Cowboy Callen!

I am not sure if me building a rocking horse started the theme or if my sister-in-law was already planning it, but next weekend there will be a cowboy themed birthday party for my nephew Callen.  From what I can tell Callen really like the rocking horse I made him, and I think his mom likes it too.  She had his 1 year pictures taken with the rocking horse. Today is his 1st birthday, Happy Birthday Callen.

 Pictures by Jaime Markovic

Experience and Mistakes

Back when I put together the first rocking horse which I called a prototype because it was not going to be once of the horse I was going to give as a gift.  That was because some tear out in the counter bores, I knew just plugging the screw holes wouldn't take care of the problem.  At that time the plan was to fill the holes and paint the rocking horse.Then I got the idea to distress the painted finished, but I didnt want light colored pine showing through the paint.  That meant the first step was to stain the parts. 

 After staining the parts I applied a coat of shellac to seal in the stain and to help keep from sanding through the stain while distressing the paint. But I couldn't bring myself to paint it.  I am sucker for wood and even this pine looks to good to paint in my eyes. That meant I had to do something with the torn out counter bores.  I went ahead and applied 2 more coats of shellac. I then used stain-able wood filler to fill the screw holes and once dry I carefully sanded the filler flush.

 I had experimented on a scrap of wood and found that since the wood had several coats of shellac on it that it was easy to apply stain to the wood filler with out changing the color of the wood around it.

 Here you can see how the filler took the stain.

 I painted all the saddle pieces with some paint we had on hand. The shellac, which had been sanded with 320 was a very good base for a nice smooth coat of paint.

 After the stain had a chance to dry I applies 2 more coats of shellac to the entire project.

 Here is the finished rocking horse.

While using the wood filler may not have been the preferred way I think it came out pretty good. Something I was thinking while I was working on this was how experience doesn't mean not making mistakes, but knowing how to hide them.

Giddy Up

Last week I mentioned that I had bust sanding the rocking horse parts, well I am proud to say that the rocking horses are done. 

Over the weekend I started finishing, the saddle parts all got a coat of stain.  

I was trying to finish the rocking horse using the same technique that I had watched Marc (The Wood Whisperer) use which was to give the sides a coat of shellac before staining the mane. Below are the all the parts that got a spray coat of Clear Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac. 

 However when I tried to stain the mane area the shellac kept the wood from taking any stain, so I sanded the shellac off the area to be stained. and here it how the mane looked after wards.

 The next day after the stain had time to dry/cure I brushed on 2 coats of shellac.  Shellac dries and can be recoated in around a hour.

 Once everything had a chance to dry it was time assemble the rocking horses.

 I used a plug cutter to plug the screw holes on the sides. The plugs were then trimmed and sanded flush. Then the sanded area was touched up with a light coat of shellac.

 After assembly the rocking horses got 2 more coats of shellac sprayed on.

 I think I am more excited about these presents than any present ever.  One is for my son who is almost 1.5 and the other is for my nephew. I can't wait to see the boy's reaction to them.

Merry Christmas and may God bless you and yours.

Busy as an Elf

Merry Christmas

I've been a busy elf trying to get the 2 rocking horses done that are supposed to be gifts.  I've been getting a fair amount of shop time in short burst. My typical shop time is 9 pm to 10:30 or so. I've got all the edges on the rocking horses routed, and I just have sand everything one more grit and do a dry assembly before finishing the parts. I have to be done by Christmas Eve.

Rocking Horse Charity Build Results

The Wood Whisperer posted the official results of 120 rocking horses being built. The total amount raise is still to be determined, but as of right now is at $5,196.  A Gallery has been made containing the pictures. I am proud to have been a part of this and I hope to be able to more next year.

Special Guest Helping

I had a special guest in the shop on Sunday while I was working out there. My 4 year old daughter came out to "Help" with the rocking horses. She had to test out the prototype rocking horse.

Then we took it apart for more sanding, and to use some parts of it as patterns. 

 Safety is very important.

 She saw my safety goggles hanging on the wall and wanted me to wear them to match her instead of my safety glasses.

Hopefully over the long Thanksgiving Weekend I can get all the rocking horses ready to finish.

More work on the Rocking Horse

There hasn't been an official post about it, but Marc aka The Wood Whisper mentioned on social media sites that 118 rocking horses were submitted for the Charity build.

Last night I got all the parts for the second horse sanded to the right shape, and got all the surfaces sanded to 80 grit. In the picture below I have drawn pencil lines across a side, when all the lines are gone I know I have sanded the whole side sufficiently. 

It was a cool 34 outside while I was working last night so I let Ellie Mae come in the shop and hang out while I worked.  The noise from power tools doesn't bother her at all, she laid next to my feet most the evening, even while running the sander and the jig saw. She had to be watched though because she likes to chew on wood, and some times will steal pieces to chew on.

Proto type horse

The rocking horse charity build was part of the reason I was building rocking horses. There was deadline to submit a picture by the 14th of November and I was getting short on time so I put together 1 of the rocking horses  with out finishing it first so that I could get a picture submitted. When I was drilling out the counter bore holes that will be plugged to hide the screws there was some major tear out in the soft pine board. This means this horse will be painted and a 3 rocking horse will probably be made.

The Tale of the Second Horse

I started on the second rocking horse last night. I used the parts from the first as patterns and drew the parts out on the board.

 After cutting out the parts with the jig saw, leaving the line, I used the original side from the first horse with the router to make the sides for the second horse match the first. Then I clamped all the sides together to sand the edges.  Sanding more than one board at a time helped keep the edges flat.

After more sanding it will be time for assembly.

Rocking around the clock

Okay so I am not working around the clock on these rocking horses but most the work is being done after the kids go to bed. So after working all day and being dad, then going out to the shop for a few hours it feels like I'm working around the clock. Now onto the project.

I am building a pair of rocking horses as part of The Wood Whisper Fall Charity Build.
There were patterns for most parts and the few parts that didn't have patterns the layout was simple.
I cut one side of the horse out and all the other pieces leaving the line and then sanded them to the line.
The second side was then cut out a little over sized and then I clamped the 2 sides together and used a flush cutting bit in the router to make the send side match the first side. The picture below was taken right before I trimmed the second side.

 Here are all the parts for one rocking horse. Before I do anymore work with this horse I want to get the parts for the next one cut out and use these parts as patterns with the router.

please check back for more, I am trying to get these completed this week.

Charity Rocking Horse Build

I've mentioned The Wood Whisper website before, but now they are doing a charity build. For everyone who builds one of these rocking horse Marc aka The Wood Whisper is going to donate $1 to Livestrong. There are some corporate sponsors that are going to match Marc donations dollar for dollar. Wood Magazine is providing the plans for free. Marc is going to post some videos along the build for anyone who would like to build along.

The entire project is made from a pine shelf board that is supposedly around $23. I plan to build at least one of these. It looks like a nice weekend project.