Tom Sanders- Exceptional Model Rebuilder

Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Sunny with Clouds,
17 Celsius / 63 Fahrenheit

Mr. Tom Sanders

Exceptional Model Rebuilder

   I've written about Mr. Tom Sanders several times.He's an exceptional and skilled model maker, who does custom work for people wanting a specify model toy. He's also very kind when he sends me images for a blog, without my having asked.

Below is Tom's logo and the name of his company - Sandman Overhaul.

Please press here to visit Tom Sander's website

Many of Tom's clients ask him to make customized models. These people usually have fond memories of their father or mother, or are just interested in having a special model customized for them. Today's post presents  the yellow airplane, a Marx pressed steel toy, that would become the start for the B-17D z 14 airplane. This particular airplane was piloted by the customer's father when the father was stationed in the Philippines during WWII.

Below is the Marx airplane that the client sent to Tom for transformation into the airplane above.

Tom has an extensive library of reference books to which he refers to for accuracy in making his new designs for clients.

You can see just how much work has to go into making a totally different model airplane from the model that Tom received from his client. He uses different skills to manufacture parts for the new model. He cuts pressed steel, contours (shapes) the parts with a hammer, wells the new parts to the body with a welder, sands and polishes the bare metal, and finally he  custom paints the body to a beautiful finish.

 Below is the finished model in all of its' glory and beauty. It's truly amazing how Tom is able to remake a model airplane from the beginning, and I'm sure his clients are always thankful to receive their new models with their fond memories of their parents or friends who would have flown the "real" airplane.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as usual ,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Tom Sanders Welcomes In the New Year

Monday, January 1, 2015
Overcast,milder, and flurries later in the day

Tom Sanders 

Welcomes in the New Year

  I received a nice year end  e-mail from Mr. tom Sanders wishing me a Healthy and Happy New Year. He had send me a step-by-step series of photos from one of his latest projects.   THe writing is yellow is from Tom.

Here’s hoping you had a great Christmas (no coal in your stocking) and you are getting ready to enjoy New Years! BTW, do you see and of the Northern Lights this time of year?

   What's interesting is to read what Tom write below. It's his knowledge of highway laws of the 1950's. Obviously he's working on a project that requires accuracy. I would never have known that  there were combination  truck s had I not read what Tom wrote. COme to think of it, I rarely see these "douyb;le-haulers up here in Quebec, not that I travels much! And of course,everyone who has seen photos of those long haulers in Australia will know that these trucks sometimes even haul a combination of 3 trucks behind them!

I am in a holding pattern on the COE Beer Truck project so, since idle minds are the devil’s workshop, I decided to start my next project. This one will be duplicating a Tootsietoy overhaul that I did about a year ago. This will be another one-off assembly creating a specialized “west-coast” hauler from the 1950’s. The west coast had different DOT highway laws and were not so strict as those east of the Mississippi. They allowed longer combinations and that is what this semi-truck double will represent.

To begin, I had found a Tootsietoy Mack L dump truck that had lost its dump body. The chassis is longer on these to accommodate the longer dump body. At one time Tootsietoy considered a modified tractor to this format but it was probably not pursued due to the cost of production. Based on the prototype that I once owned, the concept was valid if the truck either had a longer trailer or that it pulled two of the standard trailers already in production. I chose to follow the second option which was easier to accomplish. The majority of the mods have to do with the tractor. It involves building a new “sub frame” and 5^th wheel assembly along with extra wheels and axles.

Tom Sanders

Please click here to visit Tom Sanders interesting website

 In the attached picture above:

1)      I first started a layout with measurements to fit two sets of drive axles where there was only one.

2)      Here I jumped to a point where a pair of 1/32” thick brass side-plate sheets, 

two axle tubes and a 5^th wheel plate were soldered in place.

3)      This side view verifies the spacing of the two axles.

4)      Now the 5^th wheel is soldered to the chassis plate

5)      This is a view of the tractor complete and ready for paint.

6)      Here it is mocked-up with one trailer

7)      Then mocked-up with two trailers.

8)      Front ¾ view

9)      Rear ¾ view

Ultimately, I hope the truck resembles the original prototype that 

looked like the pictures in 8 & 9 (above 2 photos)

This certainly was a nice presentation to start off the new year, 

and most of the text and of course the nice photos and content were Tom's.

It's a "lazy day" for me today, and I'm going to the local gym to work out It opens at noon today,and I want to start exercising in the new year. I had dizzy spells for the last 2 years, and the GP (general practitioner  and the specialist (neurologist)  said that I had vertigo. Mysteriously, on November 2,when I was in Ottawa with my wife, my ear bled, and I smashed my nose with a hair dryer. At that time the dizziness went away. So I said I would start exercising again. At that point I exercised for 2 days!

So I'm back to "normal" now, but the neurologist specialist is sending me to neuro-otologist  - a higher specialist to test my hearing and see what the specialist can see.

It's just like the fine toys Tom  makes. You have to move up the ladder to find the specialist to do the job properly. Hopefully, I won' be going above the neuro-otologist - and I don't think there are higher specialist at that point!

So to everyone who reads this post, 

I want to wish all of the people who have helped with me my blog, and of course

all of the people who drop by to see what I write.

