This is a major refresh of our original crane, I have included the original animation so you can see the differences. As such, I have retired the laser cut kit for first generation mobile and platform cranes we had. This crane features a host of features including aggressively threaded wooden tires, a cab platform that spins a full 360 degrees, a mast that goes up, down and flips to help pick-up closer items without having to move the crane, supports that extend to both sides of the crane, easy hitching front and back bumpers and a host of other cool features built-in.

You can buy it now by visiting WoodMarvels.com and from the top menu, going into Category / Vehicles / Construction.

This is the first generation crane, what a difference!

I watched it on YouTube so here you are, you can watch now this Doing DaVinci team puts together wood and metal using modern engineering to create a really cool machine that Leonardo Da Vinci designed centuries ago. This is great stuff!

Doing Da Vinci: Armored Tank Part 1 of 5

Doing Da Vinci: Armored Tank Part 2 of 5

Doing Da Vinci: Armored Tank Part 3 of 5

Doing Da Vinci: Armored Tank Part 4 of 5

Doing Da Vinci: Armored Tank Part 5 of 5

Other fantastic building shows that I enjoy!

• Orange County Choppers which showed the process involved with building custom motorcycles.
• Holmes on Homes featuring Mike Holmes fixing what other contractors and carpenters did so wrong.
• MegaStructures which shows how some of the largest things ever made by man are put together from start to finish
• This Old House and the New Yankee Workshop featuring Norm Abram (and originally, Bob Vila as host).
• Home Again with Bob Vila (I did a profile of Bob on LegendaryLife.com btw) which featured home improvements of all kinds.

Although there is some laser cut items in Doing Da Vinci, I would love to one day have my own show demonstrating how my designs go from start to finish but make them human sized instead of kid sized. I think it would be cool to actually build a lifesize version, out of wood and steel of my Zulu Main Battle Tank and stick an engine in there too or see just how strong some of my designs are when pushed to extremes.

Over the month of June, 2009 we:

• got some press from a big blog out of Japan and another portal site called Ohdeedoh out of the United States regarding our always popular family dinosaur collection.
• We released some safari animals, available in both blueprint and laser cut form, our Elephant and Rhinoceros.
• Dropped 1000Markets.com over some wacky demands on their part.
• I shared some marketing advice and how some of my models are heavily inspired by military technology.
• Released new PDF plans and laser cut kits for our Pen and Pencil holder -C- and -D-.
• Showed a preview and ideas behind my latest model, Mobile Crane B.

I am expecting to have the mobile crane all finished and ready in both laser cut kits and PDF blueprints sometime next week depending on rendering times at WoodMarvels.com. I really enjoyed doing a major update to that model and look forward to designing a few things from my science fiction book which I am more than half way done writing.

Random 3D assembly animation: 2847AD Zulu Main Battle Tank

About an hour later, the design was done and rendering occurred overnight, laser cutting files uploaded and it’s now launched for sale on WoodMarvels.com!

This pen and pencil design is very simple, features clean lines and doubles as a great paper weight. It’s about 9cm square and has a hole in it that’s about 4cm in diameter.

To go along with the theme of customization, you can decide to make this project without the panels (they are included in the kit) or substitute another item inside of your choice.

You can purchase the physical laser cut kit which will be delivered right to your door or the blueprints right now at WoodMarvels.com. You can find them under Category / Office / Organizers.

This is a work undergoing heavy progress...

I have many ideas what I would like to implement in this refresh, one of the things that always bugged me about the original crane was that the arm couldn’t extend further, I found a solution to this and I think it’s rather innovative. Why extend when you can unfold!

The wheels are far more tough looking that the original, I am still playing with their placement and with their symmetry relative to the rest of the model, as you can see, a few things don’t match-up between the floor of the model, the sides and the axle holders.

I find the top part of the crane rather boring, will be working on something better that uses a paneling system instead. The front of the model needs a small hole somewhere so  string can be attached to it, I already have a slight bumper there, so adding a few more details there should do the trick wonderfully.

The bed, which doubles as a storage area also needs to be made better, originally, I used thick wood but after converting the design to be laser cut (without the square dowel conversion), this whole area needs to be rethought to be more functional and cool looking.

I am also playing around with the idea of having support struts come out on both sides to help further stabilize the model when a child is trying to pick things up, I doubled-up the wheels in the back for this purpose as well as adding some extra weight. The top of the model with the folding arm won’t be light and I don’t want things to tip over.

Already, this refresh is slightly longer and wider than the original, overall, it’s coming together nicely and it will probably be a few more days until I have something closer to what I have in mind followed by at least a week of rendering the final assembly animation, making the laser cutting, assembly instructions and finally, releasing it out into the wild for children all around the world to enjoy.

Sometimes, I am able to design things within a few hours but other times, I know enough to stop and go do other things. These models, with all their interlocking parts which can all go to crap very fast, becoming very mentally taxing and taking a breather is a must in order to make something unique while giving your mind enough time to think of some nice little additions or design changes.

The major advantage of laser cut models is their precision, which is also their biggest drawback, ESPECIALLY when you are dealing with interlocking and moving parts!

