First Full Setup of Carousel with all Animals - Part 33

Readers, I apologize for the late post.  Apparently, I never hit the publish button.   I did not see it until I signed on this morning.  

Regular readers may recall that I ran into some problems with the carousel last week.  After I downsized the platform for the carousel, one of the animals was causing a problem because it was too long.  The cat had a long fully extended tail.  It was brushing against the nose of the animal behind it.  I substituted the rabbit for the cat and that worked out without further trouble.  I really wanted to use the cat but sometimes on a project you have to make a change in direction in order for things to work.

Last week was a busy week for me and I really did not have any time to work on the project until this past weekend.  I was able to get some time to dry fit the whole carousel.  

Nothing is glued in at this point.  It was just a trial to make sure that everything was going to work as planned.  This was the first full test run with all the animals on it.  I was pleased that the animals all stayed on track and went up and down nicely.  

The photo makes it look like the poles are not straight up and down.  They are in real life, but since nothing is glued in place, yet the platforms tended to shift during the test.  I was in a rush, so I did not stop to true up the platforms before I took the pictures.

The next step on the carousel still has to do with the bottom section of the platform.  The motorized platform that will turn the middle and top platforms is electrical, not battery operated.  I did not want to have to take the carousel apart every time the battery needed changing.  The cord for the platform needs to come up from below the carousel.  I did not want to have the hole drilled for the cord earlier on because I needed to make sure where the sensor would face so that the remote could turn it on easily.  

The hole for the plug will be one inch (2.5 cm) in diameter.  I need half an inch (1.27 cm) in diameter for the plug to be able to clear the hole.  I need the extra space because I plan to line the hole with felt to keep the plywood from wearing on the cord.  I may also wrap that part of the cord with a little electrical tape for extra insulation.

This photo shows the rabbit and the ram.  

You can see the dowels extending above the top platform.  I have not cut off the extra length on them yet.  They might be only a little higher than the knobs on top or I might leave them slightly extended and put some pennants on top that will go up and down as the animals move around the platform.  The plans for the decorations for the carousel are subject to change.

I have a cautionary tale on one thing about the carousel.  The knobs that served as the feet of the platform and on the top platform have very little surface area for gluing. They are spherical, so there is only a small amount of surface touching whatever it is sitting on.  The ones on the top platform have even less space after they were drilled so the dowel could go through them.  I have had to go back a couple of times and reglue some of them.  

I think I have fixed that problem once and for all.  I used some Liquid Nails and troweled it in with a flexible painter's knife and really pushed it into the crevices and up the sides of the spheres.  The top ones may need a little sanding.

If I were to do it over again, I would probably go with some square blocks or flat circles rather than the spheres.  The spheres are more decorative but harder to work with overall.

The animal behind this horse is the rabbit.  The ears are pointing in different directions.  At the moment it looks a little weird, but the painting detail will make it more recognizable.

The next step after drilling and lining the hole for the electrical connection is to start to work on the central pillar.  The outer layer will be the oatmeal box covered in paper mâché and painted.  Even as an empty box it is strong enough to support the top platform, but it will also have some inner reinforcement.  I will be blogging on that in a later post.  

Once those tasks are completed, I will be onto the finishing the floor of carousel and painting the base and ceiling of the other two platforms.  Then I can get on to decorating and painting the animals.  That is what I am really looking forward to doing.  But this whole thing is a process.  The platforms need to be ready before I can go further.

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