Corrections on the Carousel - Part 32

It has been a week.  There is a lot going on now that Spring has arrived.  This week I have not had much time to put into my carousel project.  What time I did spend was working on fixing some problems that have cropped up.

Last week, I worked on drilling the holes in the animals so that they would be able to be mounted on their dowels.  That was a lot of work, and I had to give my hands a few days of rest before proceeding.  When I did finally get a chance to work on the next step, things just started to go a little wrong.  Fixable, but definitely some things needed change.

The problem started with the top layer of the carousel.  Regular readers may remember that there are small spheres that needed to be drilled to fit the dowels.  They were glued over holes that had been drilled in the plywood.  Their purpose is to help keep the dowels perpendicular to the other platforms.

I was assembling the animals and the layers of the platforms to give the carousel its full test run.  The previous tests on the carousel were done with only a couple of animals to make sure that the animals would stay on the track as planned.  The trouble started when I was tilting the top layer to insert the dowels.  Even though I had checked to make sure the drilled spheres were firmly attached before I started, they immediately started to roll when I started to push the dowels through.  The problem is that the spherical shape did not have enough gluing surface to give the spheres a firm hold.  So, I had to begin again on that segment.  I had to file off the old glue and then file down the bottom of each sphere to have a flatter gluing surface.  For good measure, I also used a thicker glue than before. That seemed to fix that part of the problem.  

I have not totally addressed the second part of the problem.  If you have been following this project from the beginning, you would know that I have had to make some changes from my original plans.  The main change was that I needed to downsize the carousel. I had originally planned to have two rows of three animals.  The problem was that to make that happen, the carousel was so large that I had absolutely nowhere to put it.  I cut the size down to eighteen inches in diameter and at first planned to use four animals, then decided that five animals looked better.  (In art, odd numbered gatherings look better than even numbered gatherings.)  So, I drew the pattern and my husband drilled in the five holes.  When I had set the animals out on the pattern everything looked okay, but it was only after the animals were mounted on the carousel that I could see the problem.

It was all fine until I started to put the animals on the carousel for the test.  I had wanted to use the two horses, the tiger, the ram, and the housecat.  It turns out the cat's tail is so long that it brushes the nose of the animal behind it.  I had also made a rabbit when I was making the six animals.  I think I can make it work if I substitute the rabbit for the cat.  The rabbit is a little less long and has a short fluffy tail.  The tiger may also be a little close to the other animals as well.  I did not get a chance to check that because by that time I was a little upset and thought it was better to quit for the day until I calmed down and had a little perspective on the problem.    I was really hoping that I would have a new picture to show you with all the animals on the carousel.  That is where I left off on the project this week.

So, the project is not ruined, it merely needs a little change to set things right.  I have a really busy week, and it is unlikely that I will even have a chance to work on it until the weekend.  I have some choices to make.  I can use the rabbit instead of the cat; I could cut off the cats tail and replace it with a differently shaped tail that would not be in the way; or I can change course and decide to make more horses and just have horses on this carousel and use the other animals on a smaller carousel.  I won't be able to decide until I can get back in the studio and work it out.    I will let you know in the next blog post. 

Check back Monday or Tuesday for the next post. 

  

The Next Step for the Carousel Animals - Part 31

 Today's post may seem a little short, but I have been working on this process for the past week.  I really made a lot of progress in small places, although I did not take as many photos.

Last week I was gluing up parts of the carousel including the wooden ball that sits on a dowel.  That ball end of the dowel is the part that will ride over the bumps to make the animals go up and down.  This week I wanted to get the animals ready for the dowel end that will be the pole to be able to go through the animals.  I had hoped to run an initial test with all the animals on the platform.  Unfortunately, getting the dowels through the animals was harder than I thought.

This is a view of the Ram, from above.  The ram was the hardest of the animals to make a hole in.  The ram's fleece was made from paper clay.  It felt like it was made from concrete.  I had been using an awl to poke through the initial hole on some animals, but this one was a no go on the ram.  I liked the awl because it was long enough that I was able to poke both the top and bottom pilot holes at the same time.  The paper clay was so tough that the awl could not be poked through it.  

I ended up pulling out a small hand drill that I keep in the craft room.  The good news was the drill was able to get through the paper clay with minimal effort and no additional damage.  The bad news is that it is a small drill and the drill bits were not long enough to go through and drill the second hole at the same time.  It took a lot of meticulous measuring to get the second hole in place.

This is the hole on the underside of the Ram.  The holes were not drilled that large to begin with on any of the animals.  I drilled smaller holes and then used a small round file to work on the holes to make them larger.  It required a lot of testing to make sure the holes fit the dowel firmly.  They needed to be large enough for the dowel to slide through the animal but tight enough to fit snugly for it to hold when it is glued to the dowel.

