Line Mar Match Box Construction 070 - Signal

I found a Line Mar Match Box Construction Set from the 1930s, complete and with instructions. The box claimed the set made 100 different toys. I decided to test that claim -- one toy at a time. You can read all the posts for the Line Mar construction project at 100 Toys.

070. Signal

Although the instruction sheet calls this model a signal, I'd consider it more of a semaphore. The picture shows a signal arm and lever linked by a taut piece of string (or thread). 

Well, compromises needed to be made. There's no way the fragile construction below could stay assembled if there was any stress added to it. So I went with wire instead of a string. 

 The cool thing about this build was that it possibly could have worked. At left is a detail of the lever. The original illustration is a little blurred, but it was possible to have a lever that rotated on an axle.

And it was also possible to build the signal arm so that it, too, would rotate. The problem was that there was nothing to hold back either the arm or the lever.

The fiberboard collars didn't grip the pieces tight enough to offer any resistance to the wire.

If you look closely, you'll see that only the top of the base is preventing the level from being pulled all the way up.

That wire is also keeping the signal arm in place.

When I tried, ever-so-gently to push down on the arm, the support post gave way. It's built of two long dowels joined together by a wooden collar. And the collar doesn't hold them together very well.

If you look closely at the photo, you'll see where I used clear tape to thicken the diameter of the dowels. It did prevent the collar from sliding down, but it was never a very solid joint.

I used wooden discs on the top and bottom of the dowels to add additional support, but it still wasn't enough. This toy works as a static display. But the first time I tried to signal with it, it signaled the end of the piece.