This year Christmas comes early...

As some of you guys have noticed, I am going gun ho on my toboggan project here at canuckwoodchuck. Today marks the completion of my third toboggan !

 Don't miss this, I have never made more than one of any particular project. I thought I was doomed to a life of making serial, one of, wood items. Usually my lack of planning and over zealous imagination would commandeer my brain and I would be on to the next big idea.  But not this time.

I made a goal this year to distribute 3 toboggans to my nieces and nephews respectively for Christmas. I've just had enough of buying some plastic toy from China and wrapping it up for a loved one. This Christmas the presents I give will be made in Canada. And really, anybody who builds something with their hands can make this claim. You may have heard of the saying "Buy Locally", why not take that one step further with "Made Locally"?

 Let us, as a community of woodworkers, change the way presents(for any occasion) are given. Gifts made in your " home and native land" are truly spectacular ways to revolutionize the gift giving tradition.

For some of you this is not new, homemade gifts have always been carefully crafted in your basement or shop, and for others this will start a new tradition of planning now to finish some wooden presents in time for 25 Dec.

Happy Woodworking !

 - Christopher Thiessen

How to make a wood toboggan Part 2

We'll start off this post with a video. If a picture is worth a thousand words than maybe a video is worth two thousand words.

                                                 Part one : steam bending the maple slats

 

 

After bending the required number of slats for the toboggan I found that the width of the pieces had increased because of the expansion in the steam box. I used a little trim block plane to return the slats

to their original width



Trimming the width with a trim block plane.

                                                Part two : assembling the toboggan

Assembling the toboggan was easiest using this method. Start by placing one slat flat on the bench so the curved portion faces up. Dry fit the "bread board" part that will capture the free ends of the curved pieces. Apply a little downwards pressure to the curved portion of the slat to simulate the finished product. While holding that pressure place a square next to the hole in the "bread board" ( the rope hole, (I choose 1/4" rope.)) Follow the square down to the flat portion of the slat and make a mark.

This mark will be the middle of the cross piece that the slats are screwed to.

 

I used the end vise on my workbench to hold the cross pieces(pre drilled and chamfered on the top and sides).  The toboggan gets assembled upside down on the bench.

One word of caution here : make sure you offset the the two screw holes at either end  of the cross pieces so that you don't drill through the rope holes in the cross piece.

The "bread board" end in the picture is dry fitted only with no fasteners.(It will be the last part to be installed on the toboggan) I had a laser device kicking around , so I used it to line up the screws on the center of the cross pieces. A chalk line will work as well , although the laser was easy to adjust when it was bumped.

If you have three drills the assembly goes a little quicker. One drill is dedicated for
 drilling 1/8" pilot holes.  One drill is dedicated to countersinking and the third drill
 has the #2 Robertson bit installed.


 

 

This is the finished project. One toboggan done and two more to go. The last two just require varnish.

 

 

 

How to make a wood toboggan Part 1

So, it has been a while since anything new was posted, but tonight I submit a post for your discriminating taste in wood working blogs.  First off is my newest brain child, actually the thought came to me 3 years ago but has since taken a hiatus. Steam bending for the purpose of building a toboggan. When we had our first snow fall here in Cowtown the inspiration hit me like a hard packed snow ball.  Both kids needed to get outside this winter and enjoy tobogganing like I did.

Making jigs has never been a real passion of mine but I did make three of them for this project.
While I am waiting for my Earlex Steam Generator to come by dog sled, I set myself to making the bending form.  Spruce plywood(the cheapest grade you can buy) was purchased and cut to make a 10" diameter bend. The width of the slats will be 2 1/4" wide so three pieces of 3/4" plywood were sandwiched together.  Now the dilemma was how to cut a curve the full width of the form. I do not own a band saw, however I have a router with one straight cut bit and one flush trim bit. I removed the plastic base plate that the router came with and attached the base plate to a scrap of laminate hardwood using good old double sided tape.

Drill the holes to match the spacing on the base plate and counter sink the holes. Attach the laminate to the bottom of the router and mark back from the straight router bit the radius you require. Secure the one end of the router and base plate to the form. Ensure the router is free to rotate around a pivot screw. You can change the position of the pivot screw to accommodate your desired curve.  Make sure you install stop screws in the form to contact the laminate in order to provide stops at both ends of the arc.  Make several passes through the arc increasing the depth each time. When you have hit your maximum depth, detach the router and flip the form over. Insert the flush trim bit and use the existing curve to guide your router as you cut the other half of the form.

Cutting the support brackets is easy just drill a hole through a pair of plywood blocks. When you straddle them across the form, insert a matching dowel to go through both pieces. Insert a scrap of wood that is the same thickness as the wood that you will be bending plus a wedge under the dowel and secure the support brackets. Next post regarding this toboggan will be on the steam bending.
Stay tuned...



Steam bending jig for a toboggan.  Mk I

 





The modified wood bending form Mk.II
Note : the latest version of this form does away with the two FA clamps at the bottom of the picture.



 

 

This update on the steam bending project reflects the modified wood bending form as seen in the above picture. Some observations on this process : Always leave the wood in the steam box longer than the minimum. The rule of thumb floating around is one hour for every inch of thickness.

I am now using 25 min. for 1/4" thick wood. The extra steaming time in this instance may reflect the kiln dried state of the wood at rest(before steaming).  The wood feels a lot more plastic when its bent around the form. The extra time in the steamer does not hurt the wood. The wood needs to be supported by a couple of cauls especially at the start of the bend and mid point through the form's circumference. See above picture for placement of the cauls.