While I was filing, I had to keep checking to make sure the holes were in alignment.  So, it was filing the circle a little bit and check, file and check, repeat until done.  

I did this for all the animals.  The horses were easier because they were just paper mâché strips and flour paste.  The awl poked through those easily.  The ram, tiger, cat, and rabbit all had additional layers of paper clay to form their fur.  

Anyway, this is a picture of the ram on its stick.  It has not been glued to the stick yet as there is much work to do on all the animals before they are ready for permanent mounting.  They need to have the decorations added and painted before they are mounted for the last time. In this photo the stick is not perpendicular, just propped up against a lamp to give you an idea of how the animals will look.  

By the time I finished the last animal, I was pretty much ready to quit for the week.  It was enlightening as to how thick the paper mâché was.  I think it was nearly a quarter of an inch (6.35 mm) thick on both the back and belly of the ram.  I think that I will have plenty of area for gluing on this.

Anyway, that is the progress for this week.  Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Working on Gluing Things Together - Carousel Project - Part 30

 This week I did not have a lot of time to work on the project, but I have started to glue pieces together.  Things are starting to move quickly on this project.

These pieces are the dowels that will hold the animals and the wooden knobs that will drive over the bumps that will make the animal go up and down.  The drilling was not perfectly sized, and I had to use a rasp on each one to get the final fit.  I also found that the dowels are not exactly symmetrical also.  

The dowels will be set aside until it is time to mount the animals on them.  It is another one of those "which came first the chicken or the egg moments."  I would like to go ahead and paint them while they do not have the animals mounted on them, but I have to glue the animals to the pole because the glue will not hold as well on paint.  As one person on the internet had explained in a video I watched years ago, "the hold of the glue would only be as strong as the hold of the last coat of paint."  His advice was spot on and although I no longer remember who that was, I would like to thank him for that piece of sage advice.

I am not sure I have mentioned the size of these round platforms recently.  Each of the plywood platforms is eighteen inches (45.72 centimeters) in diameter and one half inch (12.5 mm) thick.
  

The round, flat wheel shapes have been glued onto the second layer of plywood.  This layer is where the animals will be placed. They have been drilled out to slightly larger than the dowels (pictured above) because they are guides to help hold them straight up and down.  The dowels need to be able to move freely with no friction.  The dowels will be inserted upwards from below the platform and the knobs on the ends will rest on the bumps that make the animals go up and down.  

I might have preferred some differently shaped pieces here, but I wanted to use what I could find at the local craft store rather than trekking into the city to find better pieces at a wood working store.  

 This photo shows the third platform which forms the roof.  The dowels with knobs will come up from beneath the roof and poke through the holes in the knobs.  Once again, the knobs will help guide the dowel to keep going straight up and down.  I had actually thought that this might be a set of the wooden wheels would be underneath these knobs to make a more decorative look on this section, but I think that it made for a better glue joint without them.  The wheels are not flat on both sides.  One side has a small indentation in it leaving just a couple of thin areas that make for a very small gluing area.

At this point the dowels have not been cut to their final length.  I have not yet decided whether I want the dowels to be flush with the top of the knobs or whether I want to have them extend slightly higher than the knobs to show how the mechanism works.  

The main thing is that the dowels need to come up into the knob to reinforce the dowel being plumb.  The rotating platform will drag the knobs on the dowels over the bumps, and the friction is going to cause the knobs to slightly lag behind the platform.  The reinforced areas will help keep the drag to a minimum. (See previous blog posts for a photo of the bottom platform with the bumps attached.)

I gave the glue twenty-four hours to dry before dry fitting the platforms together (along with the oatmeal box that is a stand in for the central column) and gave it a test to make sure that everything was lined up.  The knobs on the dowels fit across the bumps and everything stayed in line.  The knobs went up and down as hoped.  I was ecstatic!  I can hardly wait to see what this looks like with the four other animals attached.

This photo is the same from last week.  I did not take another after the test.  The animals have not yet been mounted onto the dowels.

Once again, many thanks to my husband who did the sawing and drilling and helped out with technical advice.  This project is much the better for his input and encouragement.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

A Sneak Peak at How the Carousel Build Will Look and Project Update - Part 29

 This week I was able to put some of the parts of the carousel together to see the shape of things to come for the carousel.  I won't keep readers in suspense.  I am blogging about this first because I know that most readers will want to see that.  This is the first picture.  Although nowhere near completed, it gives me some inspiration for the future of the project.

The bottom platform holds the rotating mechanism (see previous posts for photos of that).  I will post more pictures of it in future posts.  The second platform will be for the animals and will have a plank wood floor overlaying the plywood.  I have not yet decided on whether to cover the first layer with a curtain or leave it open so people can see how the mechanism works.  I cannot completely close it in because the rotating mechanism has an on/off switch and an eye so it can be turned on and off by remote control.  Either way, it needs some kind of access.

