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The rocking horse is a great project for new and experienced woodworkers alike so its perfect for our charity build. If you would like to build along, I suggest downloading the plan today while it is still free. You can also download full-size patterns here.
The second and final video in this series covers finishing and assembly. As with any project, you should always ask yourself if it might be better to pre-finish the parts. Since the rocking horse would be incredibly difficult to finish after assembly and all of our parts are screwed together, pre-finishing was a no-brainer.
I’ll show you some cool tricks for coloring the horses mane as well as how to effectively plug the counter-sink holes (after finishing). Here are some of the tools I used:
Tapered Plug Cutter
General Finishes Gel Stain
BullsEye Shellac
How the Charity Works
For each person who completes a rocking horse (one per person), I am donating $1 to Livestrong. We also have numerous corporate and individual sponsors who are matching my donation. With their help and yours, we are trying to reach our goal of $10,000! If you don’t want to build along you can always donate directly. And if you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, please feel free to contact me. 100% of proceeds benefit Livestrong.
When you finish your rocking horse, simply send me a picture and your build will count toward our final tally. All pictures must be submitted by November 14th.
Our Sponsors
Special thanks to our individual sponsors: Erik Gilling, Joseph Buscemi, and Jason Small.
59 Responses to “159 – Rocking Horse Pt. 2”
Oh, dude, love the ‘stache…
Gotta get out there and build me a horsey…
That’s awesome Marc
Nicely done! Hope the little guy loves it.
Could have done without the ‘stache and outfit at the end though. You sort of look like a cross between Groucho Marx and Sherrif Woody.
Do without the stache and outfit???? Bite your tongue sir!
Bite thine tongue indeed!! The ‘stache and outfits are what keep me coming back!! Well… that and the free coffee…
I stand corrected….consider it bitten!
Sweet horsey. Cant wait to finish mine. Marc, you need more projects with googly eyes. It was also good to see Nicole again. Yippie Ki Yay!
That outfit is priceless. A new TWW character is born!
Great stuff,
I do find the level of detail and pace of your videos very helpful to someone new as myself
I have a few mistakes(chip-outs) that I will need to fill. Can you make any recommendations for what I should use on the pine board?
Thanks
If they are severe, you might consider making a patch with wood. Basically, rout out a section so you have so nice even lines to work with. Then drop in a patch with the grain in the right direction. If it is minor, you could always try a filler. I like Timbermate personally.
It looks great Marc! With a big eye like that I think the rocking horse passes for use by children under 3. Love it!
Thanks for the mention Marc. More importantly though, I’m glad to see you were able to use the suggestion and morph it into a form that worked for you. I hope it helps countless other WWers.
First, great design and good instruction. AWESOME mission. You should be proud, Marc.
But, did anyone else notice the new sustainers behind him? Two of them…hmmm…did green fever and a marketing deal induce another purchase? An RO 90 and the CXS? :)
hehe thanks very much Tony. Let’s just say I still have friends in green places… :)
Two things Marc; First Congratulations! When you did the gaming/trestle table I had teased that if you and Nichol spend too much time at the games, there would be no little woodwhisperers. I am very happy to see that you are now going to be a father. We have nine, which brings me to point two; this build is just perfect for my boys to tackle as it will give them two lessons:how to build a useful project and the benefit of doing something for others. This is my livelihood yet we have also contributed article for a fire relief sale for a neighbours house which burned down two days after Christmas. Giving to others is something which we must all do to remain somewhat human. Sorry for the sermon; another occupation. Oh, and Nichol is right, you will have to give up the horsey, but do take time to play with your son!!!:-)
Just received my ‘kit’ from Bell Forest. Sadly it’s not a large board, or even several boards which will let me cut one body piece from each board. I have an array of 6-8″ boards which are flat on one side, and a couple which are around 12″ wide. The wood is really nicely milled, but not going to work very well for this project. Just waiting to hear back from Bell to see what they say.
For now, I’d recommend not going with their kit.
Having rechecked the boards, the max width is 7.5″, and most are 5.5″.
Hey Neil. Don’t take this the wrong way but the Bell Forest page specifically says the following:
What you can expect from this package: Enough kiln-dried Poplar or Soft Maple lumber to build one Rocking Horse (approx: 14 board feet). The package includes several boards, chopped into 36″ lengths, planed smooth to 13/16″, with one straight edge. You will also receive a 3/4″ x 8″ wood dowel to use for the handle.
Lumber Thickness: 13/16″
Lumber Widths: 3-1/2″ to 8″
Lumber Lengths: 36″
So Marc, is the idea that we glue up the boards into the widths needed for the plans? And will that be strong enough?
I’m still fairly new to woodworking, and the kit seemed like the best option as not having a planer/jointer the kit seemed to suggest that this work was done already. Most of my work currently is small scale puzzles, to very high tolerences where I don’t need planers and jointers.
