The previous week started by being particularly busy, and although it was quieter here I was still writing furiously to finish off the next set of articles for the upcoming ManSpace magazine.
Getting those completed and submitted is always a relief, given I always seem to push the deadline! So this weekend I have already started actively working towards the next set, (although a significant portion of that is in my head). Not to say what I have been doing isn’t a small part of it, but not to be distracted.
After putting together the mini kitset dinosaurs from the other day, I looked again at the stegosaurus I made a few years ago, and realised I had glued it together incorrectly. I could not leave it like that! So out to the shed it went, and with a bit of persuasion broke the offending parts off so I could remake them.
The original one was actually made from pine and dates back to one of the last Working with Wood shows I did while demonstrating for Triton, where I was showing the capabilities of the bandsaw and thicknesser. And so I repeated that exercise again for this: taking a piece of 19mm thick pine, resawing it, then running the result through the thicknesser to get new 6mm thick boards.
In this case it was not on Triton tools – those having been sold ages ago. Instead, I used my 17″ Carbatec bandsaw, and 15″ thicknesser.
The patterns were attached using spray adhesive, then cut out using the bandsaw with a 1/4″ blade.
You will notice in the second photo that the component is double thickness. That is because I attached a piece of MDF behind to make a duplicate of the piece for a later exercise.
I use a bandsaw for this work for a couple of reasons.
a. I like the smooth motion of the bandsaw, with the blade continually cutting in a single direction, and that also being down into the table, whereas a scroll saw loves to try to make the piece vibrate up and down because of the blade oscillations.
b. I don’t have a decent scrollsaw anyway!
The 1/4″ blade is actually way too large for this task – it is not capable of navigating the smaller radiuses. But it is all I have to hand (unless I wanted to try to drag my Jet 14″ bandsaw out from storage). So I made do, which meant a lot more cuts, and a rougher finish which I will sand on the spindle sander. And probably as early as Monday, I will order some 1/8″ blades. A 1/16″ blade would be interesting, but I think it is outside the capabilities of the bandsaw. That may seem strange, but I tried it before on another bandsaw, (again it was below the minimum rated blade size), and I just could not get the blade to track on the wheels. 1/8″ will do for this job.
Once the parts were (re)made, it was all glued together again.
Once that job was done, it was onto the main event. I have taken the plans and blown them up a bit on the photocopier. Not a huge amount, just from A4 to A3 (which is about 40% larger)
I am then taking the parts, and using carpet tape, sticking them to a piece of 19mm MDF.
Then by turning this assembly over and holding it against the copy pin of the Torque Workcentre, I am creating a track that will allow me to make duplicates of the part whenever I like with the router. I could build an army!
Bit of an interesting exercise – potentially quite a bit of work, but then if I was to make a second (or a third), the time saving, and the quality of finish will be definitely worth while. And it is an interesting proof of concept.
So Santa’s sleigh may be pulled by 6 Allosaurus this year! At least in my Xmas display 
Filed under: Project, Wooden Toys Tagged: | Bandsaw, Dinosaur, Thickness planer
