User:RRabbit42/Perry the Piggy Bank

Build your own Perry the Piggy Bank

Phineas and Ferb come up with something great to do every day. Most of these would be difficult, if not impossible, for us to duplicate. But recently they made a toy that was based on their pet platypus. Making that kind of toy is within the realm of possibility for you and I.

Here's how I made my own Perry the Piggy Bank. It started as just a replica of Perry the Inaction Figure from "Toy to the World", but quickly became something more. You'll learn what I did, the things I shouldn't have done, and see some recommendations for how to make your Perry the Piggy Bank better than mine.

The overall dimensions are about 19" (48.2 cm) from snout to tail, 4" (10 cm) tall and 3.5" wide (9 cm).

Disclaimers and warnings
This project involves woodworking and using both hand tools and power tools. The following warnings apply:


 * Do not use any hand tools or power tools without the help of an adult and proper training on those tools. If you have any doubts about your ability to use the tools, let the adult do it.
 * Always wear eye protection and hearing protection.
 * A dust mask is recommended when sanding.

Disclaimers:


 * Perry the Platypus Inaction Figure was created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. I do not own this design. These instructions are provided for use as a hobby only.
 * I am not responsible for any injuries that may occur during the construction of this piggy bank. Make sure you have the help of an adult.
 * This piggy bank is made from wood and covered with enamel paint. Do not let any young children or animals chew on it.
 * Please do not ask me to make one of these for you. At the present time I do not have the right tools to do this on a regular basis.
 * Exotic backgrounds not included.

Materials
You will need the following:


 * Wood. See below.
 * 1 1/2" wooden knobs (38 mm diameter) - Darice #9104
 * Cork stopper, 1 1/8" (29 mm) diameter at the top - found in Darice value pack #P10980-1
 * Wood dowels. If purchasing the Darice knobs, you will need dowels that are 3/16" in diameter. - Norcon Industries #12316
 * Strong wood glue.
 * FrogTape painter's tape.
 * Cardboard
 * Mechanical pencil with a good eraser that doesn't smear
 * Brass wood screws: #6 flat Phillips, 1" long (M3.5 x 25.4); quantity: 4
 * Nails - panel nails, white, 16GA x 1" (the smaller the head of the nail, the better)
 * White paint: Testors spray paint, flat white #1258 (link shows the color)
 * Teal-like paint: Testors "Colors by Boyd" spray paint, Pacific Blue #52905
 * Black paint: Testors, flat black #1149 (standard paint, not spray paint)
 * Tangerine-like paint: Tamiya Color spray paint, Brilliant Orange #TS-56
 * Darker orange paint: Testor Model Master Go Mango #2770 (standard paint, not spray paint)
 * Paint brushes and paint thinnner for cleaning.
 * Rope or cord to assist with painting
 * Optional: small cork pads or felt pads for the soles of the feet

Places like Joann Fabric and Craft Stores sell craft wood that is a uniform thickness and width. I chose basswood from Midwest Products. Basswood is soft enough that it can be cut with a utility knife and easily sanded. It is also light enough in color to let the grain of the wood shows through after enamel paint is applied.

You will need five of 3/16" thick x 3" wide (sheet #4305) and two of 1/4" thick x 4" wide (sheet #4406). Both are sold in 24" lengths (buy an extra board or two of each size just in case). Craft wood can also be found at home improvement stores, but the dimensions may be different. These directions are based on the dimensions of the Midwest Products products. (Metric dimensions: #4305 = 5 mm x 7.6 cm; #4406 = 6.5 mm x 10.2 cm; 24" = 61 cm)

In addition, if you have access to a table saw, you may opt to use thicker wood and cut it down to the size needed. There will be notes in the construction for alternate methods you can use if you have a table saw.

Tools

 * Circle template - Staedtler #977-110
 * Drill with the following bits: 3/16" (5 mm) and one that is smaller than the nails you selected (to be used for drilling pilot holes to prevent the wood from splitting).
 * Clamps with soft pads on the end, such as an Irwin Quick-Grip, 12" (305 mm) or longer. At least four is recommended. (If padded clamps are not available, use extra pieces of wood to act as the pads, to prevent the clamps from denting the project.)
 * Sandpaper sheets, 9" x 11" (229 mm x 279 mm), 180 grit, such as Norton 3X #02637
 * Alternative to sandpaper sheets: belt sander.


