Building a classic wooden rocking horse.how to draw pattern?

[matt167]

I have a friend with a 6 month old, and I generally try to do nice things for good friends of mine ( just who I am ), so I showed her a few different rocking horse plans and told her to pick one, and thankfully she picked one simmilar to one I built a few years ago. Difference is, this one is metric, and I had to have help the last time drawing the pattern onto grid paper.. I can deal with Metrics, but want to do this one without help.. If the grid is 50mm full size, than what do I have to enlarge the image to at a print shop? to get it full scale?. Her daughter turns 1 in sept, so I have some time

http://www.woodworkingdownunder.com/dow ... plans.html

[billy c]

make each square 2"

[matt167]

But if I wanted to enlarge the plan to full size patterns from an 8.5"x11" printout, what size would I need to have it enlarged by? I know 50mm is 1.96".. I'm a decent woodworker, but working with plans that are not full sized are always a hangup for me.. Big reason on why I'll only ever try to build a Glen-L boat from plans.

[Roberta]

It look's like they included inches in parenthesis, but some don't look right. You might get somebody like Kinkos to blow them up with their copiers.

Roberta

[billy c]

if you have a program like PhotoShop or Elements. import the file and you can tile it in the print menu so it prints out actual size on sheets of letter size paper and just needs to be taped or glued together
otherwise bring the pdf file to a copy shop. they can print actual size on their larger format printer

[matt167]

Yea, those inch measurements don't look right to me. Given that it was planned metric, I can easilly get a metric tape measure or scale print a 250mm ruler to do it in mm. But I guess, I'll just visit the copy shop and have them print it actual size.. My head won't spin with full size patterns I can trace..

Anyone got any idea's for wood type? I don't want to spend too much, but I think something nicer than clear pine would be good.. Last one was built out of pine and I thought it came out good, but was quite pale

[billy c]

maple and ash work well and take on a nice natural patina

[matt167]

Well, I went and ordered paid plans with full size patterns from a place that does just like what Glen-L does with boat plans and accessories but for rocking horses. Simmilar design but more detail in the legs.. So I ordered the medium sized plans which should be the same size as the large version of the Metric one in question. I threw in the full accessory kit too, which has the main, tail, saddle and bridle. Should be fun to build

[matt167]

Question.. I now have the full size plans for this rocking horse, and they are good quality patterns, printed just like I'm used to with the Glen-L plans.. The material listing shows pine as preferable being easy to cut, so I will probably use a pine board. But I can get Douglas Fir pretty easily here, and I like the red color but know that it goes away.. Is there a way to keep the red cast of the doug fir? I'm thinking a cherry colored stain would look good and it will reflect the color of the doug fir

[gdcarpenter]

My two cents:

Cherry stain will 'wash out' the natural red/reddish hues in the Doug fir. Go natural, varnish alone will help seal in the color and highlight the contrast.

My pet peeve of the day, staining one wood to make it look like a different wood, why not just build with the different wood and be done!

[slug]

Here's my two cents worth; Traditionally these were built with pine (usually white ) for it's availability and ease of carving. I'd stay as far away as possible from the fir...its a miserable wood to work with when doing any carving or shaping.
The pine will take on a patina of it's own after a few years.
I've always found cherrry very nice to work with and have built several pieces of "heirloom" furniture out of it. You can't beat it's natural colouring. It would "up" the quality of the gift considerbly.

Doug

[matt167]

Cherry was going to be my next question/ possibility, I just did not know how it cut being a hard wood. Everything I have ever done has been with pine or other soft wood. But I have several suppliers local that have Cherry in stock.

[Lowka53]

I have always been partial to walnut but cherry is a nice wood. white pine would be easier to work with I am with gdcarpenter about staining wood use the wood you want the color to be and only use stain to even out the color if at all.