10-20-2015, 08:20 AM
My son turned 1 in July, and my wife had been asking me when I would build something for him. Now, keep in mind we moved when she was 9 months pregnant, so I haven't had a TON of time to spend in the shop organizing or building... But I had been thinking about doing one of these, then she suggested it! Funny how that works sometimes...
So I started looking for ideas and came across this youtube video which I really liked. So I got started...
First I laid out the inch markings and drilled holes at the end the same diameter as the router bushing I planned to use.
Then, using my miter gauge, I made some stopped cuts on the TS for the slots.
Next I secured a fence to the bottom with some glue and brads (sounds like Norm!) and made a test cut with a V notch bit. I realized that if there was any crown to the board, the thickness of the notches would vary, so I switched to a 1/4" spiral down-cut for the final product.
First few feet done... If the layout jig was perfect, you'd register (by eye or with a key) the first inch of each subsequent foot with the last inch of the previous one. I had laid out 6" markings the length of the board ahead of time and ended up making fine adjustments before clamping the jig down. Could be slight variation in the jig, or the bushing isn't centered perfectly... tough to say.
I rattle-canned some poly on first to seal the grain so the paint wouldn't run, then hit it with black.
After several trips thru the drum sander at a sliiiight angle this is the result. I was running it straight at first, but it was digging into the blank section adjacent to each long notch due to reduced surface area, so a slight tilt on the way thru made the drum pressure even out. See also my thread on drum sander roll cleaning....
I hit the whole thing with more rattle can satin poly and brought it inside for some stencil work by m'lady.
Pencil stencil followed by some shaaapie work, and here you have it. Should be noted we experimented with both bare and poly'd wood, painting over a stencil, paint pen, and sharpie, and the sharpie over poly'd wood bled the LEAST under the stencil, and you can sand out imperfections...
And here's my Jack next to the final product. My wife is the Mets fan, I grew up in New England
Even my dad is rooting for the Mets since he doesn't have to root against the Yankees this year 
Here's a close up. You can see there's still a little bleeding... I tried the down-spiral bit to try and reduce chip-out which would obviously give the paint more avenues to bleed, an I'm sure if you used a more dense wood than home depot 1x12 it would be cleaner, but it's not bad from normal viewing distance.
After posting a couple of these pics on Facebook, I had a few friends ask me to make one (the guy in the youtube video warns of this!!), and the engineer in me knew he could do a better job on the jig, so I ordered a large plastic cutting board from amazon, and had a buddy of mine who runs a CNC mill cut me some slots. It warped the board slightly, so I screwed it onto a heavy piece of white oak as a fence, and added another piece of oak to the back to further flatten it. Making the first one for a friend now, I'll probably show it in my woodworking club's show in November before I give it to her.
It's a fun project, and having the jig makes it easy to make more. Fire away with questions
Thanks for looking!
So I started looking for ideas and came across this youtube video which I really liked. So I got started...
First I laid out the inch markings and drilled holes at the end the same diameter as the router bushing I planned to use.
Then, using my miter gauge, I made some stopped cuts on the TS for the slots.
Next I secured a fence to the bottom with some glue and brads (sounds like Norm!) and made a test cut with a V notch bit. I realized that if there was any crown to the board, the thickness of the notches would vary, so I switched to a 1/4" spiral down-cut for the final product.
First few feet done... If the layout jig was perfect, you'd register (by eye or with a key) the first inch of each subsequent foot with the last inch of the previous one. I had laid out 6" markings the length of the board ahead of time and ended up making fine adjustments before clamping the jig down. Could be slight variation in the jig, or the bushing isn't centered perfectly... tough to say.
I rattle-canned some poly on first to seal the grain so the paint wouldn't run, then hit it with black.
After several trips thru the drum sander at a sliiiight angle this is the result. I was running it straight at first, but it was digging into the blank section adjacent to each long notch due to reduced surface area, so a slight tilt on the way thru made the drum pressure even out. See also my thread on drum sander roll cleaning....
I hit the whole thing with more rattle can satin poly and brought it inside for some stencil work by m'lady.
Pencil stencil followed by some shaaapie work, and here you have it. Should be noted we experimented with both bare and poly'd wood, painting over a stencil, paint pen, and sharpie, and the sharpie over poly'd wood bled the LEAST under the stencil, and you can sand out imperfections...
And here's my Jack next to the final product. My wife is the Mets fan, I grew up in New England
Even my dad is rooting for the Mets since he doesn't have to root against the Yankees this year Here's a close up. You can see there's still a little bleeding... I tried the down-spiral bit to try and reduce chip-out which would obviously give the paint more avenues to bleed, an I'm sure if you used a more dense wood than home depot 1x12 it would be cleaner, but it's not bad from normal viewing distance.
After posting a couple of these pics on Facebook, I had a few friends ask me to make one (the guy in the youtube video warns of this!!), and the engineer in me knew he could do a better job on the jig, so I ordered a large plastic cutting board from amazon, and had a buddy of mine who runs a CNC mill cut me some slots. It warped the board slightly, so I screwed it onto a heavy piece of white oak as a fence, and added another piece of oak to the back to further flatten it. Making the first one for a friend now, I'll probably show it in my woodworking club's show in November before I give it to her.
It's a fun project, and having the jig makes it easy to make more. Fire away with questions
Thanks for looking!
Benny