At this point, the top looks a little high, but that is because the horse is not yet fitted to the pole.  It is just propped up against it.  Once the horse has the holes drilled for the pole to go through it, the horse will not be standing on the platform.  It will be about a half an inch off the ground.  It needs some head room to make sure that when the horse is moving over the higher section of the bumps below that it has enough clearance to make it look right.

Although the animal forms are complete, they do not yet have the saddles, bridles, or the flower and ribbon decorations.  I did not want to start that part of the project yet until I knew where I needed to drill the holes to mount the animal on the pole.  I cannot begin the painting of the animals until all of that is complete.  For those new to the carousel blogs, I say animals not horses because there are different animals on this carousel.  It will have two horses, a house cat, a tiger, and a ram.  I had seen a carousel once that had those animals and more, and that carousel was an inspiration for this piece.  Although now, seeing this prancing horse on the carousel makes me sort of wish I had made all horses.  I hope that will pass.  I don't want to spend months making more horses, but I remind myself that there is still time.

Imagine the future top of the carousel.  It will not be flat.  I am thinking it will have a multi-colored top that will look like a circus tent.  The protruding parts of the dowels will be cut down to an inch or half an inch above the ball on the roof.  More on the reason for those balls will be in future posts.

The center pillar, which at the moment is a full box of oatmeal to make it sturdy enough to hold up the plywood, will be the oatmeal box reinforced externally and internally to make it strong enough to carry the weight.  It may have some other filler in the center for extra support (but not oatmeal).  Once that is completed it will be painted and probably have some mirrors on it to reflect the animals as they go around the circle.  

Anyway, this is the first glimpse I have had of how the carousel might work.  It is just the basic start of the project, but it has given me a lot of encouragement.  I needed it.  In long term project like this it can be discouraging at times.  When I think of how much work needs to be done to complete it sometimes, I just want to crawl into a corner somewhere.  The only way to combat that is to focus on just the next step.  That is all I have to do today is the next step.  The project will finish in its own time.  

I do sometimes sell a piece when I have held it long enough to become bored with it, but I do not like to do things on commission because I don't like to be under pressure to complete a project.  Some people thrive on pressure, but I am not one of them.  Making things is my "happy place" where I go to escape the stresses of life.  I don't want to complicate that.

Today's project update is to show that the holes have been drilled out for the balls to fit onto the dowels that will be the poles for the horses and the ones that will sit on the roof.  The craft store did not have the balls and wheels with the size hole that I needed.  That is probably just as well, because I am finding that the dowels are not exactly uniform throughout its length.  Even after drilling, I am finding that I need to do a little filing with a small file to make the balls fit where I need them to fit.  Some of them have to be tight enough to hold when glued in place.  Others need to be loose enough to support the dowel but allow for free movement.  

So, as I said earlier, I only need to focus on the next step.  One step at a time this project is moving forward.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next blog post.

Testing and Fine Tuning the Base - Part 28

 I gave the base its first test.  It was difficult and I hope my post today will save my readers some time and aggravation should anyone decide to try it.  The problem can be described as "which came first the chicken or the egg."  The test was difficult because the bumps were only held down by tape.  The other part was that without the rest of the structure built, holding the ball and stick in its proper position was not easy, the stick kept shifting position.  And a third problem is that since the platform that would hold the animals was not yet glued to the rotating platform, the drag from the ball sliding across the bumps pulled the base off center.  So, we had to come up with a solution.  My husband and I had to come up with a way to test the design.  We knew that it could require some fine tuning.  But I am getting ahead of myself here let me back up a step and to from there.

This photo is a showing the top two carousel platforms taped together with the pattern on top.  The holes were drilled through both pieces at once.  My husband also added a few registration marks so they could be matched up again in case it became a problem later and it was important to use the holes matched together with their original partner.

We tried to use them with the first test by setting the rotating stand in place and putting the ball and stick between the platforms and turning the rotating platform on while holding the stick in place by hand.  That did not work.  The tape was not strong enough to hold down the bumps, and the drag of the ball and stick pulled them up and out of line.  Without the internal pillar that will be the main support of the roof holding up the third platform, we could not get the stick to stay upright and the ball in the center of the bump.  I will also add that we had not yet drilled the hole to make the stick fit into a ball and were using an unglued prototype. 

