Splash Mountain Sign (Complete)

yaksplat

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thank you for sharing. Beautiful work! Thinking of going into business??
Thanks. I'd love to do this sort of thing full time, but somehow I don't see someone wanting to spend $2500 on a sign like this. My time is free for myself, family and friends, but for everyone else, it runs about $60/hr. :D

Tough part about things like this is that 95% of the work was done between 10pm and midnight. Wife and kids are asleep and I'd rather do this than watch TV.

I need to find another project. Any ideas out there? I do want to make some acorn lamps from splash mountain that I saw somewhere on this site...
 

wsmith1978

Well-Known Member
Finally finished. 3 days before his birthday.

WP_20141111_23_16_36_Pro%20%28Medium%29.jpg

Absolutely incredible!! Best gift ever. You should be very proud of this.
 

Tylerb08

Member
This is the most amazing thing I've seen being made. I love to make things and the next time I take a trip to the parks I'll be on the lookout for something I can recreate. Thanks for the encouragement!!
 

yaksplat

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Top notch! If I tried that i'd end up with the Homer Simpson spice rack. If you could make a mold and build it from resin, oh well.

Hey, you never know. This was my first attempt at carving something outside of sharpening a stick on the sidewalk when I was a kid.

As far as making a mold, that is an interesting thought. But this thing is pretty big. That's a ton of resin.
 

Seattlemick

New Member
Thanks. I'd love to do this sort of thing full time, but somehow I don't see someone wanting to spend $2500 on a sign like this. My time is free for myself, family and friends, but for everyone else, it runs about $60/hr. :D

Tough part about things like this is that 95% of the work was done between 10pm and midnight. Wife and kids are asleep and I'd rather do this than watch TV.

I need to find another project. Any ideas out there? I do want to make some acorn lamps from splash mountain that I saw somewhere on this site...
This is awesome, I've been looking for a pattern as I'm not so great a drawing, what did you use for a pattern? and what kind of wood?
thanks for posting and your time. ~Steve
 

yaksplat

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
This is awesome, I've been looking for a pattern as I'm not so great a drawing, what did you use for a pattern? and what kind of wood?
thanks for posting and your time. ~Steve
This was all free hand drawing on the wood with pencil. The wood is basswood, which is excellent for carving. It doesn't dull the tools as much as harder woods and is relatively easy to remove material. That being said, I still had to sharpen everything quite a bit with a leather strop. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions.
 

WDW Zandt

Member
I'm actually curious, since you did mention this is your first carving project, what tools did you primarily use? I was wondering if this is more hand carved or power tooled (or a decent mixture of both)
 

yaksplat

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
This was done with 100% hand tools beyond the initial planing and joining of the planks. The raw boards were jointed square and the planed parallel. I used a router to make a strong finger joint which you can see in some of the pictures of the unpainted wood. I had to add a couple more layers for Beer Rabbit. I would have added one more layer for his nose if I planned it better. it looks a little odd from the side, but from head on I was able to give it some depth. The carving tools that I used were from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001UXXTTK

Once the carving was done I did sand down the letters to get the remains pencil marks off.
The Polynesian signs that I did were all A single layer thick which would have been a much easier first project.
 

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