Wooden Toy Plane

For this Project, I designed and constructed a model Cessna - type Aircraft. It serves it's purpose as a toy, for a child.

This is the step - by - step process of how I made it.

Drop saw, sand paper, file, glue, square, ruler, pencil, drill,

The first thing that I needed to do was to cut the main body, so everything else can be based around it. I obtained a block of timber with a width of 28mm, and used my tenon saw to cut a wedge out of the corner. The piece was 157mm long, and 28mm deep. I kept it's initial width and work around it. I sanded all the edges to a shallow chamfer.

To go with the wedged tail, I shaped the aft hull into a point with a disk sander, for the detail of aerodynamics. I then conducted a series of cuts, for the front shaping of the plane with the disk sander, and a slot for a set of wings to rest in, using a Japanese cutting tool for it's depth, and chiselling the piece out. This was too, to be sanded down with sand paper.

Using a drop saw, I was able to obtain a piece of timber 24mm wide and 4mm deep, which was very handy for upcoming cuts for pieces. The most significant one of these pieces was the main wing set. I cut a 200mm x 22mm plain and sanded an angle, where it angles the end of the wing to 17mm, from 22mm, which would face aft. The edges were sanded down with sand paper. Once the wing slot is smoothly sanded, the wings may be glued on.

The rudder was made by off-cutting a piece from the 4mm deep cut timber. The rudder is 28mm long on the bottom and 18mm long on the top. It is 26mm high and 4mm thick. It's trapezium shape adds an aerodynamic aesthetic to the plane. With this, a set of smaller wing was made, for the back of the plane. It was cut 60mm long and 16mm wide, and a depth of 4mm. Similar to the main wings, it was cut with a sanding that reduces the outside length to 10mm.

The Rudder was glued onto a marked out line, in the middle of the rear end. Once the drying was underway, I glued the rear wings to the top of the rudder, to save some time. Once dried, I carefully applied a varnish coat to the Model aircraft and the Plane was complete!