I made this rocking horse for my daughters a year or two ago. It’s pine, with walnut stain followed by a red oak stain and about six coats of satin wiping poly. I picked up a plan for this rocking horse a couple years ago at Lowes, when they were liquidating their stock of Delta Plans. I think I paid a dollar for the plan. Not a bad deal, for so much fun for the little ones.

I think next time, instead of making the grain of the body go at right angle to the head piece, I will try to make the grain of the neck and body line up better. The way it is now, the glue line is just way too obvious. There are a number of other things I would do differently, but I’ll leave that to others to discover for themselves!

So far, everything I have made has been from somebody else’s plan. I envy all you Lumberjocks out there who can come up with your own plans and they turn out just beautiful! SWMBO has lined up the next four or five projects for me based on things she has seen in my magazines. But after that, I think I will try to make something up for myself. It won’t be perfect, but I’ll be it will be fun!

A couple of weeks ago somebody had posted an outfeed table. I’ve been meaning to post a picture of mine, in case somebody wants to use the idea. I found a drawing for this somewhere on the Internet, but I can’t find the site now (the drawing was not very helpful anyhow, as it was for a cabinet saw, and I have a contractor saw). It is in two sections. The shorter section permanently extends my table saw by 18 inches. The long section folds down and away most of the time, but folds up when I need it for cutting long stock. Materials are just Melamine framed by some cherry moulding I salvaged from a dumpster while they were remodeling at the office. The hinge is a piano hinge I had laying around. Nothing fancy, but it’s a solution that works very well for me.

This is my first project. And in many ways, it represents some great learning experiences. It’s made of red oak with a walnut inlay. The finish is a custom stain by mixing dark walnut with golden oak (both oil stains) and a wipe on poly.

I built this when the only power tools I had were my grandfather’s old scroll saw and a circular saw (with a cheap blade). I bought dimensioned lumber at the home center and cut all the boards to length and width with my circular saw. For the sides boards, I jointed the edges with a bench plane (I learned that’s easier said than done). To do the inlay, I used my grandfather’s rip saw to re-saw a 3/4 walnut board so that I had two 1/4 inch boards, which I then smoothed with a bench plane and hand sanding. Using spray adhesive, I attached my vine pattern to the thin walnut, which I then taped to the oak side boards. I tilted the table on the scroll saw very slightly, and cut the vine pattern. I repeated this with a mirror image on each side. I borrowed a router from my neighbor to do the profiles. After hand sanding level, I finished as described above.

Since then, my tool repertoire has increased to the full complement. I’ve done great stuff since this one, but I’ve never been prouder!