Original Crane Assembly Animation:

The Bottom Line

Rushing a design isn’t a good idea when a lot of complexity is involved.

I am truely fascinated by military equipment, sure, over a trillion dollars is spent annually for making machines that are a few steps ahead than a bullet but at the end of the day, this amont of investment leads to some fascinating discoveries and technologies. For instance, the Zulu Main Battle Tank, a design based on an upcoming book I am writing, got lots of inspiration from this youtube video about how the Russians designed every kind of tank conceivable, from jet powered to some that actually dig underground to get to their destination!

While the idea for a retractable gun came from watching videos like the Sweedish Archer Artillery System.

I really enjoy watching machinery of all kinds, seeing how it works and the ideas or people behind them. For instance, this very fascinating snow vehicle concept from the early 20th century that seems way ahead of its time and makes me wonder why the heck it never made it into serious production!

Essentially, machines of all kinds can provide a small glimpse that help me in developing unique designs not available elsewhere. I enjoy the research as much as designing the projects and the more complex the machine, the more enjoyable the challenge.

I also enjoy diversifying and challenging myself in areas that I have never built things in before, such as board games, paper weights and even rather simple looking business card holders.

The Bottom Line

If I can think of something neat, I build it and share it with the world.

You can purchase the physical laser cut kit which will be delivered right to your door or the blueprints right now at WoodMarvels.com. You can find them under Category / Office / Organizers.

You can buy

10: Offer multiple sizes

Having one product with a take-it or leave-it approach is risky. Why not diversify and offer the same piece at different sizes to hit multiple price-points? This changes the question regarding a purchase from stark to choice. For instance, if you create a table that looks great in a living room, why not make a scaled version for a child to enjoy or even a miniature?

9: Create a product line

With modern on-demand technology, you have the power to create just about anything, so why not take the bull by the horns and develop an entire product line or series of designs based around one particular theme? This is what the big guys do! Now you can too! It costs nothing but your time to create something unique and to showcase that uniqueness in several different ways.

8: Diversify your holdings

People may love one of your designs but if all you have to offer is a handful to chose from, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. If your claim to fame is a certain color scheme, design element or combination of materials, why not create a bunch of other things across other fields in order to further broaden the appeal of your products?

7: Participate!

How do you expect people to find-out about your designs if you take a vow of silence? There are a tonne of blogs out there to get your name out to a larger audience. Start by commenting and work your way up to a guest post. There are also lots of different types of niche forums and bulletin boards crawling with potential customers or even distributors. These are all things that cost nothing to do and can really help people discover your work.

6: Get your products on other sites

Get your stuff on third party sites as well. Most of these sites cost next to nothing to join and allow you the opportunity of showcasing your products to an entirely new set of eyes. Here is a short list for your references:

http://www.etsy.com (might as well be free!)
http://www.artfire.com (free!)
http://en.dawanda.com (free!)
http://www.1000markets.com (free!)
http://www.shophandmade.com (free!)

5: Don’t fear failure nor rejection

If you have an idea for something, no matter how crazy, give it a try and see what happens. Don’t let the fear of rejection or failure temper your desire to create some really unique items. You won’t know if something is successful until you give it a try and unleash it upon the marketplace.

4: Create your own website

It costs nothing to set-up your own blog (to promote your products), e-commerce site (sell your products) nor to accept online payments from customers. You can even get some free hosting with a little searching! There is no reason why you should not seriously consider launching your own marketplace to sell and promote the products you create. Here are a few links to get you started:

http://paypal.com
http://wordpress.org (or http://wordpress.com)
http://www.magentocommerce.com

3: Promote your products across multiple mediums!

You just created the most amazing chair that has ever seen and got a few pictures… great! Why not make a slide-show or video showing how you assembled it… or even an infomercial selling your product. I know for my own site, the videos we create showing the assembly of our WoodMarvels.com products really get us a lot of hits each month, this is fantastic marketing that works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for free! Here are a few resources that you may find very helpful:

http://tubemogul.com (free video distribution across multiple providers)
http://www.instructables.com (learn and share knowledge)

2: Have everything shipped together

If your design requires nuts, bolts or other items requiring the customer to source it themselves or you having to re-ship the item to complete the sale, you aren’t taking full advantage of on-demand manufacturing and logistics. Try to include as much of your components required in your design, part of your design. Bolts and dowels can be easily replaced with a little ingenuity and design modification to create something just as strong to ship directly to the customer, with everything cut and ready to go from the get-go.

Here is a great example of how I modified a design (heavily) from having to use round wooden dowels that required the customer to visit a hardware store and cut the dowels to size into one that is all inclusive.

New Straddle Carrier which includes everything (but string)

Old Straddle Carrier which requiring customer sourcing

1: Never stop designing!

So, you created one item and are waiting to see how the marketplace responds to it before you do anything else. Unless you are incredibly lucky, I believe this is completely the wrong approach. Each and every time you design something, whether it’s big, small, simple or complex, you are LEARNING a little bit more about design. The moment you stop is the moment stagnation sets in and learning stops. It may take you 5 designs or even 100 before you get your first sale but if you love what you do really wish to perfect your craft, you have to just put your head in the sand and keep going at it day in and day out. For instance, the two videos you saw above of the same design are about a year apart.

