1890's Style Rocking Horse

Using pre-purchased plans I built an 1890's Style rocking horse for my 5 boys for Christmas. I built 95% of this using a single sheet of 3/4" Furniture grade ply-wood. I used a 2x6 for the supports and some 1/8" plywood to make templates. I also used some fabrics to make some embellishments and make for a smoother ride.

Materials used:

1 x Sheet of 3/4 Furniture Grade Plywood (4' x 8')

1 x Standard 2 x 6 (because it was safer than doubling up plywood to use for the support)

Upholstery Vinyl for the saddle

Imitation sheep skin for the horse blanket

Imitation fur for his little feet and his mane

leather accents for the bridle

Brass hoops for rein supports

Black cotton cord for the reins

Furniture nails for accents

2 Dolls eyes

Broom Handle cut off for handles

Wooden dowels for support

4" screws

Titebond II wood glue

Woodfiller for gaps

Brown, White and Black paint

Tools used:

Jigsaw (used to cut all of the pieces)

Tracksaw (used to cut the sheet into smaller pieces)

Guinevere Sanding System (Used to sand for days....)

Cordless Drill (1/2" bit used for dowels, 1.25" bit used for boring handle holes, 1/8" bit for eye holes)

Cordless Screwdriver (driving in screws to hold it all together while glue set up)

18ga brad nailer (pin together while glue set)

Palm router (1/2" round over bit, used to round over the whole thing)

Files and Rasps (used for shaping body)

Drum sander (used to remove finish from the plywood - not needed if you have unfinished stock)

Spindle Sander (used to make the legs consistent)

Staple gun (used to attach fur and saddle)

Upholstery hammer (used to tap nails in)

Mallet (used to knock in dowels)

Sand paper and drum rollers (used to finish horse prior to painting)

A million clamps (used to secure everything in place)

Paint brushes (for application of glue and paint)

Additional:

Anticipating I would make more than one of these, and in different sizes, I decided to build a set of templates for future use. I built a set based on the original plan dimensions and I also built a set of templates at 135% of original dimensions (this is the set I used to build this horse). The plans I used were purchased from a toymakers site, which were excellent and required little modification. I am sure if you search for 1890's rocking horse you can find the plans I used.

The plans I purchases are designed to be printed on 8.5 x 11 paper, then taped to your stock and cut. I decided that I would make 2 prints. One on 8.5 x 11 and one on 11 x 17.

Using these prints I then followed the instructions and carefully taped them together. Cut them out with scissors and then attached them to 1/8" MDF core Baltic Birch plywood.

Since I wanted these to be cut really precisely I took them over to my bandsaw and using a 1/8" 14 tooth scrolling blade I proceeded to cut all of the parts for each set of templates.

Now I have 2 sets of templates for when I need to do this again.

Printing and making a set of patterns like this also allowed me to get an idea of the scale of the thing at 135% of the plan design. I have big kids, and so I needed to make sure that it would be big enough to last a while.

There is the sheet of 4' x 8' x 3/4" material, I used a pencil to trace around the patterns and then used my Jigsaw along with a plywood cutting blade to chop out all of the pieces. Since I made this 135% of the plan size, it was a really tight fit on the sheet. The second picture is what was left to make the runners and the saddle frame.

Most pieces are doubled up and I held them together with clamps to get a look at how well I did cutting them. I was close but not great.

tip** Here is how I got the legs perfect. I applied some blue painters tape to the leg pieces, then added some superglue on top of the tape. Then I put all of the leg pieces together. This glued the tape together but not the legs. This meant I now had a single stack of leg pieces "glued" together. I took these over to the spindle sander and sat there for an hour making them all uniform. Trying to do this another way would have 1) been harder and 2) not as consistent **

So there it is all cut out - next up initial assembly

I ran all pieces of the horse through the open ended drum sander to remove the finish. I wanted to make sure that the wood glue was able to bond to the wood and not the lacquer. A step you can avoid by getting unfinished materials :)

The legs were easy, since I had already made them uniform. I glued and pinned them together and set them aside to dry.

More challenging was the body. I lined up the head as best as I could and then decided I would make that the reference and true everything else up to it. Doing this again I will make sure I am much closer to the lines than I was. I allowed myself to be on the thick side thinking "I can always sand it off". It's true, you can always sand it off, but adding it back is hard. But.... getting closer to my lines would have saved 3-4 hours (not kidding) of rough sanding the body to shape.

Anyway - all the parts were glued up for the body time to move on to the base.

I shaped the base the same way I did the legs. On the spindle sander. I had a little plywood left over, so decided that I needed to add a platform to the horse.

The main reason being my kids would need to climb up and down, and without it there it was another 6 inches or so down. The other reason was for additional support. The original plans didnt call for this but I think if I make another I would 100% include a platform again.

I used half of a left over 2x6 to make the platform for the horse. I could have doubled up the remaining plywood to make it but I felt better using this. I spaced them out according to my plans and then screwed and glued them in place.

Once the glue had a chance to set up. I drilled two 1/2" holes through the supports and into the 2x6. I then added two 1/2" red oak dowels per side per support. I really wanted this to have a strong base and felt dowels were the best way to secure it, in addition to the 4" screws and 2 applications of titebond (since the endgrain slurped up the first application).

