Completed project - baby walker!

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gidon

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The little man is 10 months old now and I've yet to make him anything after abandoning the cot before he was born. This seemed like a nice simple project (still took at least twice as long as I thought it would). And it means at least I have one :)oops:) completed project this year! (The front door is almost finished honest!)

Tried to be disciplined with WIP shots so here we go:

Ash all prepared from rough stock and dimensioned:
1-PICT1368.jpg


3/4" Ash dowel cut from 3/4" square stock using a 3/8" radius cutter. Just leave enough length to run along the router table:
2-PICT1367.jpg


Box joined using hand cut dovetails and base was some pine jointed and glued into a rebate:
3-PICT1369.jpg


Handles for walker cut on the bandsaw and the gentle curve smoothed with a spokeshave (yippee - first time I've used this tool properly - it worked really well):
4-PICT1373.jpg


Handles mitred and screwed to box. Holes counterbored for plugs:
5-PICT1378.jpg


3/4" Forstner bit used to drill tenons in handles to accept dowel. Glued in place:
6-PICT1379.jpg


Tapered plugs cut from Ebony scraps. First time I've used these plug cutters and the plugs kept on getting stuck in the cutter - absolute nightmare to get out:
7-PICT1380.jpg


And sliced out on the bandsaw:
8-PICT1382.jpg


Plugs glued in place, trimmed with a pull saw and smoothed with a LA block plane:
9-PICT1386.jpg


Wheels cut using 65mm hole cutter:
10-PICT1383.jpg


And sanded smooth on the drill press:
10a-PICT1385.jpg


And rounded over on router table (attached to little jig to save rounding over my fingers):
11-PICT1388.jpg


Completed wheels with decorative burn marks:
12-PICT1389.jpg


Wheels are bolted on with a couple of washers and some stud lock (I tested this out - it really does lock the bolt in place!)
13-PICT1399.jpg


The head of the bolt is buried underneath the wheel surface - so the whole fixing is safe from prying hands. (You wouldn't believe how long it took me to work out a way of attaching these wheels!)
14-PICT1400.jpg


Completed walker sanded but unfinished:
15-PICT1403.jpg


Applying first coat of Liberon finishing oil:
16-PICT1404.jpg


And after 3 coats (finito!)
17-_MG_4555.jpg


Phew that was a slog! Don't know what was going on with the white balance on my shed camera - apologies for that.

Any comments / criticisms welcome.

Cheers

Gidon
 
Looks great, Gidon! Some nice gloats too... :p

The ebony plugs work really well against the Ash - I hope your little man appreciates this attention to detail!

Clever way of sanding the wheels too. And I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has problems with burn marks when rounding over little wheels :wink:

Nice work :)

Cheers,
Neil
 
Gidon, very nice - how about a shot of the wee chap pushing it?

Do you have enough scrap to make some building bricks to put in it?

Andy
 
Thanks everyone for the kind comments. Alan please steal away! Alf do you have a piccy then? Andy - not yet - I've not given it to him yet - I can still smell the oil! Don't think I'll be making the blocks - just thought we'd put his books in it to weigh it down. Gloats Neil? I don't know what you mean ;).
Cheers
Gidon
 
Gidon,
It looks great!

Re your problem with plugs breaking and getting stuck, I find that if you don't cut all the way to the end of the cutter, they are much less likely to do this. Also, Veritas cutters are much better than no-name imports.
 
Hi Gidon, looks well. I'm sure there's be a few miles of driving ahead of the wee fellow.
BTW, did the LV plug cutters chatter?

Noel
 
Thanks chaps.
Chris - these are Veritas cutters - I found the same - but if you do go too far they still get stuck. Have you found a clever way of getting them unstuck?
Noel - ah yes meant to send you a PM - I found them unusable at high speeds but I found slowing down the drill press to medium speed sorted it and they now work perfectly (except above point!) And I have a fair bit of runout in my drill press ...
Cheers
Gidon
 
Gidon

Very nice result, I'm sure the little one will have hours of fun with it.


gidon":2lwojedn said:
Have you found a clever way of getting them unstuck?

I know wjat you mean about getting the plugs stuck in the cutter, this used to happen a lot until i did what Chris suggested, funny how you learn by your mistakes.

To remove the plug from the cutter I use a small skewed chisel which will go between the cutter teeth, a slight nudge with a mallet ususally does the trick and 9 times out of 10 you can still use the plug.
 
Gidon,
No magic unsticking formula here I am afraid. I usually do what Waka says or occasionally in some non-Veritas cutters I have, when the plug became totally stuck, I have drilled it out.
 
gidon":3tnkc6xw said:
Alf do you have a piccy then?
I do. And I've been robbed. No way is it a homemade one; but the one my brother's pushing about 13 years earlier is... :evil: But it's not a good piccy, and even if I felt the desire for revenge (which I obviously do :wink: ), I couldn't in all conscience put the picture on the web for all to see... :oops: :lol:

Cheers, Alf
 
Very nice Gidon, but it looks unfinished to me. Where are the baby safe wooden models of some Veritas or Lie Nielsen goodies?
Just think by the time he is old enough to use the real thing he will be a dab hand with a L-N No7 plane or a Veritas No6. :roll:

Just think how chuffed he would be at Christmas when he unwrapped a trio of Lee Valley spoke shaves. You could even give him the real thing with the blades taken out, :tool:

On the other hand, because of all the love his old dad put into making the walker, he is going to be well pleased anyway =D>

Nice one

Woody
 
Thanks Waka, Chris - I stuck a awl just underneath the plug and hammered it - worked on one. Another one I tried needle nose pliers. One real stubborn so and so (that Ebony is hard stuff) I had to drill out and then squeeze with pliers. The trouble is the taper starts at the top (nearest the chuck) so you have to go quite deep else the plug won't fit (IIRC).

Alf - I completely understand! We'll let you off ;).

Woody - funny you should mention that - Rob did have some rather nice wooden protoype planes (and some 3d printed plastic planes too!) at the Tools show - but I wasn't close enough to the front to pocket one :whistle:.

Cheers

Gidon
 
Thanks Philly. He's seen it just now for the first time - his interest lasted 20s or so which isn't bad!

mcluma - sorry missed your post. I will try and get a pic of him pushing it if Mrs Gidon allows it ...

Cheers

Gidon
 
Very nice Gidon :D I'm sure he'll love it...

I made a block cart (no handle though) for my godson the other year. At the time he used to love playing with blocks. I made mine out of mahogany which may have been a bad choice because now he finds it funnier to throw them instead of building with them. Luckily he's now into cars - although they hurt more :roll: :lol:
 
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