 * Other sanding materials, such as sanding sponges - 180 grit and 320 grit.
 * Steel ruler with metric and inch divisions
 * Hammer
 * Starter punch, 3/32" (2.5 mm) or smaller
 * Chisels (optional)
 * Utility knife
 * Narrow files
 * Phillips screwdriver (hand screwdriver, not powered)
 * Countersink drill bit #6, such as in Kobalt assortment #280540
 * 1" woodboring bit - Irwin Speedbor #88816
 * Hand saw, jig saw and/or table saw
 * Diagonal cutters strong enough to cut the nails you selected
 * Diagonal cutters strong enough to cut the nails you selected

Paint notes
I chose enamel spray paint primarily because there was a wide selection of colors available at my local hobby shop. I could have opted to use latex paint and have it custom-mixed at a home improvement store, but a test of the enamel spray paint showed that it allowed the grain of the wood to show through. This duplicated the look of how the Perry the Platypus Inaction Figure was made in "Toy to the World". Latex paint would not allow as much of the wood grain to show through (if at all).

When it came time to paint the tail, I had to use an alternate method. That's where the FrogTape came in, and I will explain its use at that point.

Wood filler
Because enamel spray paint is being used instead of latex paint, it is not recommended to use wood filler to repair any damage that occurs during assembly. Wood filler discolors the wood that it touches and this would show through the paint. You will need to sand any surfaces to remove such dents and gouges, or else make new pieces if the damage is deep enough.

Templates
The first step is to print out the templates, found in the "File:Perry the Piggy Bank parts.pdf" file. It is recommended to print it onto some cardstock so that the templates will be strong enough to trace onto the wood with the mechanical pencil. As noted in the file, you want to cut on the inside of the lines, not the outside.

When printing, turn off any scaling or "fit to page" options so that it prints at 100%. If you've printed it correctly, the widest part of the tail will be 4 inches across (10.2 cm), exactly the width of the larger craft board. The page should fit onto both US Letter size and European A4 size paper.

The bill and tail should be traced onto the 4" wide wood. The legs and bridge of the nose should be traced onto the 3" wide wood. The extra thickness of the 4" wide board will be required later.

To reduce the amount of cutting, line up the straight sections with the edges of the boards. The bill and the narrow end of the tail will be a little wider than the body. You will sand down these pieces to the correct widths once the body is assembled.

For the bridge of the nose, the diagonal section is slightly curved. It is not a straight line. The tips are also cut off slightly to prevent breakage later on.

For the legs, the heel is slightly rounded, and toes slope upward from the underside. The area above the plus sign should be as close to a circle as possible. The plus sign is used to mark the point where the wood screw will go in.

If you look at the second picture, you'll see that the two on the outside were gouged. I used a Dremel hand tool to do the cutting and it got away from me on a couple of occasions, damaging what I was cutting. I was able to salvage the foot on the left by sanding it down quite a bit.

Eyes
The wooden knobs are slightly larger than what is needed for Perry's eyes. Perry's eyes should protrude slightly out from his body. Using the knobs without cutting them would result in a really bug-eyed look.

To cut the eyes, you first need to trace a line around the knob at the point you want to cut it to. As seen in the first picture, cardboard can be used to create simple support frames. Put the circle template on the cardboard and set the knob down into the 1 3/8" (35 mm) outline.

To draw the line, press down on the top of the knob and hold the pencil tip against the knob, lined up with the template. Do not try to move the pencil around the outside of the knob. The line will not be even if you do this. Rotate the knob until a complete line is drawn, pressing it down as you turn it.

The wood the knobs are made out of is a much stronger wood than basswood. I used a padded clamp to securely hold the knob, then used a thick cutting disc with my Dremel tool to carve away enough of the material to get it close to the pencil line. After that, I used a sanding drum to fine-tune the sanding.

The last step was to sand it down to a flat surface. To achieve this, I took one of the sandpaper sheets and clamped it to my work surface. It was then just a matter of sanding it enough to get the knob to the right level. This is where a belt sander would have made things easier.

After it was done, I used the cutting blade to score a few grooves back into the flat surface. This gives the glue something to grip to during final assembly. You can see two simple grooves in the right-hand knob in picture #4.

Damaged pieces and uneven pupils
In the fifth picture, the knob on the right has a notch cut into it that goes past the line. This is an example of the Dremel tool trying to cut the way it wants to and I did not have a tight enough grip on it.

The final picture in this section shows the eyes after they have been completely painted. The first part of this was to put a dowell in the hole of the knob, then apply a layer of flat white spray paint. After that dried, the 11/16" (17.5 mm) hole of the circle template was put over the top of the knob. A mechanical pencil was used to draw a very light line around the hole. The pupil was then hand-painted onto that circle with the flat black paint.

It's okay if the pupil is not perfectly round or perfectly centered on the top of the knob. When Perry is in his "pet mode", he keeps his eyes off-center. You can just say it's part of Perry's disguise.

Body
After you get all the pieces cut as described in this section, do not assemble them at this time.

If you have a table saw and want to work with thicker wood, alternate cutting methods are described in the Table Saw section below.

Cutting the boards
Perry's body is a rectangular box, 3" x 3" x 9" (7.6 cm x 7.6 cm x 23 cm). These dimensions will make it a little larger than the Talking Perry Plush toy that the Disney Store sells (20" / 51 cm).

Because you will be using nails, screws and dowels to assemble the toy, the pieces need to be thicker than just one sheet of wood. Picture two shows how to cut the two boards before they are glued together. You will need four sets of these boards.

The bottom board is one of the 3/16" x 3" sheets cut to a 9" length. The top board is also cut from the same sheet, but needs to be a little smaller. The "B" width is so that when you assemble the four pieces into a box, they will overlap and give it a square shape.

Two times 3/16" is 6/16" (5/8" or 8 mm), which makes the top board 2 3/8" wide. You will actually want the board to be slightly wider so that you can sand it down to perfectly even later. Cut the board to 2 7/16" wide (62 mm).

The "A" width is to provide room for the end pieces where the bill and tail will be attached. As with the "B" width, you want to cut this slightly longer than you need. The length is 9" minus another 6/16", which would be 8 10/16". Add another 2/16" for sanding down later, which brings it to 8 12/16" (8 3/4" or 22.2 cm).

Since I was cutting these parts with hand tools (a jig saw and a metal straight edge, and the saw still wanted to wander), I needed to make sure the cut side was the same width for all four boards. Picture 4 shows how I achieved this.

Even sanding
I took the boards and lined them up so that the side that had been cut from the factory was on the bottom. I then took two other boards that were narrower (the ones with the bar code sticker on them in the picture) and centered them so that they didn't touch the bottom. The clamps were applied to secure the assembly, then the assembly was flipped over so that the edges I had cut were facing down. The clamps were moved one at a time so that they were on the new upper side, out of the way of the sanding. I set them so that the two clamps pointed in opposite directions to provide stability while sanding.

Picture 4 also shows the sanding sheet that I attached to the board with some other clamps. Since I don't have a belt sander, this was the simplest way to get a flat surface to sand with. The assembly was then sanded by running it back and forth across the sanding sheet until all four edges were even. By sanding four pieces together at once, you also get a better result at making sure you are not sanding on an angle.

Note: don't use sanding sponges to do this step. Sanding sponges wrap around the edges of the boards and will round them off. You want a straight edge. A belt sander or a sanding sheet clamped to a base will provide this.

Gluing
The final step is to glue the two pieces together. Line up the pieces so that the edge cut by the factory is even on both pieces. Use a scrap piece of wood to make sure that the "A" width is equal on both sides. (Refer to picture #2 above.)

Make sure you use enough clamps and clean up any glue that squeezes out from in between the boards. You may want to use scrap pieces of wood to help apply pressure evenly. Picture #5 shows a board that was not clamped properly at the end.

Scrap pieces of wood are required if you don't have padded clamps, since clamps without pads will dent the wood. If you do get dents in the wood, either sand them out or attribute them to battle scars earned while fighting Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

In general, you will need to allow the glue to dry for an entire day for it to cure properly.

Table Saw
If you have a table saw, you can cut the pieces differently.

The first method would be to take a piece of wood that is 5/8" thick (8 mm), cut it to 9" long. Next, set the depth of the saw blade so that it only cuts 3/16" deep. Run the wood through the saw, cutting enough away to equal the "A" width (just under 3/16") on both ends, and then the "B" width (just under 5/8") along one side.

The second method gives the body a much cleaner look and is shown in the picture to the right. A 45 degree cut will allow all four pieces to meet just at the corners, but will require more than just wood glue to hold them together. If you're skilled enough to cut the body panels with this method, then you already know that biscuits or nails should be used in assembly.

Piggy Bank
After the pieces for the body have been made, you will cut the holes that Perry the Playtpus Inaction Figure into Perry the Piggy Bank. I found that doing making it as a "Perry bank" solved a problem that came up later on. Naturally, if you had to glue the pieces together, you need to wait at least a day for the glue to fully dry before cutting the coin slots.

If you decide not to make this a piggy bank, you will need to develop your own method for attaching the rear end piece, described below.

Coin slot
The first step is to determine how large a coin you want to be able to put into your Perry the Piggy Bank. In the U.S., a quarter is just under 1 inch in diameter (25 mm), which means you will be able to put pennies, dimes, nickles and quarters in it. Anything larger, such as the new dollar coins will require cutting a larger hole, and the next size up is a 1 1/4" hole boring tool. If you opt to use a larger hole, make sure you have a cork that will fit it.

The second step is to dry-fit the four pieces together into a box. Use your pencil to mark which one will be the top and bottom pieces, and to mark the ends where the bill and tail will go on those two pieces.

The top piece is where the coin slot will be cut. It needs to be large enough to accept the coins and it needs to be centered. Refer to picture #1. The blue square shows a slot that is 1/8" by 1" (2 mm by 25.4 mm). Adjust the size of the slot if you want to be able to put in coins larger than a quarter.

When I cut the coin slot, I used too large of a drill bit and wound up with rounded ends to the slot. I picked up a carving bit for my Dremel late in the project and could have used that to cut a narrower slot with corners that would have been more square. Other ways to do this would have been to use the file or a coping saw to cut square corners.

Coin removal
The bottom piece is where the hole for coin removal will go. It needs to be an equal distance from the three sides closest to where the tail will be mounted.

Mark the center of the hole with the starter punch tool and a hammer. Next, drill a small pilot hole all the way through.

After the pilot hole has been drilled, use the wood boring tool to cut partially through the wood. Stop before you get all the way through. Flip the piece over and finish the cut from the other side. This will make the hole smoother and prevent the wood from splintering around the edges of the hole.

Next, use the quarter (or the largest coin you've decided to use) to make sure it fits through the hole. There won't be a lot of clearance between a quarter and the 1" hole you just drilled, so you may need to enlarge the hole slightly.

Finally, test fit the cork. You will probably want to cut a little bit off the narrower end so that it doesn't stick too far into the body. After it is the size you want, use the teal spray paint to paint the cork.

Interior painting
At this point, you should paint the sides of the body pieces that will face inward. This is so that when you look inside of it as you are removing coins, you won't see unfinished wood. If you aren't making a piggy bank, skip this step.

Apply masking tape around the edges before painting. This will ensure the surfaces where the glue will be applied will accept the glue better. Use the teal spray paint to apply a light coat of paint. After it dries, apply another light coat to even it out.

Cutting and gluing
If you look at the picture of Perry at the top of the page, you will see that there is a line running around the outside of the bill. This could be achieved by using a thicker piece of wood and painting the line, but unless you're skilled at pinstriping, this may not be the best method.

You also can get this line by gluing two pieces of wood together. Use the bill template you printed earlier to trace the bill onto two sheets. As mentioned before, you can save some cutting by lining the template up with two of the edges cut by the factory.

After the pieces have been cut, glue them together, using directions provided in the "Gluing" section of the Body area above.

Once the bill has finished drying, sand the left and right sides down so that the width is just slightly more than 3" across (7.6 cm). Dry-fit the pieces of the body back together to make sure the bill is the correct size. You will want the bill slightly larger than its final size to allow for changes when the body is finally assembled.

When sanding the curve of the bill, the very tip should be slightly flat. It could be a continuous curve if you like, but the images seen in "Toy to the World" indicate that it is slightly flat at the tip.

(In constructing the bill, I looked at the it and realized that I sanded the edges so smooth that the seam between the two pieces of wood disappeared. I then decided to leave it as is and not put that line back in.)

Bridge of the nose
Use the template to make the piece for the bridge of the nose. Make sure that the flat surfaces are at a 90 degree angle to each other. The diagonal side is not a straight line. It is curved slightly inward.

To attach the bridge to the bill, find the center line of the bill's width. Hold the bridge on that line, even with the flat edge of the bill. Drill a pilot hole, using a drill bit smaller than the nails you've selected. This will keep the wood from splitting when you drive in the nail. You may also need to cut a little bit off the length of the nail to keep it from poking out the underside of the bill.

I used two nails to attach the bridge to the bill. I used a spare piece of wood as a backstop before drilling the second hole to make sure the bill was straight and even with the end of the bill. I also used the starter punch to set the head of the nail down into the wood.

Sanding
Use the 320 grit sandpaper or sanding sponges to lightly sand both pieces and remove any rough edges. Try not to round off any of the corners. Wipe down the pieces to remove any sawdust that may remain.

Painting
Once the bill and bridge are assembled, use the tangerine spray paint to paint the surfaces, except for the surfaces that will rest against the body when the bill is mounted to it. Apply the paint in several light coats, allowing it to dry completely between coats.

I opted to not paint the line along the edge of the bill. If you choose to add this feature, refer to the section on painting the bill for advice on how to accomplish this.

Body assembly
Assemble the pieces of the body with glue (or other methods, as described above in the "Table Saw" section), and hold them together with clamps.

As with all times where you are gluing pieces together, you need to make sure you are using enough clamps to hold the pieces together evenly. If necessary, use some extra pieces of wood to apply pressure evenly across the board. See the "Even sanding" section above for a picture of wood that was not properly clamped together.

Before you tighten the clamps down all the way, measure the diagonal distance both direction on both ends. Both directions on both ends should be the same length, which will mean that the pieces are in a perfect square. If it's not, adjust the angle of the pieces until they are.

Glue strength
On the Perry the Piggy Bank I made, I conducted a quick test to check the strength of the glue holding the body together. I plugged up the open ends with some scrap wood, then filled the body with pennies. It seemed to be strong enough at that point, so I decided not to add any nails to supplement the glue holding the body together. Nails would be visible along Perry's body, and they would have to be placed in an uneven manner that wouldn't look right.

If you do opt to use nails, use nails with as small a head as you can find so they will be less visible. Drill a small pilot hole to prevent the wood from splitting when you drive in the nail.

In general, you probably should not add so many coins that Perry gets completely filled up. If it gets more than half way full, you should consider moving some of them to another piggy bank. Limiting how many coins you put in Perry will reduce the need to use supplemental nails.

Front end piece
The front end of the body is where the bill will attach. While the body assembly is drying, cut four squares. Two will be 2 3/8" (6.1 cm) on each side, and two will be 2" (5.1 cm) on each side. Both of these squares will be slightly larger than the interior. Once the body assembly is fully dried, you can take measurements and sand down the pieces to an exact fit. Dry-fit the pieces into place to make sure there are no gaps.

Next, take the smaller square and paint the side that will face the interior of the body with the teal spray paint. When this has dried, you can continue on with the next step.

At this point, you need to create the two-level end piece, similar to how you made the side panels. But if you glue the two pieces together first, they may not line up perfectly when you insert them into the body.

Another way to glue them together is to apply glue around the outside of the smaller square and fit it into place. Do not press it all the way. Next, apply some glue to the side facing outward and around the inner edges of the box. Insert the larger piece and press it into place.

To make sure both pieces are flush against each other, turn the body so that it is standing up on the side you just put the pieces into. Hold the body down and use a pole or other object to push down on the square end from the open end.

Rear end piece and tail slot
Initially, I made the rear end piece the same as the front. This is where having the hole for the coin removal comes in handy: I was able to reach in with my finger and make sure the end pieces are properly seated and flush against each other.

Things were going well up until I needed to cut the slot that the tail would fit into. Picture #4 shows what happens if you're not careful when you do this. I will describe what I did that lead up to breaking the end piece and how I had to fix it later.

But first, the measurements: in order to fit in the tail, the slot needs to be just over 1/4" wide (6.5 mm) and 1" deep (25 mm). You will need to make the slot slightly wider to allow for the paint that will be applied to the tail. The slot is 1" from the top of the body.

How not to cut the tail slot
When I went to cut the slot for the tail, I found that my Dremel tool didn't have enough clearance between the chuck and the cutting disc. I accidentally touched the wood with the chuck while it was turning and put some small dents into the wood. You can see one of those dents on the left corner of the picture above.

The next thing I tried was using a chisel to straighten out the edges of the slot. I succeeded in cracking the rear end piece, as seen in that same picture.

I still needed to finish cutting the slot along the sides. I used a smaller chisel to cut down into the slot... and hit the chisel too hard with the hammer, creating a crack along the body. Fortunately, when I took the chisel out, the rest of the body squeezed the crack back together and it wasn't visible any longer.

After that, it was apparent I needed to find a different way of cutting the tail slot. A coping saw and file helped get the slot straightened out and at the right width. (Later, I would find out that the slot needed to be a little wider because of the paint.)

The final step was to cut new end pieces to fit into the end, filing them down so they matched the slot.

How to cut the tail slot
It wasn't until started to write this that I remembered that I could have tried a regular hand saw to make the basic cuts. I still would have had to use a file and/or the coping saw to widen it to the right size, but maybe it would have been less work overall. If I had tried doing it this way, I would have needed to figure out a way to hold the body assembly securely with the clamps so that my hands would be out of the way in case the saw blade slipped.

Naturally, if you have a table saw, then you will be able to cut the tail slot much easier.

Sanding
Once the body is assembled, sand down all six sides until they are flush with each other. Painting the body will be done later.

Tail
Perry's tail is one of the easiest pieces to make, but requires some extra work for painting.

Cutting
Cut the tail from the 1/4" x 4" board. The semi-circle at the narrow end is to give some extra room for coins to be stored inside the piggy bank.

As mentioned at the beginning of these directions, the narrow end of the tail will be a little wider than the body. Test fit the tail into the slot. Use the mechanical pencil to mark how much the tail will need to be sanded so that the narrow end equals the width of the body

Painting
Use the tangerine spray paint to apply at least two coats of paint to the tail, letting it dry completely between coats.

The stripes on the tail vary from picture to picture as you're watching "Toy to the World", and those stripes are all different than Perry's real stripe pattern. I chose a simple design, which you can see in the first two pictures.

To create the stripe design, I applied the tape for one set of lines and spaced them about 1.5" (38 mm) apart. A slight gap between the rows is all I needed for the stripes. After the paint dried, I applied new rows of tape in a mirror of the first rows, then repeated this for the other side of the tail. If you look at the reference picture, you will see that the stripes do not go along the edge of the tail.

Tip: Lay one of the dowels on top of the tail even with the bottom of the stripe you're currently laying down. This will help make sure that the start and end of each stripe is lined on both sides.

FrogTape
Some of my early tests with doing the stripes were not very good because the paint seeped under the regular masking tape I was using. After talking with a person at a home improvement store, I bought some special painter's tape called FrogTape. It is designed to react to the water in latex paint, which causes the edge of the tape to harden and makes your paint lines crisper.

Because this is enamel paint instead of latex paint, I had to run a damp paper towel over the tape so the tape would start the reaction. I waited several hours until the tape and the wood were thoroughly dried before continuing on with the painting.

I learned that even with this special painter's tape, if you apply too much paint, it can still seep under the tape. Picture #4 shows where I slathered on the paint, and picture #5 shows the result. Picture #6 shows a much better result from when I applied just a thin layer of the darker orange page. (There are actually two different colors for the stripes in that picture. The color stripes on the right are closer to the Go Mango orange that I finally selected.)

Enamel paint can take up to a day to dry, so give it extra time before laying down new rows of tape for the next set of stripes.

Cutting and sanding
Use the templates to draw four of the legs onto the 3/16" wood. Line up the sole of each foot with one of the edges cut by the factory. Cut the legs out of the wood, then trim or sand them down to approximately the final shape.

In picture #1, you can see two more examples of where the Dremel tool I was using to cut the wood brushed against it, grinding dents into the surface. The foot on the right has one dent and the foot on the left has several dents, making it unusable.

For the final shaping of the piece, I stood up all four pieces on the flat part of the foot, then clamped them together. Picture #2 shows them being held in one clamp, and this clamp being held onto the cutting board with another clamp.

The Dremel tool I used has two sanding drums. I used the larger one for the majority of the work to sand it down to the outline I had drawn on the pieces, but had to switch to the smaller-diameter sanding drum to get in on the inner curve at the ankle.

Note: Remember that the area under the toe slopes upward and the heel is rounded.

Screw hole
[[File:Perry bank - legs 3.jpg|150px|#3: Lay the template back on the the legs. Use the mechanical pencil to mark the center of the plus sign on the wood. Do this for all four pieces. Drill a small pilot hole through the mark on each piece.

Flip two of the pieces over so they are facing the opposite way, as shown in the picture. Use the countersink bit to drill the hole for the screw. Be careful not to drill too deep. The head of the screw should sit even with the surface of the wood.

Sanding and painting
Erase any pencil lines that may still be on the pieces, then sand each one. Round off the edges of each piece slightly. When done, wipe the piece down and paint it with the tangerine spray paint. As before, use light coats until the color is even.

As seen in the reference picture, there is a dark line at the ankle on both back feet. I chose not to include that on my Perry bank. If you want to add it, refer to the section above about painting the tail.

Since this is based off of Perry the Inaction Figure, the legs are all one color: tangerine. As you can see by the picture to the right, they are different than the real Perry, which has teal arms, hands and legs, and tangerine rear feet.

Mounting the pieces
Mounting the pieces to the body will require drilling a few more holes. Once those are completed, the body can be painted.

Before you begin, be aware that you are drilling close to the edge of the pieces. You want to make sure the holes are straight. If you go at an angle, you may poke through the side of the body. Use the starter punch to mark exactly where you want the holes to start.

Bill
The picture to the right shows the holes and dowels that will be used to mount the bill to the body. The picture was taken before the bill was painted. (The nose was painted ahead of time, but could have been done at the same time as the rest of the bill, as described above.)

The 3/16" drill bit is used since that is the size of the dowel being used. The exact placement left-to-right isn't critical, except that it needs to be centered between the two layers of wood. The middle dowel hole is slightly off-center so that it doesn't bump into the nails that were used to secure the nose to the bill.

You will need to drill matching holes in the body. I recommend that before you do this, you glue the dowels into the bill so that they will stay at the same angle. If you look at the hole on to the right on the body, you will see that it is slightly larger than the other ones. I had to widen it out because I couldn't get the dowels to fit in correctly the first time.

You will be using nails in final assembly to make sure the pieces are secured to the body. Holes that are a little larger than necessary will not be a concern.

Eyes and legs
Use this diagram to mark where the holes for the eyes and legs should be drilled. Mark the hole in the center of each of the plus signs. The starter punch should be used to help prevent the drill bit from wandering when you begin drilling. Repeat these three holes on the right side of the body.

For all of these mounting holes, do not drill all the way through.

The eye will need the 3/16" drill bit. For the legs, you want to make a pilot hole that is smaller than the #6 screw, so a drill bit of 5/64" (2 mm) is required. This allows the screws to grip the wood as you attach the legs.

It's recommended at this point that you drive in one of the brass screws into each of the four pilot holes you drilled with the hand screwdriver about a quarter or half inch (6 mm or 12 mm), then take them right back out. You will be better able to make sure the screw is going in straight if you do it now, rather than when it comes time to attach the legs.

Painting the body
After a light sanding to smooth out any rough edges created by drilling the holes, tie the end of a cord around a small piece of wood and insert it into the coin removal hole. Hang up the body assembly and paint it with the teal paint.

You will need at least two coats, and you will need to move the cord between coats. The picture on the right shows the spot where the cord was resting against the hole during the first coat, leaving an unpainted shadow.

Make sure you get the coin slot and the tail slot. Keep in mind that the paint will decrease the width of the tail slot slightly, so if the tail was a snug fit to get it into the slot (see "How to cut the tail slot" above), you may have to sand or file the tail slot a little bit to give the tail more room.

Final assembly
You've reached the point where you're ready for final assembly. As part of the final assembly, you will be using nails to help secure the pieces, so get the drill ready with the small bit that you've been drilling the pilot holes with previously.

