My son’s first loose tooth was *that close* to coming out, and we wanted something special to give him for it.  We’re not the type to start introducing money just yet.  We’re still fostering his creativity and imagination.   He has the rest of his life to covet the almighty dollar – why not give him as much time as possible without that soul sucking force?

So I bought a nice piece of walnut from a woodworking store, borrowed the neighbors band saw, and made this Tooth Fairy box.

I hand sanded it and rubbed the whole thing down with a beeswax finish to give it that deep color.  Within there’s a slot to place the tooth:

…which the Fairy replaces with a magic bead to be used in crafting.  That circle you see is the remains of my attempt to fuse the top and bottom on a swivel dowel.  I was unhappy with the results, so I lopped it apart, sanded it all down, and bought the hinge and clasp at the local hardware store.  I like the result much better than the dowel idea.

I’m pleased with it as a first attempt.  I really want my next house to have a proper workshop so I can begin to slowly amass all the fun tools I’d like to have for projects like this.

Some wonderful people gave us this ancient, indestructible White sewing machine/treadle.

We got it tuned up and it’s ready to roll.  We found the crumbling manual in one of its drawers.  After searching in vain for a digital copy of it, I scanned what we have.  I love the art in these old manuals:

The entire manual, such as it is, can be downloaded here in PDF format.