Edward Thatcher

“ Tool prices vary with market conditions.
The tools listed may be bought at any good hardware store or ordered from the catalogues of any of the large mail order houses (except the Wooden Roofing Folder and the Forming Mallet) . While the folder is not absolutely necessary for folding up angles in the tin, it is much better to have one to make the numerous angles employed in tin work than to attempt folding by hand, and particularly when long angles are to be made for lanterns, towers, [29] automobile chassis and the like. In fact, it is in almost constant use. ”

“ No rough or sharp edges are left about these toys. The edges of a piece of tin may be folded over or “hemmed”—or a folded strip of tin may be slipped over an edge that needs strengthening. Thus all danger of cutting the fingers or of thin edges being bent out of shape is done away with.
Although made of tin, there need be nothing “tinny” about a well-made, well-painted tin can toy.
Very few and very simple tools are required for the work and the solder, soldering flux, rivets, wire and paint are very inexpensive items, as so little need be used for each piece produced. ”

“ Since the tin can toys were introduced into my classes at college I have taught more than two hundred pupils how to make them. Many of these pupils had little or no experience with tools and had never expected to have any until the war came along and changed the ideas of many people as to their ability to work with their hands. I have yet to encounter a pupil who could not solder after a very short period of instruction. ”

“ Select a good bright, clean can about 21⁄2 inches in diameter; a baking powder can or a small soup can will do.
Tin cans are usually made up in two ways. One method is to solder on flanged ends, such as condensed or evaporated milk cans, and the other method is to roll the edges of the can together at each end, using no solder. When looked at closely, the two different types of can are easily told apart. A rolled rim can should be used for the biscuit cutter as it is stronger than the can with the soldered ends. ”

“ Enough of the copper should be in contact with the tin to be soldered for the heat to flow quickly into the tin, see Fig. 18. Do not merely touch the point of the copper to the joint and expect it to heat that joint: it won’t. Two faces of the point of the copper should rest against the parts of the work to be soldered, thus transmitting heat to the pieces as shown in Fig. 19. If too much of the point is allowed to come in contact with the work, the solder will be smeared over the work in a broad unnecessary stream. ”

“ The tinning will last much longer on the copper if it is dipped occasionally into the soldering paste or acid while hot. This is particularly true if the copper has been a bit overheated.
When the tinning shows signs of wearing off and the copper does not pick up solder readily, it must be retinned, filed, fluxed, heated, and rubbed on the solder which has been put on the tin first used for this purpose. This piece of tin should be kept about the bench, as the copper will have to be retinned frequently. Always remember that the copper will not carry solder to the work unless it is well tinned. ”

“ When painting a large model, such as an army truck, and not being quite sure of the quantity of paint needed, mix up enough paint to paint all the parts of the model that show the most and leave such parts as the bottom of the frame and the inside of the body until last. ”

“ A one-gallon fruit or vegetable can makes up into a very useful pail. Use a can opener to cut away the remaining tin of the lid but take care not to mar the rim of the can. Rolled rim cans make the best pails.
When the lid is cut away a jagged edge usually remains near the rim and this must be trimmed away and the remaining tin hammered down close to the rim. If more than 1⁄4 inch of the tin of the can lid remains next to the rim of the can it should be trimmed away with the metal shears until a strip of tin remains next to the rim about 1⁄4 inch wide. ”

“ Tin toys may be baked in an oven when they are freshly painted. The baking dries the enamel paint very quickly and tends to make the paint dry very hard and smooth. The baking oven of a coal or gas range will do very well for the baking, but be very sure that the oven is not too hot, as a hot oven will cause the solder to melt and the toys to fall apart. It is better to leave the oven door opened slightly when baking the painted toys over a slow fire. ”

“ Almost everyone has purchased a small soldering outfit at one time or another and tried to solder [61] the family wash-boiler or some leaky tinware; usually without success. Such outfits are invariably too small for large work or for the tin can toys.
It must be well remembered that the heat flows from the copper into the work, and that the copper has to heat up the work to the melting point of the solder; hence a large copper weighing several pounds is used to solder wash-boilers, tin roofs, etc., and a small copper weighing a few ounces is used for soldering jewelry, etc. ”

“ Solder will not adhere to oxidized metal. The metal must be protected with a coating called a flux while being soldered. Soldering paste, soldering fluid or “killed acid,” resin, paraffin, heavy oils, and vaseline all serve as fluxes, some better than others. The soldering paste is by far the best, as will be shown later.
Soft solder is applied to the tin, on the point of a hot soldering copper, often wrongly called a “soldering iron.” A soldering copper consists of a pointed bar of copper suitably fixed to an iron shank which is firmly set in a wooden handle. ”

“ I have found it quite possible to make many decorative things from tin cans, and for some years I have made lanterns, candlesticks, sconces and trays of all kinds. The shape of the cans themselves lends them to decoration when assembled by a person having a sense of design and proportion. ”

“ The Flat Iron Anvil.—An old flat iron, the kind with the handle attached, may be found about almost any household. The handle should be broken off as close to the top of the iron as possible. Use a hammer and cold chisel for this and cut the handle ends deeply all around where they join the iron. When they are deeply nicked, several sharp blows from a large hammer should break the handle away.
File away all roughness until the iron will set level with the smooth or ironing face uppermost. Then you have an excellent flat hard surface for straightening out tin or wire. ”

