On Jan 4, 5:31*am, F Murtz wrote:
Any one know where to get ideas and or plans for a real looking rocking
horse.
One that is more or less anatomically correct and real looking.
I would imagine you would glue bits of solid wood together and carve
with that favorite implement, wait for it, ANGLE GRINDER

Please, no offense intended.

Have you attempted to build a more basic rocking horse, before you
launch into a carousel project? You can learn quite a bit by tackling
one of those before you start investing in gluing bits of expensive
hardwood together and attacking with an angle grinder.

Actually, the angle grinder is probably one of the tools of choice.
Years ago, before HGTV sold out to real-estate programs, they carried
a program called Modern Masters. The program featured several
craftsmen in the class of Sam Maloof and others. One of them was a
retired Navy officer who was making a name for himself by building
beautiful, sculptured rocking horses. One of his main shaping tools
was an angle grinder with which he used a variety of rasping tools and
coarse grinding and sandpaper heads. He used to have a web site, but
I cannot find it now. This one gives you an idea of the work:

http://cambridgerockinghorse.com/faq

Another good tool is a hand-held sanding drum. They are a little hard
to find, but Grizzly makes a couple that I have used for years:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/4-x-...-Sanders/H2881
http://www.grizzly.com/products/7-1-...-Sanders/H2882

Yes, they are pricey, and others are downright obscenely priced; but
the price has nearly doubled in the past few years, so you might want
to get them soon.

I have built five sturdy hardwood horses over the past 5-6 years and
the drum is an invaluable tool. I also use an oscillating spindle
sander to shape parts that are added such as saddles, tails, etc. My
pattern is adapted from about three commercially available patterns
and quite a bit of my own design. Two have gone to grandkids, one was
sold at cost ($200+) to a friend and two were donated to our church as
fund raisers. All use 3-4 different, contrasting hardwoods and some
inlay work. I have seen similar horses on the web or at woodworking
shows in the $450-700 range. They take 70-80 man-hours to get to the
finishing stage. Once we finish 'finishing' our home I want to crank
interest back up and perhaps look at building horses that are more
challenging. I am proud of my rockers, but they are child's-play
compared to carousels.

My point from all of this rambling is, start with a more basic plan
before you jump off of a frustrating and expensive cliff. You will
learn. Even after five comparatively simple horses, details still
haunt me. The seemingly simple act of matching feet to a rocker base
is not mastered yet. Each one of my rockers is made up of five
laminated pieces of hardwood (10 for two rockers). Planning the
cutting and lamination of the pieces will save $ in waste; and
matching grain patters adds beauty. Saddles are fun. What you will
learn, even from simpler projects, is there is a lot of geometry
involved in getting horses to fit together, and getting them on their
feet.

So there. Enough blabbing. Good luck!

RonB