Sledge plans?

[ian_in_the_midlands]

Probaly too late for this year, but seeing the kids in the snow made me think again about making a sledge.
When I have looked before for plans I came up with nothing I liked.

Looking to make a traditional type sledge - and maybe an excuse to have a try a steam bending.
Maybe something like the attached picture.

Does anyone have any links to plans?
Dimensions are important - I have a habbit of making things far too large.

Thanks.

 

[carlb40]

Not sure if these are any good ian?

http://www.toolcrib.com/blog/2010/01/9- ... -from-here

http://www.freewoodworkingplan.com/inde ... den%20sled

 

[ian_in_the_midlands]

Thanks carlb40. Lots of plans there - but none seem to be what I am looking for.
There are some dimensions there which could help.

 

[ian_in_the_midlands]

Although I can not see the drawings in the post, the pictures look like the sort of thing I want to make:
sled-construction-help-t6432.html


Is it a sledge or a sled I should be looking for? Maybe that is why I am struggling.

 

[Eric The Viking]

We've got one similar/identical to the picture.

From a woodworking perspective, its strength comes from the steel struts. You could do this in wood equally well.

The runners are steam bent, which would be hard without making up a big jig and a steam box. You might laminate over a former, though.

On a 'tuning' note: The steel strips on the runners make them unaffected by tarmac etc., but slow. snow and ice stick to it and it bogs down. A vast improvement can be had by screwing on the top cover from uPVC electrical ducting instead of the steel strip, Ours has the 1" stuff. You might use the old "swish" curtain track - both can be bent in the steam from a kettle, and both take polish well. The sledge is still somewhat heavy, but goes really well now.

E.

PS: ours is currently just outside the back door. I've a steel tape next to my right elbow as I type - do you want me to measure it for you (the sledge, not my elbow!), and if so, what dimensions do you want? It couldn't be all that hard to make. The model is called "Davoser" and it's by a German maker, "Gloco".

 

[adidat]

i think it was doctor bob that raised the issue last time this subject was bought up, that the traditional sledge was nowhere near as good as an extractor bag! but still nice to have a go at building.

adidat

 

[ian_in_the_midlands]

I found that post in my search.
As a kid I had a traditional sledge, and on the right type of snow nothing would beat it.
On fluffy snow, the plastic trays won hands down.
I think I am only really looking for an excuse to use the steam box I built last year.

 

[chippy1970]

I remember when I was a kid my older brother made me a sledge. He used a car bumper cut in half to make the runners, this was back in the times when car bumpers were metal :lol:

Anyway this thing went like a rocket a bit too fast to be fair :lol:

 

[manxman]

I decided it would be a good idea to make one for my niece and nephew, however due to my rate of work and limited amount of snow here it had come and gone before I'd finished!
Here's what I came up with, made from bits of oak left over from other things, nothing fancy by way of joints etc but I'm happy with how it turned out. I've given it a coat of bees wax since the photos so it looks a bit nicer now, the splodges are just rain.
Whether or not it works as a sledge or not remains to be seen, I think ground clearance may be an issue so the cross members may need reshaping.

 

[Steve Maskery]

At the risk of putting a downer on a fun thread, I have a friend who, in his twenties, took his little niece for a ride. At the bottom of the hill was a wall. He put his legs out to break the impact (she was on his lap) and he crushed his leg. Had to have it amputated.
Be careful, it's dangerous out there.
S
PS There was a really nice design for one in FWW, it must be twenty-odd years ago. IIRC it was "loose" so you could steer it by shifting weight. A really nice steam-bending project.

 

[marcros]

i did wonder whether something could be fashioned from layers of veneer over a former, using a vacuum bag setup. It would give a very light weight, high surface area which should work at least as well as the plastic ones. Potentially a plastic one could even be a former, or the basis for one.

 

[Eric The Viking]

That's how the runners for the posh ones, per the original question, are made. I took a close look at ours - hadn't noticed they were laminated previously. The laminations are about 4mm thick.

But did you mean an entire bottom surface, rather than just the 'hockey stick' runners?

 

[marcros]

yes, so it replicated the extractor bag proposed by hudson carpentry, but in a solid structure.