I’m happy to have a go at putting the boards together into something workable, but I guess my point is if you’re hoping this is a good way to go, as a novice, it’s not going to be the right thing.
I guess I was expecting a kit to be slightly closer to what you need with less work required rather than more. Live and learn I guess!
Thanks for the info!
Yeah, the idea is to glue the panels up yourself. But frankly, the easiest most beginner-friendly option is to do exactly what I did in the video and use a pre-laminated panel. The kits were really intended for folks who want to us a nicer hardwood, which you won’t find pre-laminated. So you need to glue up the boards to get the full width. And it’s definitely strong enough, assuming the joints are nice and even.
Neil – I’m currently working on my kit from Bell Forest. They sent me 11 boards of varying widths, all 36″ in length. I cleaned up the rough edge on the table saw, then I split the boards into 2 groups of 5 boards – so I’ll have one board left over for something else. I’ll glue 5 boards together into one large piece, do the same for the other 5 and then you can cut your parts out of the two large glue-ups. I’ve found I can cut one horse template plus all of the smaller parts out of one of the glue-ups, and then I have the other one for the other horse template. The left over piece of that 2nd glue-up will surely find a use as a cheese board or something.
Brilliant. Thanks Mike.
I’ll clean the boards up and see how I get on. Good to know that it wasn’t a mistake and that everything should work out just fine.
Looking forward to a weekend of woodworking.
Nice video! One idea is to not glue the saddle top on if you need to disassemble the rocker for repairs. That looked like a high quality screw driver you had there!
During the assembly of the saddle, I couldn’t help but think that the contact points seem a little tenuous. Even though you are using construction adhesive (which tends to be pretty strong) the fact that remains that the saddle itself is sitting on four edges. Wouldn’t it be better to bevel those areas down so that you were attaching the saddle to a much flatter surface?
That’s definitely a good idea.
Don,
I made this project for my little one in December 2009. I glued the saddle on as noted and it hasn’t budged. As Marc often says “frankly” I think the way it is will hold up for you as well as long as you use a gap filling glue and don’t put a full sized adult version of Sheriff Woody on it every day as seen in the video. The effort you’d put into it to bevel the edges to form a plane for greater parallel glue surface wouldn’t be seen or add much (if any) structural value. Enduring designs have always been those that rely on well fitting joints versus adhesives.
If you’re really concerned though, in my opinion plugged screws similar to the construction of the rest of the horse would provide the most abuse resistance when coupled with glue because they would provide lateral (shear) and uplift resistance. You could also install dowels, biscuits et cetera before gluing the seat on too. In any case, most of the imposed loads on the seat are from gravity. Thrust loads in the longitudinal direction would tend to be transferred into the horse via mechanical transfer because the seat is trapped at the front and back. Additionally, lateral forces applied to the seat tend to be mechanically transferred into the body of the horse through the notch in the saddle at the rear. Loads at the front would be transferred into the horse’s neck (mullet) because the notch at the rear would only allow the saddle to pivot. The neck at the front would prevent this and thereby mechanically transfer the load again. To me the original design is solid. It doesn’t seem that transfer of forces through additional adhesive strength achieved through increased surface area at the bond is required. :)
So Marc, did you own that outfit before or after you decided on the rocking horse? Needed a reason to wear it eh? :) I can’t wait to get mine done.
Billiam,
You can’t wait to finish your outfit or the rocking horse? :P
Good work Marc :) So now you have 999 left to build :)
I’ll do my own for sure!
btw. it was my kids wooden bike – (my friends project and realisation)
Marc!
When I grow up I want to be like you. =)
Excellent video, as always.
I am using the wood jequitibá to build my horse.
I’m still cutting parts. It’s okay, because jequitibá it is very soft.
Grande abraço!
Hi Marc
Another brilliant video!! And classic cowboy sketch!!!!
Just wondering, if this little horse happens to start bucking, and throws off the rider, should we call The Wood Whisperer or The Horse Whisperer? LOL
I’d better get started, but I don’t think mine will be as quick or as nearly nice as your one though!!
Thanks!!
Mark
Poor Nicole,… looking at the 30 minute mark of the video she’ll have two kids to worry about! ;-)
Congrats by the way. Great times, commin’ up!
Worked on my horsey yesterday, I have it sanded and pre-finished. Next weekend I’ll start assembly and hopefully finish it. Only problem: I open up my cse of forstner bits and grabbed the 3/4 and made the hole for the hand grips. I looked at the dowel and thought, too small. I had accidently grabbed the wrong bit, 7/8. I wasn’t going back to the store for another dowel so I turned them on my lathe. Should have done that to start with.
heh heh, Kevin
Nice! I’d like to point out that Kevin is the name of the designer/builder of the original horse. Fitting that Marc should name the horse after him. Also, since Kevin works right around the corner from me, it’s more ammunition I can use.
