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.



 



Salvaging a gynasuim bench part I

Gooday ! Today's post begins the series on a bench that I am working on. When I was in school there were several of these benches used in the gym. The benches are made from oak and and 12' long by 9 1/2" wide. Four plywood legs were secured to the seat and with a single piece of 3" wide oak tying the legs together on the floor. A small crack in the seat rendered this particular bench scrap.

My guide line for using this hardwood is to leave the holes and dadoes in the wood that were left from screws, bolts and legs. I want the new bench to look like it was made using salvaged wood, but not like I just slapped the boards together.

I am using all the oak to make a new bench based on the White Water Shaker Bench that was featured in the Winter 2009 issue of Woodworking Magazine( before it became Popular Woodworking)

Jointing the apron board

• Step one: scrape off all the gum wads on the boards. In this picture the boards that will become the aprons are edge jointed using hand planes. Repair cracks in seat board with glue.

You might notice the blue holdfast in the foreground, click here for an explanation.


Salvaging a gymnasium bench  part 2

After milling the boards to the correct thickness and size , I assembled the bench with square nails.
This is my first project with square nails and it was a good lesson for me. Square nails probably work
better in wood that is "greener".  All wood hardens over time and maybe more so with oak.

The wood did split in a couple places and part of that was incorrect installation of nails and part old wood.  I found that countersinking the pilot hole was very good to seat the nail flush and minimize splitting.  Take a 1/8" mortise chisel and relieve the hole edges in line with the grain.

Beware of old glue lines in salvaged wood. Sometimes the glue lines will give up when fastening the boards together.

The next step is sanding and finishing.