We knew that the bumps, cut from a 2x4 plank would need a little fine tuning.  It was better to cut them a little large and cut them down as needed.  We had to make sure they were in correct position before we made any cuts.  My husband came up with the solution.  We place the two platforms with the pattern on top of the rotating platform and put a flashlight on top of a hole.  The light shining through the hole showed where the stick would sit when it was straight up and down.  With that we were able to see where the bumps needed to sit for it to be going over the center of each bump.  My husband was able to determine which pieces needed to be cut or repositioned.  He put tape down on the wooden platform and marked each piece that was out of line.  

After that, he was able to cut a little off some of the pieces as needed to make them fit.  After that we did another flashlight test.  When all the pieces were deemed to be in line, I marked the positions and glued down the bumps and the center platform.  (In case you missed this in a previous post, it turned out that the rotating platform by itself was about a half inch too low for my project. The center piece is the workaround for that.)

I just wanted to say another word about the rotating display stand that I am using to turn the carousel.  It has an electrical plug.  It is not battery powered.  This platform comes with a remote control.  That was important for this project because it would be difficult (but not impossible) to reach under the carousel to turn it on and off otherwise.  It is weight rated for 45 pounds, so there should not be any issue with the weight of the plywood.  It also has some features that I will have no need for, such reversing the rotation and also having the rotation pause at degrees of your choosing, and more that I have not even played with yet.  

Anyway, with those tests complete, I marked the new positions and glued down the bumps and the platform for the rotating stand.  That is where I left off on the project this week.  I wanted to give the glue time to dry before going further.

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the latest on the project.

The Wooden Carousel Base - Part 27

 I am making progress on the carousel base.  The three round plywood platforms have been cut.  It took so long because the weather has been crazy around here.  We had two days that were beautiful with temperatures at 85 and 87 degrees Fahrenheit (29.44 and 30.55 C.)  I admit that it was so nice to be able to get outside, that my husband and I decided to take some time off from everything and get outside and enjoy the nice weather.  The day after it was 87F. out, it snowed.  We only received an inch, but we had to wait for the snow to melt before sawing the wooden circles.

This photo shows the first platform with the bumps that will make the animals go up and down.  At the moment they are only taped in place until we make a full test run.  The test was delayed because I found that the bumps are about half an inch too high once the bead that will hold the dowel that travels over the bumps was added.  The height of the bead made it about half an inch (12.7 mm) higher than the height of the carousel turntable.  I will post more about testing the carousel on the next post.

Anyway, the solution to that problem was to add a center platform to raise the base of the turntable. Again, this caused a delay in the project due to rain.  We don't have a space that could be used indoors for this type of work.  

Once we test the carousel, the center platform will be glued in when I glue in the bumps.  At some point, a hole will have to be drilled into the base so that the electrical cord can be threaded through it.  This base will have feet attached to the bottom to lift it up enough to keep it off the electrical cord.  I do not want to drill the hole until we know exactly where everything will sit.  

Hurray! The most intimidating part of the project has been completed.  After the test, we may have to fine tune the humps just a little bit.  

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for a new update on this project.

Starting to Build the Carousel Base

 After a few weeks of getting nowhere on this project, I am finally starting to get back on track.  The parts have arrived and the weather has at least temporarily cleared.  One of the bigger hurdles has been reached.  The humps that will cause the animals to go up and down have been cut.  Many thanks to my husband for helping me design the bumps and cutting and sanding them for me.  He took my basic design idea and helped me to figure out what needed to change.  This part of the project is going to be so much better for his input.

The photo shows the wooden bumps on a poster board mockup of the base for the carousel.  They will eventually be glued (and possibly screwed into) a half inch (1.27 centimeters) plywood.  I am waiting for my husband to cut out the plywood circles.  I will need three of them.  One for the base that the bumps will be glued to, one for the floor that will have the carousel animals on it, and one to be the base of the roof.  

The platform that will make the carousel rotate will sit in the center of this bottom base and will also be the primary support for second level.

We also decided that I could fit five animals on the carousel.  I had been thinking of just using four, but the odd number actually looks better.  Right now, I am thinking that I will use the two horses, the tiger, the house cat, and the ram.  The rabbit will be turned into a free-standing figure as a stand-alone project.  I was still considering making the base larger to accommodate the rabbit, but the issue is that this is already a large project and I just do not have the room for the larger carousel.  Currently, the base is eighteen inches (45.72 cm.) and would have to increase to (60.96 cm) in order to add the other animal. 

(Sorry for the open space.  The blog platform will not allow me to post the pictures where I want them.  Another paragraph or so will be below.)

This photo shows the rotating platform I will be using for this project.

Some of the carousel animals that will be used.  The house cat is missing from this photo.  The horses are temporarily supported by some props as they do not stand alone.  

Hopefully, my husband will have time to cut out the plywood circles this week.  I am looking forward to getting through the mechanical part of this project so I can get back to working on decorating and painting the animals.  

Check back next Monday or Tuesday for the next post.