Stu's Shed

The initial prototype worked out quite well, so I’ve started designing a range of vehicles. The drawings look rather childish, but they are actually part of a bit of a trial of some new IT technology.

The LiveScribe Smart Pen is a ball point pen with a microprocessor, and a camera. Without going right into the technology, it records what you actually draw on the page, and then transfers it to the computer.

Some quick designs

I’ve then taken these and whipped them out on the bandsaw in pine.

Cut-out on Bandsaw

Creating Windows

Windows were then cut using a forstner bit.  The car bodies were then sanded using a combination of the linisher and spindle sander.

Next, I needed a bunch of wheels, and obviously the Carb-i-tool Wheel Cutter comes into its own.

Creating Wheels

In the past I’ve created wheels one-by-one as required, but when a bunch are needed, nothing beats a batch job.  All are cut on one side, then when the board is flipped over, the centre holes guide where to continue the cuts.  In pine I get a lot of tearout, so tried different timbers with a lot more success.  My first attempt with Vic Ash resulted in a significant grab and the age-old helicopter effect.  LDV would be proud.  My fingers weren’t so impressed.

Finished Wheels

The wheels are cut out, but they still have a central lip that needs removing.  This was done by mounting it on a piece of dowel as a temporary axle, then running the wheel against the disk sander (lightly).

Cars

Holes were cut for the axles into the car body (slightly oversized), and full width axles cut, and ends rounded.  The wheels were then glued to the axle.

After playing with these prototypes for a bit, I returned to the ‘shop, and drilled a couple of holes for headlights, and added a small rod of dowel to be the exhaust pipe.

Headlights and Police Lights

For a police car, I added an extra couple of bits of dowel to be the police car’s flashing lights.

Prototypes

Here is a transporter, a bus, sportcar (2 exhaust pipes), police car and a city car.

Wooden Truck

A car transport truck. At the front of the trailer is quite an overhang, so the turning truck doesn’t impact on the trailer.

That’s about as far as I’ve gotten to date.  The next step is going to be to produce a high quality version, and in parallel to create some patterns of the design in MDF or similar.  Future vehicles will be produced by screwing the template onto the desired stock, rough-cutting it out on the bandsaw, then finishing the job on the router table with a pattern following bit. The screwholes will be planned to coincide with the locations of windows and/or axles.

Filed under: Tools Tagged: | Car, Carb-i-tool, dowl, Livescribe, Smart Pen, Toy Car, Wheel Cutter