Joe, Look out for that WASP!

[whodathunkit]

Thought I'd title my subject line this..because of the inspiration Laserman gave to me
after seeing his works of art & being as how he put me on deck to build some cars.

Well, it was his honeycomb design car that got me to thinking of flying insects that build & live in such nests.

So I thought why not..
It will be a first and it might be fun to try and build a car modeled after a real wasp.
And not use a lot of power tools.. so to keep the power tools to a minimal.
I'll only be using a cordless drill and few hand tools like a coping saw and so on.

Pattern:




Holes drilled for weights:


Now for the hard part - the coping saw:
This should be fun.. I haven't used one in so long so my arm is ready for a work out.

Well that was fun! I don't know how some kids do it.. talk about a work out with more to go!


Sanding and shaping:


It's alot of hard work! Isn't it kids?

So I'm ready for a break. How about you?
Here's a neat tip:
If your mom has a old Velveeta cheese box it works good to store your car in.
If not it's ok to just use the box the kit came in.


Like Sporty, is always saying: Stay tuned.

[whodathunkit]

Ok, with getting the break out of the way it's time to move on to the legs for the wasp.

Now I know what you are probably saying.. is he really going to use a coping saw for this.



Why not give it a try.. So here we go!



Getting close to getting one leg cut out ..
5 more to go:

[sporty]

Pretty darn cool. Out if the box and ya got skills

Sporty

[ngyoung]

What wood are the legs made out of? More pine or maybe Basswood?

[Noskills]

Totally old school. Love it Mark!
Noskills

[Laserman]

LOL!!!

Only you Mark!!!

Ok. You are going to give yourself some kind of repetitive motion injury and then we will all be the worse for it.

Love the work. As usual!

Joe

[Vitamin K]

This is looking awesome. Respect to you for cuttin' it old school with the coping saw.

I imagine this will give me a serious case of the willies when it is finished. I hate (real) wasps.

[whodathunkit]

Thanks for the compliments guys.

It's been awhile sence I'v cut anything out useing a coping saw.. & I'v gotten so used to using
a scroll saw for cutting most every thing out with here lately.
So it's easy to lose sight of just how much work using hand tools like a coping saw really is.

So for this build I thought why not! I haven't used one sence I was a kid..
and it might make for a neat topic for an adult to use only hand tools and talk about it.
So guys I gotta tell you my arm felt as if it were stung by a wasp..
but I'm going to stick to it and see the build through and I'm going to use brush paints as well.
The clear coat will be from a rattle can.. have no idea how it will turn out so will see.

Hopeing the effort put forth will pay off in the end..
knowing that I built it useing very few power tools to do so.

Thank's for the tip about staying true to the work Joe!

ngyoung,
I'm useing pine but I do like your idea of useing the basswood it sands out nicer..
and maybe it would have been the better wood to cut the legs in as well.
I did not get as much done on it tonight as I would of liked to.. but the legs are cut out.
How many did I miss up on while cutting them out .. I guess you could say I got lucky.

Talk about something that took awhile to do useing a hand saw..that I could have done using a scroll saw really quick.

[whodathunkit]

Work gos on.. With the legs all cut out I'll move on to halfing 3 of them and setting back the rest.

(Back up plan if I brake one while sanding.)
Here is a view of why I cut them in half:


Next I moved on to dilling 3/16 holes to make the legs stand out from the wasp body.

And use 3/16 dowl rods cut to 1 3/4'' first.. then re-cut.


So how I'm I going to sand the legs?

[whodathunkit]

Here is a Tip: And neat way of making a mini sander useing scrap wood.

Cut saw notches at a angle and round over the ends.


Next take the block and place it on the sand paper and mark it on the back side of the paper
for how wide to cut the sand paper.

(leave it long so you will have plenty to rap it around the wood block.)
Stick one end of the sand paper in the saw notch grit side up and rap it around to the next notch..
Cut it off just past the 2nd notch and tuck it into the notch.




Now you have a mini hand sander..

View of one leg sanded and shaped.


Thats all for tonight! & I'll be back soon!

[sporty]

Very nice, lots of pic, good information.

I'm truly impressed.

Sporty

[Darin McGrew]

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished design! Thanks for sharing the construction process with us!

[Noskills]

Mark,

You must have reviewed some high def wasp photos when coming up with such a realistic design...well done.

Noskills

[whodathunkit]

Thank you Sporty, Darin, & Seth.

Guys I'v noted some of the photos I'm posting are not showing up on the topic.
And I have talked to Randy about it.
So it will be something I will be cutting back on and makeing smaller in size as well.
As much as I would like to keep shareing step by step photos on how I'm building the wasp car.
I'm posting way to many photos that are slowing things down on the topic for you to view as well.

So when I finsh the wasp car I'll see what I can do about a photo of it for you all to view.

Mark,
You must have reviewed some high def wasp photos when coming up with such a realistic design...well done.Noskills

Seth,
In a lot of ways I guess you could say that to keep it realistic looking!

[sporty]

No. The amount if photos is just fine. Might take a few seconds longer to load, and that's on my phone. Its just fine.
The future viewers will really appreciate the in depth photos, it will help them. If they ever choose to build this car. So please, serious. More pictures is just fine.