LP
Yeah I totally did that on purpose. :)
Good idea increasing the size of the eye. The original size would be a choke hazard (Consumer Product Safety Commission says it should actually be > 44mm)
I’m having some issues with trying to get the bottom (A) of the notched section on the saddle straight and smooth.
__ __
/ | | \
/ | A | \
| ————- |
| |
| |
Sorry there are no french curves in ASCII
My jigsawing skill were a poor on this part and I have a wavy area I need to straighten out. Because it is a notch I am having a hard time trying to make nice and clean corners with a straight line.
Is there a way to fix this and or should I just cut a new piece using a straight guide for this part?
Wayne
You don’t happen to have a rasp do you? That would make pretty quick work of cleaning up the notch. If not, you might just try cutting it with a guide and then cleaning up with a chisel.
I can try a rasp but I was afraid I would not be able to keep a straight line using a rasp. Now thinking about it I guess I can us my square to mark the straight line then use the mark a a guide for my rasping.
thanks
That’s pretty much how I would do it. And on a project like this, it doesn’t have to be dead on perfect.
I love this little rocker, and hope to get one built for my 8 month old…that is of course between finishing off the entertainment center and building a bamboo bike frame.
One little tip for the flush cut pieces is to use an old playing card. Drill a hole in the middle of the card the same size as the dowel/plug and slide it on top and cut accordingly. Now your workpiece is protected on all sides and it is reusable for the other pieces.
Marc,
You said spray cans of shellac would work fine. I assume I can get them at Lowe’s. How many cans would it take? Looks like you had a quart in your spray system so is that about 4 or 5 cans of spray aerosols? I’ve got everything cut out and most of sanding done. That adhesive really ate up a lot of sanding disks. Your videos really made the build easy and straight forward and the finishing coaching will be a big help too. Today I make the mane guide today and hopefully get a good start on the finishing. I also used the first half of the horse for a router guide to make the second half. It worked out fine. Thanks for the great lessons.
Honestly John, I don’t use rattle cans very often so I can’t really give you a good estimate. But I did use a little less than a quart for the whole project.
Wow i love your finish, the picture from the plan set loked like a decent toy, but finished the way you did realy makes it look like a true wood craftpiece.
So just a few question on this:
what was the shellac part cut you used ?
and how would you apply it without spraygun ? would you rather use a rag, brush or foam brush ?
Hi Sam. Thanks for the kind words. The cut was straight from the can, which I believe is 3lb. Without a spray gun, I would probably apply the shellac with a brush. But I would recommend diluting that first coat to about a 1lb cut for the purposes of sealing. Final coats can go at full strength. You can use a rag, but I find that gets a little tricky after the first coat. A foam brush will disintegrate. So stick with a brush and try to move quickly. Shellac likes to dry fast!
I tried a foam brush with shellac on a bassinet I made earlier in the year and well, it worked “ok” but I wish I had used something else :) But hey, live and learn.
OK, you state that applying it from a can with a brush will work too. With what material do you cut the shellac. I have your finishing video but have never worked with shellac before. Mineral spirits, denatured alcohol or what should I use. I guess I can go buy a can and read the label but you are the ‘go to’ guy around here.
Denatured alcohol for diluting shellac. :)
Marc,
Awesome vid as usual. Great build and a great cause. I especially like the cowboy outfit and skit at the end. Keep up the good work.
I am going to make those cutouts for the mane and glue them on as appliques…
Forget Groucho, forget Woody!
Marc’s channeling that great (and mis-understood) anti-hero from The Three Amigos…
The Wood Whisperer IS ….. El Guapo!
(And he has ‘eh plethora’ of friends!!!) :)
Just finished cutting and drilling all the parts. To get the main body parts even, I screwed them together (under parts so the holes don’t show) and used my spindle sander to even the edges out. Works nice if you have been careful with the sawing. The belt attachment on my Rigid sander was very nice on the straight sections.
One thing that I did different from the plan was to use the laminated board edge as the flat of the round saddle parts instead of cutting it.
Look forward to finishing this week and thank you for all the help in your videos.
Woody and Groucho nothing!
The Wood Whisperer is channeling that great anti-hero in the Three Amigos….
Marc Spagnuolo IS…… El Guapo!
And he has ‘eh plethora’ of friends!
The INFAMOUS El Guapo???
Marc,
I’m curious to know how many completed horses you had submitted as well as how much money was raised. This was a fun project to build and will make many little kids very happy all while supporting a great cause!
Thanks, Michael
Stay tuned. I’ll have final numbers for you very soon. :)
If it is possible to share all of the pictures that would be great. And thank you for the feed back on our submission, my grandkid were very excited to read it.
Thank you again.
Patrick
I was concerned that the adhesive to secure the seat had very little wood contact given the 10 degree outward angle and wanted a better solution. I used pocket screws which worked great.