1890's Style Rocking Horse
Introduction: 1890's Style Rocking Horse
Using pre-purchased plans I built an 1890's Style rocking horse for my 5 boys for Christmas. I built 95% of this using a single sheet of 3/4" Furniture grade ply-wood. I used a 2x6 for the supports and some 1/8" plywood to make templates. I also used some fabrics to make some embellishments and make for a smoother ride.
Supplies
Materials used:
1 x Sheet of 3/4 Furniture Grade Plywood (4' x 8')
1 x Standard 2 x 6 (because it was safer than doubling up plywood to use for the support)
Upholstery Vinyl for the saddle
Imitation sheep skin for the horse blanket
Imitation fur for his little feet and his mane
leather accents for the bridle
Brass hoops for rein supports
Black cotton cord for the reins
Furniture nails for accents
2 Dolls eyes
Broom Handle cut off for handles
Wooden dowels for support
4" screws
Titebond II wood glue
Woodfiller for gaps
Brown, White and Black paint
Tools used:
Jigsaw (used to cut all of the pieces)
Tracksaw (used to cut the sheet into smaller pieces)
Guinevere Sanding System (Used to sand for days....)
Cordless Drill (1/2" bit used for dowels, 1.25" bit used for boring handle holes, 1/8" bit for eye holes)
Cordless Screwdriver (driving in screws to hold it all together while glue set up)
18ga brad nailer (pin together while glue set)
Palm router (1/2" round over bit, used to round over the whole thing)
Files and Rasps (used for shaping body)
Drum sander (used to remove finish from the plywood - not needed if you have unfinished stock)
Spindle Sander (used to make the legs consistent)
Staple gun (used to attach fur and saddle)
Upholstery hammer (used to tap nails in)
Mallet (used to knock in dowels)
Sand paper and drum rollers (used to finish horse prior to painting)
A million clamps (used to secure everything in place)
Paint brushes (for application of glue and paint)
Additional:
Anticipating I would make more than one of these, and in different sizes, I decided to build a set of templates for future use. I built a set based on the original plan dimensions and I also built a set of templates at 135% of original dimensions (this is the set I used to build this horse). The plans I used were purchased from a toymakers site, which were excellent and required little modification. I am sure if you search for 1890's rocking horse you can find the plans I used.
Step 1: Building the Template
The plans I purchases are designed to be printed on 8.5 x 11 paper, then taped to your stock and cut. I decided that I would make 2 prints. 401
One on 8.5 x 11 and one on 11 x 17.
Using these prints I then followed the instructions and carefully taped them together. Cut them out with scissors and then attached them to 1/8" MDF core Baltic Birch plywood.
Since I wanted these to be cut really precisely I took them over to my bandsaw and using a 1/8" 14 tooth scrolling blade I proceeded to cut all of the parts for each set of templates.
Now I have 2 sets of templates for when I need to do this again.
Printing and making a set of patterns like this also allowed me to get an idea of the scale of the thing at 135% of the plan design. I have big kids, and so I needed to make sure that it would be big enough to last a while.
Step 2: Cutting Out the Pieces
There is the sheet of 4' x 8' x 3/4" material, I used a pencil to trace around the patterns and then used my Jigsaw along with a plywood cutting blade to chop out all of the pieces. Since I made this 135% of the plan size, it was a really tight fit on the sheet. The second picture is what was left to make the runners and the saddle frame.
Most pieces are doubled up and I held them together with clamps to get a look at how well I did cutting them. I was close but not great.
tip** Here is how I got the legs perfect. I applied some blue painters tape to the leg pieces, then added some superglue on top of the tape. Then I put all of the leg pieces together. This glued the tape together but not the legs. 599