Woodworkers Came, Sawed, Assembled

Henry Ford has nothing on the San Fernando Valley Woodworkers, a volunteer group that builds hundreds of wooden toys in a single day and then gives them to poor Native American children across the country.

Some 30 woodworkers gathered at a Pierce College workshop Saturday to build 150 toy helicopters that will be distributed along with food, clothes, school supplies and blankets to needy children by Walking Shield American Indian Society, a social service agency based in Los Angeles.

“There is a certain satisfaction that comes from working with wood, and in helping some child that may not get a toy,” said Mac Pace, a retired machinist and group president.

For eight hours, woodworkers stood shoulder-to-shoulder sawing wood and affixing parts to the miniature choppers that moved down an assembly line.

The daylong building project was the culmination of numerous planning sessions that began in January. Group members met and agreed to build a helicopter and determined the necessary materials and tools, Pace said.

Unlike toys made from kits where all the parts are uniformly machine cut and ready to assemble, woodworkers had to make fixtures to modify power tools so that they would cut the wood according to the group’s design.

“We designed the [fixtures] so that the tools would accurately repeat the design of the helicopter’s parts,” Pace said. “We had a dry run and made two or three prototypes” to make sure they were on the right track.

Group members have all levels of woodworking experience, Pace said. Some are professional carpenters, machinists, furniture builders, guitar makers and construction workers while others are dentists, pharmacists and physicians who are weekend hobbyists.

“These are not plastic toys that will easily break,” Pace said. “They are made of solid wood and can be passed down from generation to generation.”