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Finished at last!
Checkout my Ferris wheel in the gallery. 
P L E A S E ! After sooooo many hours cutting I tell everyone it's compulsory viewing, ha, ha.
On a thread a while back I wrote that I mainly like cutting small things as they are much easier for me to handle with my limited arm reach so when I decided to make this project I had a few sleepless nights thinking I had really bitten off more than I could chew. However being one who never gives up without a battle I made myself cope and I'm so pleased I did!
I counted EVERY hour from the time I started i.e from laying the pattern, cutting, sanding, oiling and then spray finishing, assembling.. I tallied up over 90 hours and used at least 4 dozen blades.
I cut it on my Delta which was quite a challenge when threading for the inner circle cuts on the wheel as there is not a lot of room on the Delta to lift the piece up. Very, very, awkward process. I started out with a false cutting table about 12inch sq made of MDF and ended with one double that size so that the whole wheel was supported all the time, especially while cutting the most outer edges. This helped me heaps.
The ply was a very light pinkish colour called Baboon which ended up going quite dark after oiling. I decided to brush oil it to make sure I got in all the cuts. Previously I had stained the base and ramp with a walnut stain and had quite a nice contrast between that and the fencing and wheel but lost that contrast when I done the staining. In some ways that dissapointed me a bit because I didn't expect the colour to change so much. However in spite of saying that I'm still so rapt that I have managed to complete the project, especially seeing as I didn't have to seek help with the last couple of rows as I had first imagined I might. In fact they ended up being the slightly easier rows to cut! I also inserted a music box under the base so can wind that up before turning it on to give it a neat effect.
When I decided to do this a friend also decided to make one and so we done it stage by stage together. All the time we laughed and wondered who was pushing who to keep going which was great encouragement. If you have a scrolling friend close by you may also want to consider doing a project stage by stage together. There are many rewards in doing this!
P L E A S E ! After sooooo many hours cutting I tell everyone it's compulsory viewing, ha, ha.On a thread a while back I wrote that I mainly like cutting small things as they are much easier for me to handle with my limited arm reach so when I decided to make this project I had a few sleepless nights thinking I had really bitten off more than I could chew. However being one who never gives up without a battle I made myself cope and I'm so pleased I did!
I counted EVERY hour from the time I started i.e from laying the pattern, cutting, sanding, oiling and then spray finishing, assembling.. I tallied up over 90 hours and used at least 4 dozen blades.
I cut it on my Delta which was quite a challenge when threading for the inner circle cuts on the wheel as there is not a lot of room on the Delta to lift the piece up. Very, very, awkward process. I started out with a false cutting table about 12inch sq made of MDF and ended with one double that size so that the whole wheel was supported all the time, especially while cutting the most outer edges. This helped me heaps.
The ply was a very light pinkish colour called Baboon which ended up going quite dark after oiling. I decided to brush oil it to make sure I got in all the cuts. Previously I had stained the base and ramp with a walnut stain and had quite a nice contrast between that and the fencing and wheel but lost that contrast when I done the staining. In some ways that dissapointed me a bit because I didn't expect the colour to change so much. However in spite of saying that I'm still so rapt that I have managed to complete the project, especially seeing as I didn't have to seek help with the last couple of rows as I had first imagined I might. In fact they ended up being the slightly easier rows to cut! I also inserted a music box under the base so can wind that up before turning it on to give it a neat effect.
When I decided to do this a friend also decided to make one and so we done it stage by stage together. All the time we laughed and wondered who was pushing who to keep going which was great encouragement. If you have a scrolling friend close by you may also want to consider doing a project stage by stage together. There are many rewards in doing this!
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