Lynn's Horse Tutorial

MWhittlinman · #1 10-28-2007, 01:19 PM

Has anyone tried carving the Horse with saddle that Lynn has on his website? I wanted to try something new and different so I gave it a try. His technique is quite interesting in the way he puts a carving together. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas as to how you get accurate holes drilled for dowels to put the horse body together. I would think that it needs to be almost perfect so everything fits and the feet are level. I've tried a few different ways but it always is off just a hair. There gotta be a better way. I would appreciate any help.
Thanks,
Mac McClurg
Dallas, TX

Thomp · #2 10-29-2007, 02:53 AM

you could write Lynn for the easy method. his email address is on his site.
but in case you did and hes not answering heres what i remember..

Lynn's
method works on the saw dust in the holes on the side you drill.

ok when you drill the holes for the small dowels there is a slight amount of sawdust left in the half that was drilled, don't bump that dust out...

you sandwich the 2 halves together and lay them flat on the table. with the side you drilled on top. insure there aligned perfectly,
then tap the top and slowly lift straight up on the side of the horse with the holes drilled in it.

DON'T SNEEZE! and quickly take a pencil and draw a circle around the saw dust piles... there is the placement for your receiver holes for the pins...

if your already pre drilled and they don't align, i would say glue and fill the holes with dowel cut them off flush and try again, don't sand... go to method 3.

method #2
sharpen a pencil, leave the loose graphite on the lead, draw on the inside edge of the holes around the inside of the lip of the hole.. do this on all holes and then mate up the 2 parts with the half with holes on top..

don't slide it around you get one chance to set it down mated..

the graphite will transfer and leave a faint mark.. thats your mating holes..

#3
if all above fails.
cut a length of dowel for each hole thats just proud of the surface by 1/8th
chuck each one up in a drill and sand a point on each one, cut several and do this all at once.
( don't try it with 2 dowels, ) make one point for each hole...

sand each dowel diameter smaller a little for easier removal..

place all the dowels in the drilled mating side, set the other side and insure proper alignment, then bump the wood driving the pins into the undrilled side.. with your hand to transfer the points into the basswood,
you could color the points with pencil lead to insure transfer but the points should suffice.

drill the holes as needed then with needle nose pliers pull out all the short dowels, that stayed in the holes, and replace with perminate ones. if there messed up you may have to re drill the pins out with a smaller drill bit, followed with a tiny screw to extract wood alignment pins... work slowly and it will come out.

if i was doing the procedure over a re drilled surface i would use the foaming polyurethane glue.. to get the expanding coverage, deep into the sloppy holes..

good luck
hope i didn't give you to many options

Hi_Ho_Sliver · #3 10-29-2007, 10:50 AM

another thing you can do, is not finish carve the area where the two pieces of wood are joined, dowel them and glue them, then do your finish carving, they will look like they belong there.

Myron Compton · #4 10-30-2007, 07:04 AM

Hello Mac
I made a very simple jig to do this. I will try to get some pictures posted this evening after work. Using the jig, I had no mis-match at all after assembly... Myron Compton

Myron Compton · #5 10-30-2007, 09:39 PM

Here is my jig for drilling the 1/4" dowel holes for good alignment. It's a simple 4" x 12" x 3/4" board with the (2) 1/4" holes drilled thru at the correct location. It's best to drill these holes on a drill press so they are Perpendicular to the face of the board. On two edges of the board I have glued & nailed small pieces of wood to act as stops. Side A is for the right side of the horse. Side B is for the left side of the horse. Just put your horse blank in position up against the stops and drill the holes to the correct depth. Keep your jig, you may make lots of these horses. Pictures 1 and 2 are for the right side and pictures 3 & 4 are for the left side.....Good luck.....Myron

MWhittlinman · #6 10-31-2007, 01:53 PM

Thanks Myron, that is as simple as you can get. I guess I was thinking too hard about it that I made it too tough for my simple mind. Thanks again

arnie · #7 11-02-2007, 09:55 AM

Go back to Lynn's blog and see how he did the head. Your jig is creative but Lynn's way is better and faster. One thing Lynn didn't mention is when you drill a hole you usually get a slightly raised outer circumference of the hole which transfers the graphite easily. arnie

Myron Compton · #8 11-02-2007, 10:05 AM

Maybe so Arnie,
But before you condemn it, you should try it. I guess we have got to float our own boat....Myron

arnie · #9 11-02-2007, 10:31 PM

holy cow Myron! I'm not condemning your your jig,in fact I'll be very interested in seeing the one you make to attach the head,Arnie

Hi_Ho_Sliver · #10 11-03-2007, 10:05 AM

sometimes I take a very small finish nail, cut off short...maybe 3/8 to 1/2 inch long, put the blunt end in the center of one side and only leave it sticking out about 1/8 of an inch, that way you can get close enough to line up the two parts..then press them together and it will dimple the other side exactly where you want the dowel. getting the drilled hole exactly right is a bit trickier, I put the dowel in one side and if its a little off, leaning one way or another, I simply wobble out the other hole with my drill until they fit...won't matter a twit when they are glued. my way, long way from the only way tho