Did I forget anything? Feel free to comment!

• removing a link to my animations - they instead want me to use the blog feature to show animations, it’s far more intuitive to have this on the product itself
• remove any mention of a .com, in this case, WoodMarvels.com - they offer no suggestion as to an alternative
• cut and assemble my kits THEN offer them on sale on 1000Markets - apparently selling kits isn’t allowed but assembled kits is fine (???)

My answer to these silly requests after they approved my shop earlier with these same issues

• bye-bye

So far, the traffic on my 1000Markets has been pretty much zilch when compared to Etsy… of all the sites I joined, including ArtFire.com, Etsy blows them all away BIG TIME. In fact, my shop on Etsy.com already has almost 60 hearts from other users, whatever it means, I am guessing it’s more good than bad

Random Animation: Pyramid Calendar

You can buy it right now at WoodMarvels.com under the heading Theme / Mammals.

This elephant is available in three sizes as laser cut kits to fit any budget in addition to PDF Blueprints should you want to build your very own in your woodworking shop!

You can find this elephant at WoodMarvels.com under Theme / Mammals.

Not sure if you noticed or not but we began adding model titles to our animations so that they are easier to find, just go to WoodMarvels.com and input this title into the search field and you will be brought right to page selling it! How easy is that!

• downsized our Ferris Wheel, Ruskian Fortress, Medieval Castle Walls B laser cut kits
• up-sized our Hammer and Stake laser cut kits
• released our 2847AD Zulu Main Battle Tank and Straddle Carrier B wood projects and laser cut kits
• HD’ed our Tic-Tac-Toe, Tangram and Serving Table and Cantilever Table, Dinosaur Collection animations
• removed our Google Ads that appeared during the assembly process
• joined 1000Markets.com, DaWanda.com, ArtFire.com and Etsy.com
• and to top it off, Paystolivegreen.com wrote about us on their blog

Random Animation: our 1956 Porsche Speedster

http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/toys-kids/handmade-wooden-dinosaurs-086019

I really enjoyed designing those dinosaurs and really want to get back into designing some other animals when I have time, things are nuts here as usual but stay tuned… lots happening!

You can buy these dinosaurs individually or as a family on WoodMarvels.com, either in laser cut kits or blueprints which you can cut yourself.

If your Japanese is better than mine, feel free to read all about it here:

http://blog.bcbasics.com/?eid=570383

If you want to get your hands on your very own Dinosaur Family, you can buy them in three different sizes laser cut and delivered right to your door at our main site, WoodMarvels.com.

So without further delay, here is my latest product designed based on my upcoming science fiction book. It’s the Zulu Main Battle Tank, no, there isn’t any wars happening in my book but civilization has had to adapt to new realities both on the ground and beyond. In the real world, this tank would stand close to 8 stories high, is nuclear powered and is equipped with a rail gun but as these items are hard to come by, I figure making a wooden version available would be just as cool for now!

It’s available right now at WoodMarvels.com in both blueprint and laser cut kits (both 4mm and 6mm) which include everything you need except for rubber bands. It features turning wheels and turret, retractable cannon with projectiles made out of wood and even better, a very straight-forward assembly process. It may look complicated, but putting it together isn’t.

Laser-Cut Kit (4mm) has approximate dimensions of L: 27cm, W: 15, H: 15cm while the 6mm has dimensions of about L: 40cm, W: 22, H: 22cm.

You can find my Zulu Main Battle Tank at WoodMarvels.com under the heading Special / Series / 2847AD.

2847AD Zulu Main Battle Tank

Full Armor Gear Tank

A little while back, I designed my first wooden tank and thought it was the coolest thing ever, as you can see, the progress in every aspect of design has improved tremendously, not only does my new Zulu Main Battle Tank shoot real projectiles but it’s also a far stronger assembly system overall and even down to the wheels, far more detailed. This tank is of course, available for purchase at WoodMarvels.com under Special / Series / Full Armor Gear. I am debating doing a remake of it to use square dowels, I like this tank the way it is.

Tic-Tac-Toe Inlayed

Tangram

Serving Table

You can visit our shop at the following link: http://woodmarvels.1000markets.com

We have added the same number and type of product here as the others so our test is using identical information to base marketing information after the testing period is over. So far though, in terms of traffic, Etsy.com far ahead of the other two systems we joined.

Random 3D Assembly Animation: Piper Aircraft

As a result, WoodMarvels.com has retired our wooden kits of our old Straddle Carrier and replaced them with our newest model, Straddle Carrier B. This model features a far more efficient lifting mechanism, wooden wheels with tread and a much studier build that our previous model as well.

You can buy the plans or two sizes of this model as a laser cut kit by going to WoodMarvels.com and navigating to Category / Vehicles / Everyday.

Here is the updated animation followed by the old assembly animation of our previous, first generation Straddle Carrier.

Old Straddle Carrier

…and an even older, pre-laser cut version

You can visit our Dawanda.com Shop at: http://woodmarvels.dawanda.com

Random 3D assembly animation: Bowling Board Game