy to a smooth splinter free surface.

It is time to cut out your wheels. For the wheels I used another leftover piece of 2×4.

• Using a 2 ½” Hole saw bit for my drill I cut out 4 wheels. If you don’t have a hole saw bit then use your jig saw. If you have a drill press that would be the best way to do this but since I don’t have one I simply put my 2×4 in a vise and drilled out 4 wheels.
• If you used the hole saw then you already have the ¼” hole for your axle, if not measure to center and drill your holes now.
• Sand the edges of your wheels to a smooth finish and remove all splinters.
• Cut your dowels to length, making sure you account for the thickness of the wheels. If your body is 1 1/2” and your wheels are 1 1/2” you will need it to be about 4 ¾”. It’s important to have around 1/8″ play so your wheels can turn freely after attaching. You don’t want it to be too long or your wheels will continuously shift left to right.
• Dry fit your axle through the body holes, if it fits tightly and will not turn freely then drill out the holes a little larger.
• Now that you know they will turn freely take them out and apply a little bit of wood glue to one end of the dowel and insert into a wheel. Only put one wheel on the axle as you will need to glue the other one after you put the axle through the body.

It’s time to paint your vehicle and wheels/axles with any design you would like.  This is a great time to get your child involved and let their creative instincts take over; after all, it is going to be their vehicle. After the paint has dried etc. It’s time to put the wheels on and complete the final gluing.

• Push the axle through the body and apply glue to the tip.
• Fit your remaining wheels on, wipe any excess glue away and let dry as recommended by the glue manufacturer.
• After the glue is dry, touch up any unpainted areas on the wheels.  Once the paint dries it’s time to play! This may take longer and a bit of work but I can guarantee your child will appreciate this car more than one they just pick out at the toystore. Not to mention it’s great to see your child playing with the toy that you built with them.  We built this truck with a couple leftover pieces of 2X4, $6 worth of paint and a $.75 dowel.

Where can you buy a monster truck for $7!

I would love to see some pictures of toys you have made with your kids. Leave a comment below and tell me about your homemade toys! For more info message me via Twitter HERE.

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