Hand made wooden fire truck. [2048x1311 - 1.5MB]

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Hand made wooden fire truck. [2048x1311 - 1.5MB] (pic8.co)

Wooden fire truck I made for a birthday present for one of my son's friends.

Dog for scale: https://pic8.co/sh/hpldkA.jpg

Fairly simple build (can provide build photos if people want), The wheels and nozzle are stained black (the wheel wood didn't have enough tannins in it to use iron acetate to ebonize it). The red and blue is done with food coloring and vinegar, all finished with Danish oil.

Build write-up:

I found a bit of old floor joist that had nice thight grain, and also wasn't too heavy. This was planed flat on one side, then jointed and dimensioned on the table saw. Another bit of hardwood was found for the wheels, this was a little over 30mm thick and just wide enough for the ID of a 60mm hole saw. https://pic8.co/d/eaa45f53-7c0a-4dd1-b3a9-75c43cb397df.jpg https://pic8.co/d/18bbda3e-bba8-4f73-98ce-8db9c202187b.jpg

Wheel blanks were cut using the hole saw (which I didn't take a photo of). I used a stub of a drill bit to mount it so there was no center hole, then drilled a center with a lathe centering bit. This turned out later to be a pointless waste of time though. https://pic8.co/d/057210df-b5ef-4dbf-b135-4566a2cd8fbb.jpg

My holesaw only cuts 1" deep, so the rest was cut with a coping saw, leaving a bit of a mess. The blank was also slightly too narrow and some wheels had flat spots on them. To rectify this, I drilled the axel holes and hub counterbores (done with a forstner bit) on the lathe, holding on to the round section from the hole saw. Then I fitted the wheel blanks to a mandrel so I could turn the OD and chamfer the tire edges. The wheels were turned down enough to get rid of the flat spots, and to ensure that all wheels were the same diameter. https://pic8.co/d/528cd530-6a45-4899-bafe-cda11bba1c65.jpg https://pic8.co/d/fe449063-89e4-43e1-abef-19caecb54da7.jpg https://pic8.co/d/fcd79689-5790-4880-9870-c0d76db66e36.jpg

The chassis blank was cut in half (total length was about a foot) and glued together to form a book matched grain pattern that would look cool on the windscreen/back. Once dry and cleaned up I drilled the wheel arches and axel holes. Didn't take any pictures of cutting out the wheel arches, but that's fairly straight forward. https://pic8.co/d/6a832da0-183d-4506-be3b-c59abaeeae1d.jpg https://pic8.co/d/dc07cb2a-29da-46a8-bad0-3cd30acd9d05.jpg

The windscreen was cut on my miter saw, and the other angles done on the table saw as they were 45deg. Some of the smaller chamfers were cleaned up with a block plane. The nozzle was made from various bits of dowel. The base of the nozzle was made to be about 0.5mm above the radius of the dowel so that the spring that holds the nozzle down will hold it in whatever direction it is pointed. Some washers were turned from a bit of aluminium bar for the spring to rest against. The bottom "washer" was counterbored to form a cap that goes over the end of the dowel to stop it splitting when the screw is tightened. https://pic8.co/d/e0ac26c0-6ffb-40ac-8bcf-9fcabc6feb44.jpg

The lights (top and headlights) were made by turning round ends on a short piece of dowel, then splitting the dowel with a chisel. To get the end radius, I uses a very dodgy tool setup where a 1/4" router bit was installed as a lathe radius tool. Since the dowel was about an inch long, I needed a better way of holding it in the lathe. Tightening a 3 jaw chuck on such a small piece of wood just crushed it, so I made a simple collet out of aluminium that snuggly held the dowel and could be grabbed in the 3 jaw. https://pic8.co/d/5b3ec880-84b1-4288-be92-79d5177d015e.jpg https://pic8.co/d/a7b55b9f-8813-471f-b4b6-c17da7284d08.jpg

Finishing was done with black wood stain for the wheels and nozzle. For the colored parts, a mixture of food coloring and vinegar was used. This was applied with brushes that I made from an old sock, a pair of take-away chopsticks and some tape. My son helped in the finishing. Once the color was applied and dry, a coat of Danish Oil finished it all off. A few days of drying for the Danish Oil and several sessions of rubbing it with a cloth to make sure that it's not going to bleed color onto the recipient's carpet (One reason I chose the food coloring stain method was to prevent transfer of red paint onto walls which would have been an issue if I'd painted it. The grain shows through nicely with the dye too). https://pic8.co/d/41e89800-5639-4edf-b931-f29ceae15656.jpg https://pic8.co/d/d40096c2-35c2-48fe-949a-fcff9ddee717.jpg https://pic8.co/d/f308b51e-c5f4-42af-b0fc-6657306c83ec.jpg

