Secure mounting of toys to Spanker Machine

 

 I wish all of my readers a very prosperous 2023 in good health!

 

It has been a while since posting my last communication on the use of Spanker Machine. The last major fix to Spanker Machine was made from the producers choosing harder material for the half-moon couplers. I have not experienced a single problem with these since.

Another annoying problem however is the less than ideal mounting platform provided for toys. A difficult problem because toys come with grips of varying sizes and shapes. Particularly implements with slim handles such as canes which do not have same sort of knob or other thickness at the end of the grip are hard to mount. Without a kind of increasing thickness at its end, the implement will slip out of its mount and fly through the room because of the centrifugal forces acting on them. Recently, I hit on a way for a secure fix of any toy using both the flat bottom platform and the corresponding flat top piece coming with Spanker Machine.

 

Black Top piece with screw

You see the screw sticking out of the black plate. I have drilled a hole through the middle of the plate. It is actually in the exact middle and 1,2 mm away from the small end of the plate. The hole should be wide enough for a thin screw or nail to pass through. The screw I am using is 3 cm in length.

In the present example toy, the implement (loop) has a grip with an integrated hole already. Otherwise drill one yourself through the grip. It should be 1,2 mm from the end at least.

 

A small hole at the end of the handle

In the bottom plate you see a rectangular deepening. If you stick a nail or screw through the top plate hole, the hole in the grip of the toy and right into the deepening of the bottom plate, the screw or nail will hold the implement between top plate and bottom plate. The top plate with the toy is held securely by the two screws in sticking out of the bottom plate.

 See the rectangle hole

The only additional thing you have to do is drilling a hole into the toy if there isn’t any, and you have a solid fix for any implement. It cannot slip out of its mount anymore.

 

                                                       See the complete mount 

That leaves us with a final problem, the toy sagging downward within the mount following gravity.

 

Foto of the loop sagging

You can buy any amount of special add-ons replacing the flat top plate. They all must have two holes for the screws of the mounting platform and will help holding an implement to a degree.

 

You can buy half moons for each toy, but that is too costly

But a firm hold in a straight position will only be possible with toys that have a fairly thick grip. Particularly canes, crops and the likes without a thick grip are difficult to be held straight in place easily.

There are two possible solutions:

·    Purchase a conical wooden grip in a household ware shop. Drill a hole into the end and glue your cane into it. No slip anymore and no sagging when fixed with one of the half moon pieces.

 Handles like that can be bought

  

·   Buy a tape for tennis racket grips. They come as sticky bands to be wound around the handle for better grip. They will do perfectly for any slim toy. However to buy one for each cane etc. will cost you.

I am using pieces of leather to stuff into the free space between lower screw of the toy holder and the grip of the toy. It usually is tight enough to prevent the implement to follow gravity J.

8-   

   Birds view of leather roll stuffed into free space

 

It is essential to tighten the “wings screw” on the side pointing to the floor much more down than the “wings screw” pointing upward. That way, the implement is at least partly prevented from sagging in its mount. The piece of leather or any other stuffing into the gap between screw and implement will keep it straight and firmly in place.