Have a great day, wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Sandman's Fine Overhaul

Monday, December 15,2014
Mostly sunny,windy, and cold from the wind

The Sandman's Fine Overhaul

   Yesterday's post was about Mr. Tom Sander's photography, and as I promised, I said that I would present his overhaul of the truck that I presented then. Tom's company name is Sandman Overhaul, hence "the play of words" in today's title. Tom takes old toys and customizes them for special orders from clients or on  his own initiative with nicely thought out ideas. I've written about Tom and his fine restorations-overhaul many times, and it's always fascinating to see what can be done when you have talent combined with knowledge and experience.

Please click here to visit this very interesting website

You can see how much work is involved when you see the two truck cabs below. 

Tom removes all of the old original paint, smoothes out the surfaces if needed, 

then adds probably primer-sealer undercoats and then the final paint colours.

Below are some of the ingenious ways that Tom improvises to provide overhaul details 

to his fine truck restoration and customization.

Below is a small stainless steel cut that Tom cuts carefully 

to add a nicely-rounded rear tractor fender

I haven't still-fished in years, so I  was wondering what had replaced lead sinkers, and now I know!

Brass sinkers.  Tom carefully cuts them to proper size and proportion, and then mounts them to 

the font, et voila (French for and here it is) headlights!

Ingenious!

And for those fine tall exhausts/mufflers you can see how Tom uses 2 separate pieces for each smokestack. The inner brass-coloured tube is the support, for the outer  silver-toned steel pipe.

I didn' want to  write too much since as the old expression goes:

"A picture is worth a thousand words".

Tom's photos are in fact worth a whole chapter go 20,000 words, but this is

a blog post, and not a book, and I don't think you wanted a book!

Thanks Tom for helping with the illustrative photos to explain what you do.

I couldn't have written it that good!

Thanks for dropping by,and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Mr. Tom Sanders Answers His Own Question

Tuesday, October 20, 2014
Sunny and seasonally cold

Mr. Tom Sanders 

Answers His Own Question

   I can't believe how long time flies! I've written several posts above today's guest - Mr. Tom Sanders, and when I went to check my posts, it was August 1, 2012 that I first added a post about Tom. we'd communicated earlier than that as I read on that post, but  that was his first post. It seems like 10 years have gone by, rather than a mere 26 months! Tom is a "specialist" in the world of toys. He restores and even customizes old toys to their spender and glory of yesteryear. He has built his own model airplanes that actually fly, and he also like a to restore old toys and to customize them to special order from clients who have fond memories of toys of old. However his "regular" job is in marketing.

   Tom had written me several weeks ago asking if I know if the Lincoln toy company ( A Canadian company) had ever manufactured an airplane. I searched, but not long enough, and couldn't find an answer.  A few days ago, I received another  e-mail from Tom. He had found the answer to his own question with citations to boot! He's working on a Lincoln airplane to restore it, and sent me accompanying photos in his recent e-mail.  So that's what today's post is about.

That's Tom's trademarked logo. It's exceptionally thought out, and I'll have to ask him 

if he paid an artist for the design or he thought it up himself.

Please click here to visit this toy restorer extraordinaire!

The images that Tom sent are small-sized, so I  couldn't enlarge them. I didn't want to ask Tom for larger images because he has lots of work to do. However, you can get a good idea of his work on his website.

When Tom wrote me the first time about the Lincoln, he mentioned how the Lincoln airplane resembled a hybrid between a Marx and a Wyandotte airplane. For those who don;t know, both of these brands were American,and Wyandotte had  a "style" of making their trucks, cars, and airplanes "pudgy", but with the word "pudgy" I'm writing that in a very positive way!

When you see a Wyandotte toy, you know immediately what it is!

Below though is a true Lincoln!

It's a pressed steel toy. What I am always fascinated with, with regard to pressed steel toys is how the designers and model-makers would know where to cut the pressed steel in order for the press to bend the sheet metal into the shape of the toy, and not tear the steel.

If you look at the last photo of the page, you will see a cut on the side of the airplane body. Without such a cut, the sheet metal would rip under the heavy weight of the pressing machines.

TCA or Trans-Canada Airlines was the original Canadian airline to start in Canada, Eventually, it would become Air Canada. We used to have Canadian Pacific airlines, but it merged with Air Canada. The industry in Canada is extremely tough. Canada is the second largest country in the world with only about 35 million people, so flying people around the country is very costly!  We have fine regional and trans-oceanic airlines as well such as Westjet, Porter, and several others.

Not only did Tom answer his own question, but he found a reference to share:
http://www.walkervilletimes.com/lincoln.htm

I left the reference exactly as is  since the reference is a newspaper - it's easier that way.


Below is  an unrestored airplane from 1946 that Tom has.

Below are photos of Tom's restoration that is still in progress. The reason for the nail running through the front wheel is for allowing the paint to dry and cure properly. Tom must hang the airplane to dry somewhere.

I don't know if blogger writers are supposed to be more objective (no opinion) than subjective?

In writing a blog, I try to be subjective, but sometimes I do add emotion and opinion to the blog.I guess, being my own boss, allows me the latitude to do so!

What I wanted to say, is that it's great to see clients of Tom asking for old toys to be customized or restored to their original condition or modified to a condition not seen in decades. 

I just got back my father's old watch that I had asked a jeweller here in Montreal to restore. It was a Longines watch from the 1940's. The protective crystal was replaced with a plastic one, since the original one was also made of some sort of clear material, but not glass. I also changed the expandable metal watchband to leather.I'm sure the restoration cost more than the value of the watch if I were to try and sell it, but it belonged to my father, 

and some things, you just can't place a value on!

Thanks for dropping by for a visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

Please feel free to write me anytime at:

Toysearcher@gmail.com