Wooden fire truck I made for a birthday present for one of my son's friends. Dog for scale: https://pic8.co/sh/hpldkA.jpg Fairly simple build (can provide build photos if people want), The wheels and nozzle are stained black (the wheel wood didn't have enough tannins in it to use iron acetate to ebonize it). The red and blue is done with food coloring and vinegar, all finished with Danish oil. ---- Build write-up: I found a bit of old floor joist that had nice thight grain, and also wasn't too heavy. This was planed flat on one side, then jointed and dimensioned on the table saw. Another bit of hardwood was found for the wheels, this was a little over 30mm thick and just wide enough for the ID of a 60mm hole saw. https://pic8.co/d/eaa45f53-7c0a-4dd1-b3a9-75c43cb397df.jpg https://pic8.co/d/18bbda3e-bba8-4f73-98ce-8db9c202187b.jpg Wheel blanks were cut using the hole saw (which I didn't take a photo of). I used a stub of a drill bit to mount it so there was no center hole, then drilled a center with a lathe centering bit. This turned out later to be a pointless waste of time though. https://pic8.co/d/057210df-b5ef-4dbf-b135-4566a2cd8fbb.jpg My holesaw only cuts 1" deep, so the rest was cut with a coping saw, leaving a bit of a mess. The blank was also slightly too narrow and some wheels had flat spots on them. To rectify this, I drilled the axel holes and hub counterbores (done with a forstner bit) on the lathe, holding on to the round section from the hole saw. Then I fitted the wheel blanks to a mandrel so I could turn the OD and chamfer the tire edges. The wheels were turned down enough to get rid of the flat spots, and to ensure that all wheels were the same diameter. https://pic8.co/d/528cd530-6a45-4899-bafe-cda11bba1c65.jpg https://pic8.co/d/fe449063-89e4-43e1-abef-19caecb54da7.jpg https://pic8.co/d/fcd79689-5790-4880-9870-c0d76db66e36.jpg The chassis blank was cut in half (total length was about a foot) and glued together to form a book matched grain pattern that would look cool on the windscreen/back. Once dry and cleaned up I drilled the wheel arches and axel holes. Didn't take any pictures of cutting out the wheel arches, but that's fairly straight forward. https://pic8.co/d/6a832da0-183d-4506-be3b-c59abaeeae1d.jpg https://pic8.co/d/dc07cb2a-29da-46a8-bad0-3cd30acd9d05.jpg The windscreen was cut on my miter saw, and the other angles done on the table saw as they were 45deg. Some of the smaller chamfers were cleaned up with a block plane. The nozzle was made from various bits of dowel. The base of the nozzle was made to be about 0.5mm above the radius of the dowel so that the spring that holds the nozzle down will hold it in whatever direction it is pointed. Some washers were turned from a bit of aluminium bar for the spring to rest against. The bottom "washer" was counterbored to form a cap that goes over the end of the dowel to stop it splitting when the screw is tightened. https://pic8.co/d/e0ac26c0-6ffb-40ac-8bcf-9fcabc6feb44.jpg The lights (top and headlights) were made by turning round ends on a short piece of dowel, then splitting the dowel with a chisel. To get the end radius, I uses a very dodgy tool setup where a 1/4" router bit was installed as a lathe radius tool. Since the dowel was about an inch long, I needed a better way of holding it in the lathe. Tightening a 3 jaw chuck on such a small piece of wood just crushed it, so I made a simple collet out of aluminium that snuggly held the dowel and could be grabbed in the 3 jaw. https://pic8.co/d/5b3ec880-84b1-4288-be92-79d5177d015e.jpg https://pic8.co/d/a7b55b9f-8813-471f-b4b6-c17da7284d08.jpg Finishing was done with black wood stain for the wheels and nozzle. For the colored parts, a mixture of food coloring and vinegar was used. This was applied with brushes that I made from an old sock, a pair of take-away chopsticks and some tape. My son helped in the finishing. Once the color was applied and dry, a coat of Danish Oil finished it all off. A few days of drying for the Danish Oil and several sessions of rubbing it with a cloth to make sure that it's not going to bleed color onto the recipient's carpet (One reason I chose the food coloring stain method was to prevent transfer of red paint onto walls which would have been an issue if I'd painted it. The grain shows through nicely with the dye too). https://pic8.co/d/41e89800-5639-4edf-b931-f29ceae15656.jpg https://pic8.co/d/d40096c2-35c2-48fe-949a-fcff9ddee717.jpg https://pic8.co/d/f308b51e-c5f4-42af-b0fc-6657306c83ec.jpg

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