Next I got the horse ready to attach

With the horse now sanded. (Which was at least a full day) and a hole drilled through for the handles. It was time to attach the legs and then position it onto the frame. One note on the handlebar hole - I free handed this, and recommend using a drill press. I only have a small bench top drill press and so was lazy. I got lucky and I am only off a little and its not noticeable. However this could have gone South, so if you can use a drill press or a jig to make sure you're straight.

To get the legs where I wanted them, I marked them out with a pencil and used a drywall screw to hold them in place while I made adjustments lifting the horse on and off the platform until I was happy that the legs were level. Once Level I marked my line with a sharpie, unscrewed the legs and secured the legs to the body using glue and screws. Just like the base, once the glue had set up I drilled 3 holes per leg and added 1/2" dowels to really lock them in place.

I let this all set over night and then the next day I attached the horse to the base.

Of course the horse which sat perfectly on the frame the day before was now off by 3/8" on one foot. Luckily I had some composite shims handy so I trued it up, releveled it and then attached the feet to the base. I used wood glue and two 4" screws in each foot to get it onto the base. Then once it set up I drilled 1/2" holes and added 8" dowels trough the base up into the legs. I let this sit over night and the next day I had what was starting to look like a rocking horse (which weighs about the same as a real horse)

Using some offcuts of the plywood I made the saddle. Attached it to the body using wood glue and pins.

Note here - rather than resawing the 3/4" plywood, I used some of the left over template plywood to make the bridle, collar and the blanket piece. There was enough of the sheet to use - but this plywood was imported and pretty gross on the inside, so I wanted no part of trying to resaw it when I had some nice clean MDF core stuff :)

And now for the oops. As I attached the wooden saddle I looked down and noticed that all 4 feet had cracks in. I either split them using the big screws or hit the dowels in too hard. So I reglued and clamped them back together, then pinned them once they were clamped and left them 24 hours, Now they are solid as a rock, so if you're planning on making on - pilot holes and dont hit the dowels in like a blacksmith and you'll be fine :)

While that was setting up I added the bridle and collar pieces to the head too.

Next we needed to give him a final sanding and prime and paint job.

More sanding. At the time of writing, it is now 3 weeks since I built this thing and the dust is still settling in my shop... I really do think that 75% of woodworking is sanding, even with all the fancy machines I have to make it "easy".

Anyway I got through it, used a spray can of Krylon primer and then painted it in the colors of my wifes choosing. I ended up putting 3 coats of paint on, and put it on pretty thick knowing the abuse it was likely to suffer over time. I just used regular household paint. Once the paint was dry I gave it four coats of a Minwax clear satin lacquer to try and protect it.

He was looking more horse like but now he needed a saddle

With a local fabric store around the corner I was able to pick up some memory foam, some upholstery vinyl and some imitation sheep skin. The vision in my brain was to have the foam stick up at the back to keep the kids in place while on him, then to have a "horse blanket" under the "leather" saddle.

This proved to be much harder than I anticipated.

First problem was where to attach the staple to hold it all there. I did my best to tuck under and staple as I moved from the front the the back. But I think I could have done a better job here.

With how close the legs were to the saddle there wasn't much to be able to get in and secure it. But I did my best and in the end it seems to have held up pretty well.

If I were to make another one, I think I would leave the saddle off completely and then build it separate and add it at the end. But you cant do that with a 90% finished horse and so hopefully we all learned something :D

Also - the original plans dont call for a fancy seat, I just added it because, well, I'm fancy. Speaking of fancy, I found something else at the craft store...

Fur!!

I was thinking about what additional things I could add to make him still look like a classic horse, but also kick him up a notch to really impress the kids. Fur was an easy add.

I had the store cut me a 6" strip that was 6ft long and I used that to go around each foot. I even had a little left at the end too. (which I used on his head).

Time to give him a face!

I had bought some leather to make the bridle and collar but decided that given how expensive it was I would only use it to hold the brass rings.

tip **So the upholstery nails I have found seem to only be 1/2 - 9/16" long, which when hammering into 1/8" leather folded in half and through an 1/8" piece of plywood didnt give much purchase at all. I was worried one tug of the reins and these nails would go flying. I ended up putting two 1" nails in and then covering the heads with the upholstery nails. All of the security and all of the finesse :)

Using the scrap of fur left I added a little to his head and a little to the base of his tail to balance him out. Then knocked in a bunch of upholstery nails where ever my 95 year old father in law supervisor told me to until he was happy.

After a quick wipe down to get rid of all the dust he was ready.

Here he is in all his glory, I used black cotton cord for the reins and tied a knot around each brass loop which tops them pulling them out. I (225lb male) climbed on and gave him a test drive, no creaking or anything bad. He was done! Which meant I got Christmas Eve off, and by off I mean I got to work on something else.... :)

One final picture of him under the tree

Christmas Eve and he was just waiting for his 5 new owners to come busting into the living room.

The boys all loved him, and havent been off of him since they met. They named him Ryder and take it in turns to ride him while watching TV.

This was a super fun project. I used a little bit more than 1 sheet of material when you consider the 2x6 support or the leather / seat padding / fur. But I cant imagine this project any other way.

In total I was at 27 hours and around $300 in materials, some of which I have left over, but I know that's what I spent as I kept track.

Feel free to ask any questions and Happy Horse Building!!

Yeeeee - Hawwwww