Tumble Down the Ladder Wooden Toy

As a mother of 5 lively boys of ages 0-15, I think it's safe to say that toys are my wheelhouse. In fact, most of the stuff I make are toys (wooden toys, sensorial toys, quiet books, plushies... you name it!). And THIS is one of the coolest toys I have ever made - if not my all-time fave. I mean: it's cute, it's entertaining, it's a way to make good use of your wood scraps, it's a physics lesson disguised as a toy and there's something really soothing about watching that little fellow tumble down the ladder. (TBH I'm surprised that no one ever posted this Instructable before🤔)

Enough said - let's start.

Materials

• Wood: 1 piece of 7.5 x 4 x 2 cm (3 x 1.6 x 0.8 inch) for the tumbler + 1 piece of approx.10x15cm (4x6 in) for the base
• Split wooden rods (4 halves) - length of 55cm / 22 in
• 8 popsicle sticks (about 7mm / 0.3in wide)*
• Glue (super glue & wood glue)
• Acrylic paint (optional)

As for tools:

• Scroll saw
• Drill
• Rasp / File / Sanding paper
• Clamps
• pencil & ruler

I'm assuming you already cut your rectangular little block of wood for the tumbler according to the measurements above, in which case our first step will be to mark & drill 2 parallel holes from side to side, as shown on picture #1 (I apologize to the American folks; I'm used to the metric system). 

*Now, an important note about the drill bit size: You want your holes to be slightly larger than you popsicles sticks (width), so if you're using 7mm-wide sticks, a 8mm bit will suffice. But if your sticks are wider, you'll need to drill a larger hole (but make sure you're left with a solid wood structure around the holes, i.e., if your holes are larger than 11mm, then better to use a thicker wood block than the proposed 2cm depth)

Cut 2 openings along the red lines as shown on the above illustration - you can use a scroll saw, hand saw, band saw or whatever works best for you. These perpendicular notches should be just wide enough for the popsicle stick to go through without any resistance, so after cutting out those slices use a file and/or sanding paper to widen the opening, and smooth it out. Take a stick and do the test, and repeat the filing step as many times as necessary until you can slide the popsicle stick through the cracks easily.

Now it's time to draw your little tumber. Choose a shape that can fill most of the surface of your wood. (It can be a monkey, a clown... anything you want, really). If you don't know how to draw, take some printable character from the internet that will fit into 7.5x4cm and use some carbon paper to copy it over your piece of wood.

Then proceed to cut its contour.

After sanding it out, I used my set of acrylic paint markers (which I LOVE and totally recommend) to bring it to life.

Then I spray some acrylic spray sealer, cuz, you know - I want this toy to last...

On the inner side of one of the split rods, mark a line 9cm from one end, and then mark every 6cm from that first line (you should have a total of 8 markings).

Align it with another split rod, and trace the markings on it to match the first.

Now it's time for the super glue: Glue the popsicles sticks on the marks (making sure the rods are parallelly aligned).

And then, with the wood glue, glue the other 2 halves on top of the first rods, sandwiching the extremities of the sticks. Clamp it and leave it to dry overnight.

There are many different ways to build the ladder, and most will work just fine. The important thing is to follow the spacing instructions between the sticks (your ladder should have a distance of 6cm between each step), and make sure they are well aligned.

If your sticks are well aligned, your tumbler should be able to somersault on the stick axis, and will have no other way to go but onto the next stick, and so on. Once it begins its motion (initial energy to propel it forward), you can actually tilt the ladder and watch your tumbler "defying gravity"! (see embedded video below)

On my first attempt I had planned to use cylindrical split rods, and jumped ahead and drilled holes in the base with that in mind. But then midways I changed my mind and decided to make use of some leftover skirting boards-like rods... which are quadrangular. I mean- You can fit squares into circles, but I think the best way of doing this step would be to hold your ladder on the base, mark around its legs, and then gouge it out. And if your ladder legs are quadrangular - I suggest using a chisel, Dremel, or hand router for that.

And then attach your ladder firmly into the base (with wood glue).

I think the idea of using rainbow-colored sticks instead of plain unpainted ones made my staircase so much funner! (is that a word?) Too bad I didn't cut the base in the shape of a cloud... Maybe next time.🌈☁️