“ Car wheels may be made from very small cans as any other tin can wheels are made. Two bottle caps may be soldered together for a wheel or several flat disks of tin may be cut and soldered together at the edges to form a wheel. The tin washers used with roofing nails make an excellent wheel when two are soldered together, back to back. Never try to use a single can lid, bottle cap or tin disk for a wheel that is to bear any weight. ”

“ If the tin is bright and clean, it need not be scraped at the joint where the solder is to go. Rusty spots should be scraped bright if in the path of the solder. Paper, labels or paint must be cleaned away. If a can has been well rinsed with hot water when the contents are emptied, it will present no difficulties to the soldering, but a can that has been emptied but not rinsed presents a more difficult surface to solder ”

“ There is nothing weak or flimsy about a well-made tin can toy. A strip of flat tin is very easily [4] bent; if that same strip of tin is bent at right angles through its whole length, like the angle iron encountered in structural iron work, it will be found to be remarkably stiff. ”

“ When scraping the tin bright, do not scrape it so hard that all the tin will be scraped away from the inner sheet of iron, as solder will stick to tin much better than to iron. If the tin is not very dirty, a piece of emery cloth or sand paper may be used to clean the joint.
Paint cans, cans that have contained stove blacking, rubber cement, varnish, shellac, etc., should be thoroughly boiled in a strong lye bath before soldering; paint is usually made of oxides and oxides are a sure preventive of soldering. ”

“ To have formed up a hood of this sort from a plain sheet of metal would have taken far more skill than the average tinker is likely to possess, but you have it ready made in the can, and this is the whole idea of tin can toy building.
Less than half of a rectangular two-quart can used for a certain cooking oil makes up into a truck body so like the bodies on the real trucks that it would be difficult to find or make one more like them. ”

“ The paddle wheels are made from small cans exactly in the same way as the auto truck wheels and eight small square pieces of tin are soldered to the circumference of each wheel for paddles. Rolled strips of tin are placed on the axles between the wheels and the cabins for washers. The axle should revolve very freely in the axle holes.
If one has some mechanical ability it is not very difficult to form a crank in the paddle wheel axle and attach a connecting rod to a small tin walking beam which will move up and down as the paddle wheels revolve. ”

“ But the making of tin can toys is by no means limited to hospitals and schools. Any one who cares to tinker, to handle tools, to use up waste materials, may find pleasure and profit from assembling tin cans and parts of them. ”

“ The rivets are usually made with a flat or rounded head attached to a short cylindrical shaft or shank. A hole is punched through each piece of metal to be joined. The pieces of metal are placed together so that the holes are in line and a rivet shank slipped through these holes. The head of the rivet is then rested on a flat iron or steel anvil and the headless end is hammered over until it forms into a second head and thus holds the two pieces of metal tightly together.
The pail offers a very simple problem in riveting [101] and it is very easy to make a substantial pail from a tin can. ”

“ In actual practice, it has been found that a copper weighing one pound is best. After one gets more adept with the copper, it will be found advantageous to have several coppers of different weights. A half pound and also a four ounce copper will be found very convenient for extremely small work. But, do not begin to solder with a copper weighing less than one pound. ”

“ A flat piece of tin may be used for the bottom of the car, this piece being formed in exactly the same way that the frame of the auto truck is formed. It is made long enough to allow for a platform at each end of the car, and the car body is soldered securely to it. ”

“ Do not try to turn the tin down at a right angle at once or in one place and then proceed to turn it down at another, but rather hammer lightly along the whole length at the marking line, turning the tin down at a slight angle from the line to the edge and then going back and starting to hammer where you began, turning the tin down at a greater angle and so on until you have turned the edge at right angles as shown in Fig. 11, b. Always bend tin over very gently and evenly, never forcing it violently into place. ”

“ A toy tin can kitchen made by author. The body of the range is made of a biscuit box. The draught door is made of the top of a pepper box, with sifter top. The ash door is made of the bottom of a pepper box. The oven door is made of the hinged tin lid of a little cigar box. The stove lids are made of can lids. The door handles are rivets. The range boiler is made of a long can; pipes are made of wire. ”

“ Electrical coppers do not need as much attention as an ordinary copper for the even heat supplied by the current keeps the copper heated to the flowing point of the solder and is incapable of heating beyond this temperature. ”

“ Aside from the pleasure derived from the actual making of tin can toys, perhaps the greatest [7] satisfaction lies in the fact that you are using material usually thrown away—making something out of nothing. ”

“ A hole should be punched at this point large enough to admit the iron rod or piece of heavy wire that is to be used for the spike on which to mount the weathervane. A second hole is punched directly above the first one; this hole is considerably smaller than the hole beneath it. The top of the iron spike that supports the aeroplane weathervane is filed down to a smaller diameter so that when the spike is pushed through the larger hole the smaller or filed part of the spike will go through the hole in the upper part of the fuselage. ”

“ The hot copper, charged with solder, is passed slowly along the joint and as the tin to be soldered receives enough heat from the copper, the solder leaves the copper and adheres to the tin, firmly uniting it. ”

“ Electrical Soldering Coppers.—The electrically heated copper is ideal for soldering as the heating coil is enclosed within the copper itself, the wire running out through the handle and connecting with an ordinary electric light socket. The heat is maintained at a proper degree for melting the solder; hence it is an ideal equipment for those who can afford it and where electric current is available. The doctors of certain hospitals have recommended electrical coppers for the use of patients in making tin can toys. ”