Right off the bat let me acknowledge that this project has been posted several times already. However, the main reason I’m posting it is I wanted my fellow LJs to know I could build something other than shop cabinets and accessories. Also, I’m sharing a couple of jigs I designed for the construction of the articulated dragon. This is a great project and is more complicated than I expected. Both adults and children love it.
The articulated dragon is a design by John Hutchinson. John deserves full and complete credit for an absolutely adorable toy ( http://lumberjocks.com/projects/93486 ) and for the Ball Drilling Jig ( http://lumberjocks.com/projects/94550 ). The first time I saw this project was a post by LJ Owlcroft on November 25, 2013 ( http://lumberjocks.com/projects/92645 and his video at ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS42lNOsvSY&feature=youtu.be ).
The second (2d) photograph shows the pattern pieces I first cut out to practice the cuts and to have a permanent pattern for additional dragons I hope to build for nephews and nieces. The third (3d) picture is a wheel jig I came up with to drill the offset hole (and, which came in mighty handy to re-drill the center axle hole when I made a mistake and had to break the wheel off). The fourth (4th) picture shows spacing shims I made out of two and three layers of maple veneer, using the two layer spacers on each side of the cam inside the body and the three layer spacers on the outside between the body and the drive wheels. The fifth (5th) picture is a simple wing center jig I used between the two wings to glue the walnut wing ribs to the Lacewood wings so I could clamp the outsides of the wings for overnight drying (kind of like a sandwich with the wings on the outside, the ribs as the second layer and the jig in the center). And, finally the sixth (6th) photograph is my copy of John’s Ball Drilling Jig used to drill a hole in the pull ball.
The only differences in my construction were to use a square rod in the front instead of a centered dowel and increase the size of all of the dowels. The square rod worked without any problems as I finished and waxed the square rod. I finished the toy with Danish Oil per LJ Paul Wakefield’s recommendation. I waxed both cams, and the tail and head cam surfaces. The next dragon I build will leave off the rubber o-rings as everything worked so smooth I think it’s fine for my purposes without them (and, I don’t see it being run over glass tops which I understand was the reason behind the rubber rings).
As always, comments (good, bad, critical or whatever) are greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking.