Rocking Horse

bruegf

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Joined
Mar 11, 2007
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Finally finished the rocking horse for my 2 yr old nephew today.  Horse body and legs are yellow pine, rocker platform is white pine.  Hope he likes it, sat him on it to fit for the foot pegs and after a minute started hollering "TOO BIG" and crying.

Fred
 
Looks great Fred, I hope he grows into it...for your sake. You want to share the construction details?
 
Very nice!  I'm sure this was intentional, but I wanted to point out how the grain directions and lines really enhance the horse's "realism".  Super cool.
 
Ditto!  It looks like you made it big enuff so you could ride it too.  Or is that just the camera angle?  You're a good unkie!
 
Thanks guys.

The grain was "accidentally" intentional :-)  Was looking for clear 2x12 white pine and the white pine at Lowes was all full of knots, but there was one completely clear yellow pine 2x12x10'.   Decided the grain would look good plus the wood's harder, so basically I got lucky.

Unfortunately I didn't think to take any photos during the build.  Construction was from a set plans bought from Rockler.   Pattern was traced on the material using graphite tracing paper.  All curves were cut w/ either Trion or bandsaw and then sanded using a 12" disc sander and/or sanding drums chucked in the drill press.   All edges were rounded over using OF1400 and bearing bits.  

Drilled 1/4 inch holes straight through the body using the drill press to ensure they were perpendicular to the body, 2 in the area for each leg and then clamped the legs on one at a time and drilled into the leg about an inch so I could use 1/4" dowels to hold the legs in position while gluing and clamping onto the body.

Plans called for a 1x12 to cut the rockers and platform pieces from, but couldn't find any clear pine reasonably priced so used 1x6 and cut the rockers in 2 halves. Joined them together w/ a butt joint and dominos and then glued and screwed a reinforcement plate on the back side of each joint.   Platform pieces are domino'd and glued on the rockers.   Sanded one rocker to fit the tracing and then used my Dad's shaper to trim the rest using the first half as a pattern.

Took a lot longer than I thought it would.   Cabinets w/ straight panels are a lot easier to deal with the something where every piece is curved and angled.

Fred
 
Stoolman said:
Ditto!  It looks like you made it big enuff so you could ride it too.  Or is that just the camera angle?  You're a good unkie!

Just the camera angle.  It's just big enough that he'll need help to get on an off for a few more months but once he's on, it fits him fine.  I'm guessing by summer he'll be able to get on and off by himself w/ no problems.  I think part of the reason he felt uncomfortable the first time was that the foot pegs weren't installed yet and he didn't have anywhere to brace his feet.

Fred
 
Nice job.

The first thing I noticed was also the grain of the wood.  The grain is perfect for that and especially on the legs, the grain gives a look of muscles.  My nieces have one and they love it.  I'm sure this will be a big hit.
 
Another project built for my 2yr old nephew - an irish mail cart, plans and hardware kit (basically axles and wheels) from Rockler.

Fred

 
Thanks Brice. 

A lot more excitement - he loves cake and even passed on cake to play with it when he got it, but hasn't got the foot coordination down yet for steering, won't be long though.

Fred
 
bruegf said:
Thanks Brice. 

A lot more excitement - he loves cake and even passed on cake to play with it when he got it, but hasn't got the foot coordination down yet for steering, won't be long though.

Fred

Well, that says it all. 
 
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