 

 The drawback to using the form as I had originally built it is that the wood will expand along the width quite significantly will being heated and saturated with water.  If the form brackets are spaced out to accommodate the wood in an at rest state, they wood will be too wide to fit after steaming. This creates pinch points in the wood as it is bent around the form and the wood will crack.

One way to reduce the amount of spring back after you bend the wood , is to leave the piece in the form for as long as you can.  Essentially the bent wood MC should be as close as possible to the MC of the wood before it was steamed. I leave my wood in the form until the wood is cool to the touch and then remove it and use painters masking tape to retain roughly a 10.5" diameter in the end of the curved slat.

One note on the clamps in the form : this video explains how to make a speedy clamp.



 



Eye of the Tiger

This toy took the form of a tiger. I wanted to highlight the stripes on the tiger , so I used different types of wood for the colours. I picked yellowheart and walnut to glue up the tiger.

I was surprised at how soft yellowheart is. It is comparable to pine in grain and density.

The tiger is going to our friends overseas, they just had their second son a few weeks ago.

I used an old Marples 12 " bow saw to cut the profile of the animal. The saw performed nicely

with the original 8ish tpi blade. The saw was a bargain on ebay. I paid around $70 shipping included for the saw. Nearly identical saws can fetch $160 before shipping.

Zebra

This Zebra is based on the pattern I used for the horse. My inspiration for using two types of wood was from a friend of mine who turns wood pens using multi wood blanks to start with.

Two species of wood were needed for the different colours. I used walnut and maple. After the blank was glued up, I smoothed the edges with a smoothing plane. A small scraping plane was used to take out the tiny marks left in the wood. The final effect of the planes was a finish

that was absolutely flat.

When two different types of wood are used there will be differences in how the wood is sanded. The walnut is softer than the maple. I finished this project with Tung Oil and I was impressed with the way the colours of the wood came out.

Horsepower

My niece was born yesterday in Salmon Arm, B.C. I made this horse on wheels for her.

This was my first project where I made a blank using two species of wood. In this case - walnut and maple

The mane and tail were made from hemp string.

Toy Tractor

This toy tractor was made for my nephew in Manitoba. Walnut was used for the cab and front end. Hemlock is the chassis. Tung Oil is the finish I used to seal the wood. I like using Tung oil because it really brings out the colour of the wood.

Update: I've been having problems with the wood axles. The ends are chipping off.

I installed plastic washers between the axle and wheel and between the wheel and the chassis. This did not fix the problem. I made a dually rear axle assembly that turns as a unit. I wedged the axles at the ends where they come through the outside wheel. This modification will be a lot stronger. A picture will be coming soon!

10-4 good buddy - wood Semi Truck

My first attempt at semi truck took this form. The trailer and the cab were contructed from the re used church pews that my Opa had built. The hymn book holders were cut to length and joined face to face to make the " box" and cab.
The bumper was sort of an after thought because it is proud of the chassis. Actually, I had to glue a small spacer to make the bumper clear the front wheels.

I use water based coloured dyes for the finish. On this particular unit I rubbed in wax to seal the blue dye.

When I first started to experiment with finishes, I applied the coloured stain and let it dry. Next I applied water based Varathane. The Varathane would make the coloured stain run.

I've learned that you can mix water based Varathane with the coloured dye solution. The ratio is not critical but start with 50/50 and add dye as required to achieve the colour strength you are looking for.
When this coat is dry, apply the water based Varathane. The Varathane that was mixed the coloured dye will allow the straight Varathane to bind to the existing dye/Varathane mix.

I enjoy working with the coloured stains because of the different hues you can make and using a water based Varathane is easier on the lungs and hands - easy water wash up.

1/2 ton truck

This truck is modelled after a generic 1/2 ton pickup. It was the very first wood truck I had made back in Dec of 2007. I built it for my nephew who was only a few weeks old at the time.

I had some problems with locating axles holes in the chassis. From this project on I use a hand held dowel jig(Wolfcraft) and a cordless drill to accurately locate all the axles at exactly equal distance from the bottom of the chassis. This prevents the toy from rocking on a flat surface.

My nephew has put this toy to the ultimate test and has shown the axles to be less tough than I had estimated. The outboard end of the axles were breaking off - paralell with the grain.
I cut the axles off flush with the chassis and drilled new holes for the new axles. One washer goes under the axle 'hub' ( between the axle and the wheel) and one between the wheel and the chassis. I die cut plastic washers from an ice cream pail lid. (5/16" I.D. and 5/8" O.D.)
Time will tell if this will fix the broken axle problem. June 2009

Wooden Jeep and Kei truck

The Jeep(left) and kei truck(right)
were made this past summer.
You can't see it in this picture but the jeep has a spare wheel mounted at the back. The jeep was given to a friend of ours for her son , Gavin.
The kei truck was inspired by our trip to the Cayman Islands back in May.
The truck was given to our godson, who lives in Grand Cayman with his Dad and Mom

No metal fasteners are used in any of my toys. I try to use joints whenever possible (eg: rabbet, dowel, butt).

Rabbet joints are used to increase the surface area that the glue can adhere to.

Wood Dump Truck

The dump truck, pictured to the left, is the newest wood toy to join my fleet of toy trucks.

I used pine, hemlock, fir and other hard woods for materials.

The winch, seen, on the right side of the cab can be used to raise and lower the box.

The chassis and box are re used wood from the church pews that my Opa Mulder built in my hometown of Salmon Arm, B.C.