Elephant Piggy Bank

I've got some print out of a elephant piggy bank from my wife. So I have to build one, no excuse.

You see the template and the result, some things are different interpreted.

The first step is to draw down the wanted figure for example a elephant and cut out the coutures.

Just repeat the second step two more times and glue the parts together.

I want to see the money falling... so I've cut a notch in the beak of the elephant.

What should I write here? Cut a opening for the sphere. (I've used my jigsaw)

The coin need to fall into the sphere, so cut a opening also in the sphere.

The sphere tightly fit in the "piggy bank" and the nose of the sphere also acts as a bayonet joint.

Also the first test run, the coin actually found it's way.

With the router I've milled the contour of the elephant. It was the first time for me, using the router free handed.

After that I've sanded everything to soften the edges.

The elephant need some support, so I've added some feet for it and a ground plate. Also I've created something like an ear.

The funny thing about the ground plate is, that I've drawn some kind of oval on the board and sawed it somewhere else, because i was dissatisfied with the drawn result...

This is completely done by my wife and friends. I'm hating this, so this step is also entirely written by them...

...

... thats all, just look at the pics.

Nearly everything works well, except coins smaller then the 50 cent these coins are falling through the view slot. The reason for that is quite simple, the inner core of the laminated elephant is to thick, when you rebuild this, only use a plate slightly thicker than your thickest coin.

Furthermore I hope, that my niece like this piece of "art"