Line Mar Match Box Construction 059 - Timber Swing

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.

059. Timber Swing

I today we might call this a see-saw. In any event, the illustrator took a lot of artistic license with this instruction drawing -- and it should have been revoked.

The biggest problem was with the dowel rods. The building kit has two lengths of dowels. Neither length matched those depicted for the pillars. The shorter rods didn't even touch the bottom of the open compartment. The longer ones did secure the pillars to the base, but were anything but flush with the top.

The other problem was in the fulcrum. I couldn't use a long dowel -- the two dowels in the pillars didn't allow enough room. The short dowel worked, but just barely. There was at most only 1/16" of the dowel inside each pillar to support the assembly.

And inside the fulcrum was another issue. The fiberboard collars were too weak to fully support the dowels with the (relatively) heavy seats at the ends. If I could have joined them inside the fulcrum with a wooden collar, they might have been more stable. But I couldn't do that and have a dowel for the fulcrum to pivot on -- they both occupied the same space.

So below is as close as I could get to the original instruction illustration.