Several of the holes will be drilled into the body on the left and right sides, so be careful about the angle you drill at. If you're not careful, you can drill out through the side. The picture above shows an example of this. It was touched up with some paint to hide it as much as possible.

When driving in the nails, stop before the nail gets too close to the surface of the wood. Use the starter punch to drive the nail in the rest of the way, thereby minimizing the number of "battle scars" your Perry bank will incur.

Attaching the bill
Apply a little bit of glue to the holes in the front of the body assembly that the dowels from the bill will be inserted into, then spread a little glue in between the dowels on the bill and the back of the nose. Attach the bill to the body and press it in so that the bill is flush with the body.

Holding the bill in place, drill a pilot hole along the upper side of the bridge of the nose. (Arrow A in the picture to the right.) Next, take one of the nails and cut a little bit off the end of the nail so that when you drive it in, it will not stick through to the interior of the body.

Turn the assembly over onto its back and drill two more holes through the bottom of the bill close to where it meets the body, going up into it. The holes should be towards the outside so that you will be drilling up into both the left and right sides of the body, as indicated by arrow B in the picture. Since the nails are being driven into the sides of the body, it is not necessary to cut them.

Attaching the tail
Apply a thin layer of glue to the inside of the tail slot, then slide the tail in. Make sure the tail is straight and aligned with the rest of the body.

Drill two more holes on the underside of the tail leading up into the body along the sides, then put in the nails, same as you did for the bill. This is arrow C in the picture above.

Eyes and legs
Cut a small piece of dowel and glue it into the hole in the eye. Add a little bit of glue on the other end of the dowel and flat surface that you cut and sanded, then attach the eye to the body.

Use the screwdriver to attach the legs. The legs should not move, but you should not have the screws so tight that they sink into the wood. The head of the screw should be even with the surface.

Paint touch-up
The nails I selected had white paint on them, so it was necessary to paint them afterwards. Rather than trying to mask off the entire area and spray-paint the nails, I sprayed the paint onto a spare piece of newspaper and applied enough for it to create a puddle. I was able to dip a paint brush into the puddle, then paint the head of the nails.

Optional step
To keep the feet from getting damaged or scuffing what they are sitting on, you may want to apply some small cork pads or felt onto the bottom of the feet.

The last step
The last step, provided that you decided to make a Perry bank instead of just an Inaction Figure, is to put the cork into the coin removal hole.

You are now done and are the proud owner of your very own hand-made Perry. Treat him well.

Stories from construction
While I was working on this project, a couple of people saw it before its unveiling on this wiki. I thought I'd share their reactions with you.

During construction
I was in the early stages of building my Perry when one of my neighbors and his son walked by. They stopped to see what I was doing. I told him that I was making a wooden toy.

The father had a pretty heavy accent, so I was having difficulty understanding him and explaining what I was doing. I think he thought that I do wood working for a living. I hope I was able to convey that this was just a hobby, something for myself, and that I wasn't planning on selling these.

Meanwhile, his son had been pretty quiet. As I was showing his dad the pieces and the pictures I had taped up on the wall for reference, the son spoke. "Perry the Inaction Figure" was all he said. His dad may not have know what it was, but his son did.

The boy had such a longing on his face that I have a feeling that I may eventually be making a second Perry to give to him.

After construction
When I had stopped in to buy the paint at the hobby shop, one of the employees had been curious as to what I was making. I had some pictures with me to help with selecting colors, so I showed them to her. She was interested in the project and wanted to see it when it was done.

After it was finished, I took the Perry bank over to the hobby shop. She wasn't in, so I left some printouts for her. One was a picture of the Perry bank, one was the Inaction Figure from "Toy to the World", and one was the page for the Inaction Figure.

It took the other employee about a minute or two to recognize where he had seen the toy before. He eventually remembered that it was from Phineas and Ferb. I told him the directions for making one would be up on the website in the printout (this wiki) in about a week.

As I walked out of the store, I passed a man and woman with their two kids. After a couple of seconds I heard from behind me this tiny voice say, "That's Perry the Platypus!"

I was smiling all the way home.

Comments
If you have any comments about this project, you may enter them on the comments page.