A handmade home for woodworkers and admirers of woodworkers. Our community icon is submitted by @inquanto@lemmy.world, winner of the Christmas 2025 gift contest with a lovely series of hardwood cutting boards.
The proportions are odd, the legs look much smaller than i imagined them.
Also gotta fix the tearout, I'm thinking of just taking like an inch off the overall length when I round the tip, which will remove the tearout in the process
I also don't have a fucking clue how I'm gonna clamp them for the glue-up. I'm considering gluing one at a time and using rubber bands. i dunno, let me know if you've got a better idea
The tear out could be turned into a cockpit, ala those cartoon rocketships.
As for the glue up, maybe you could make a block of sacrificial wood to sit in the middle of the fins (below the butt of the rocket) to help give them stability so they don’t fold into each other.
~Loving the updates!~
Everytime I see one of your posts, my brain rejects that you're in the process of making a rocket and is instead fully committed to the idea that you're just a very creative vampire hunter, who got bored with making conventional stakes.
Turn it around, stake three vampires that are close together
I like the size and ratios.
If you don’t fill the cutout, it could be a window.
I’d totally lean into the cutout as a window. Maybe even carve it out more.
Ditto, I like the length of the body and hope they don't shorten it quite as much as they suggested elsewhere in the thread.
I'll take your opinion under advisement lol
I'm not dead set in shortening it. Realistically, the likelihood of me reducing the length by any significant amount is very low just because of how much work it'll be, and I've got like three days of interest left in this project before it gets abandoned like so many others
oh so its not a dildo
Despite everyone's disbelief, this is, and always has been, a toy for a child
It could be with a little gumption. It's already flared at the base.
Interesting chair. Very ergonomic.
Paint it red and white chequered
Totally my thought as soon as I saw it, well the source at least!
Wood filler or fine sawdust slurry mixed with glue. Filly it and sand it.
Put a fin in a vise. Clamp the fuselage to the vise.
Don't over clamp and press all the glue out.
Hmmmmmmmm I like that, but I doubt I have the equipment to do it
How about - use an offcut that the body sits in at an angle such that the fin-body join is horizontal - the fin being in the clamp. Apply pressure with a weight on top and use masking tape to hold loosely together?
Not to be that guy, but fixturing/jigs is one of those spots where a 3d printer and cad skills could come in handy. It would be pretty straightforward to draw up some blocks that support the fins and you could put a band clamp around.
Yeah, my first thought was "you could 3d print something for that".
But to be fair... that's my first thought on any problem these days...
Glue and Trim/Brad (nail) gun would work.
Surgical tubing can be wrapped around uneven surfaces and will provide a lot of pressure. I've seen it used in guitar repair. Works well on lotsa stuff. Might need dowel pins or maybe nails/screws to stabilize.
Dowel pins.
Even if I were to use dowels, how would I go about getting the holes perfectly aligned, since the contacting surfaces are curved in all three axes?
*two axes
A plane can only have two axes, i know things
Technically, a plane can carry as many axes as their max takeoff weight will allow.
If you put a little sand or salt on the wood glue, the parts won't slide that much.
Now that's an interesting idea I've never heard of. Salt wouldn't dissolve and/or effect the strength of the glue?
You can also use fine saw dust preferably from a hardwood. Works about as well.
Salt will dissolve after some time, so it's imperative to get the rubbers on quickly. You would use salt over sand if you planned on sawing it apart at some point, since sand would dull the blade.
it's a SUPER old school trick to keep things from sliding when gluing up. The intent is that the salt is there long enough to form some grip, but then dissolves in the glue as things set up. The more modern way to do it is to put a dab of superglue on part of it, and wood glue on the rest and the superglue sets quick while the rest dries more strongly over time. You can even use the superglue activator to speed up the process. Not sure it'll work great here cause there probably isn't room to do both in that small area, especially if the compound angles don't all match up 100%.
If it were me, I'd put some glue on it, then shoot a small pin nail into it to hold things together long enough for the glue-up. A pin nailer is invaluable for assembly.
If you have an air compressor, grab one of these https://www.amazon.com/EASEWORK-Pneumatic-Headless-Creates-Invisible/dp/B0GSTY13TG
If you want to do it all by hand, a pin vice (handheld tiny drill) can be used to create a small hole and then you can push in something small, like a toothpick to hold it in place long enough for the glue to set. They're designed to be used one handed while you hold the thing in the other hand. https://www.amazon.com/Vise-Hand-Drill-Jewelry-Making/dp/B098CF3VMM
FYI, I ended up going with your recommendation on the toothpicks, thanks for that. I'm sure it's going to work considerably better than rubber bands, and i can do all three simultaneously, which is a huge plus
Hope it works out! I'm enjoying the progress updates.
Would a toothpick hold enough pressure for the joint to set properly?
Seeing this take shape, I'm reminded of this video by Atomic Frontier about emoji rocket shapes: https://nebula.tv/videos/atomicfrontier-which-emoji-makes-the-best-rocket/
And on YouTube as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pn0rHTpwvo