Author: Tom

Happy Fourth of July

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This past weekend was a lot of fun for us: good weather, great fireworks, and good days at both Rogers and Hartville. We hope your holiday weekend was every bit as good as ours.

The week leading up to the holiday weekend was a busy one for us.  We had a few custom orders we needed to deliver by the weekend and we needed to restock our inventory to replace some of the bases and blocks we sold.  Hopefully our hard work paid off and those of you that purchased a set from us had a great time playing it at your Fourth of July parties.

We’ll be back next weekend.  We hope to see you at Rogers Flea Market on Friday or Hartville Marketplace & Flea Market on Saturday.

Competition is in the Air

Mid-afternoon I had someone stop by and tell me about someone else selling an over-sized Jenga like game much like what I’m selling a few rows over at a lower price.  Out of curiousity I had to wonder over and see what the gentleman was talking about:  it’s true, we have a competitor.  I can’t really say I’m surprised.  After all, cutting 2x4s into shorter 2x4s isn’t rocket science.  

That said, I don’t really think the competitor’s product offers the same level of craftsmenship as what I’m selling.  Nor does it come with the storage base that is what really makes my product stand out from the rest.  Imitation is the sincirest form of flatery: at least that’s what I remember someone telling me at some point.  I’m not entirely sure if that’s true or not, but I welcome the compitition either way.

Meanwhile, back in the shop, Timber Toys is currently hard at work building the orders we recieved over the past two week.  It’s been a very busy week, but that’s a good thing.  With the holidy weekend coming, it’s bound to be another busy few weeks ahead of us.

Have a great Fourth of July.  We look forward to seeing you at the flea market this weekend.  We’ll be at Rogers on Friday and Hartville on Saturday and Monday.

Rogers

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After speaking with some of the other vendors at the Harville Flea Market (and Market Place) we decided it was time to expand our operation further east.  Hartville will continue to be a weekly stop for us; however, we wouldn’t want anyone visiting the largest open air flea market in Ohio, West Virginia, or Pennselvania to miss out on the opportunity to purchase backyard games at their finest.

Having never been to the Rogers Flea Market we didn’t really know what to expect.  As anyone who’s recently been to the Rogers Flea Market already knows, we were not dissapointed.  The market was bustling from early morning through most of the afternoon and into early evening.  Much like Hartville, there was almost always someone stopping by to play with the games, share a story about the games they made, or just trying to figure out exactly why we had neatly stacked a bunch of wooden blocks on a bench (it turns out not everyone knows what Jenga is).

This week also marked the first time we had our version of Ladder Golf on display.  The prototype had some errors in dimensions and the old golf balls we used had some people confused.  Overall the response seemed pretty positive.  We have some other products in the works.  You can expect to see those prototypes in the near future.

And so it Begins…

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Our first weekend at the Harville Flea Market (and Market Place) is in the books.  All-in-all it was a great weekend.  The weather was in our favor, people were out, and we had a great time.  

We brought a few new looks with us this year.  The Cleveland Cavaliers base is the first we’ve left with a natural finish (to reflect the hardwood basketball is played on) and the Fear the Roo Akron University base is the first we’ve tried with an off-center logo.  Overall we recieved positive feedback on both designs.

One of our first customers stopped by to let us know that he and his sons are still enjoying the set they bought from us a year later.  It was great to see him again and to have a chance to hear how things are holding up after a year of use.  We hope to hear many similar stories throughout the Summer.

Thanks to everyone that stopped by.  We love to hear your woodworking stories, share information about our products, and of course do whatever we can to make sure you go home with a set of Giant Tumbling Blocks of your very own.

Welcome to Our New Website

It’s taken a bit longer than it probably should have, but we finally have our new blog up and running. An online store will have to wait a little while; however, we will be happy to work with you via email to accommodate any questions or orders you may have.

Please check back regularly. We will be updating this blog with pictures of new products we make, locations we will be at, and anything that strikes us as funny. Enjoy your summer and we look forward to seeing you at the Hartville Flea Market.

Getting ready for the season

The weather is finally warming up and people are wanting to get outside. Baseball season is in full swing right along with summer parties, graduation parties, family reunions, and many more outdoor events. One of the things that gets us most excited about the warmer weather is getting back into the workshop. The smell of fresh-cut wood right along side fresh-cut grass. We can’t wait to see what we’ll build next.

We are thoroughly excited to try out a new tool we got. Sanding should be a little more fun, now that we’ve got a belt sander. No more worn out arms, shoulders, and back. There are a few small tools that we have replaced like one of our random orbital sanders. We moved from Craftsman to a Bosch sander that has a filter on it. Not only did we get some new tools, but my brother’s tools have been moved to my shop.

Once all the tools were moved into my little one car garage, we had nowhere to move around. To make it possible to use the shop we had to expand the space from a one car to a two car garage. We installed a cleat system on the walls so we could hang up all of our clamps and a cabinet we built. We are planning on expanding the cleat system to get more cabinets, shelves, and racks on the wall to get the tools off the floor and organized.

Now that the shop was all put together, it was time for wood. We took a trip to Home Depot and filled my SUV with as much lumber as we could. The lumber we got was as many 4×8 sheets of plywood, 2x4x8 boards, dowel rods, 5/4x2x8 boards, and 1x3x8 boards we could cram into the vehicle. After a few trips we ran into another issue, where to put all the wood. I received a wood rack as a gift last Christmas so, we got it mounted on the wall to hold all of the boards. We were able to find a clear spot along a wall to store our plywood.

Now that we have all the materials, we finally started building our first projects of the summer. We have built a few Giant Jenga bases and the blocks to go with them. We were able to take apart an old wooden bench that was at my house and rebuild it. We have also spent some time in the shop trying to develop some new products and having even more fun testing them out. We hope you will get to see and experience the fun that we have had playing the games we make.