Woodworking Project - Child's Wagon
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Every Little boy needs two things, a good dog and a good wagon. When I was a youngster, my family had an American Eskimo named "frank" and I had a bright red Radio Flyer wagon. In my imagination, that wagon was everything from a pickup truck to an jet fighter. There were few childhood possession that were more memorable than that wagon. When Shari suggested that I build A small wagon for my nephew to pull a teddy bear in, I decided to raise the bar a little build a wagon my nephew could ride in instead.
A couple years ago, I watched Norm Abram build a child's wagon in the New Yankee Workshop. So, I had a general idea of how to tackle the project. With most projects, I start by making a computer drawing, but with this project, I just couldn't get it right on the computer. So, working from memory and imagination, I just dug in and starting making sawdust...
The box (the body) is made of select clear pine. The deck of the box is 3/4" cabinet grade birch plywood. The undercarriage parts are oak plywood with solid oak and metal components. The plywood on the undercarriage is edged with aluminum channel to add a finished look and protect the edges from wear. All of the moving parts of the undercarriage are metal against metal (instead of metal against wood) to help slow down wear. The steering post is made up of two solid oak blocks with 1/2" metal sleeves epoxied through them. The sleeves act as bearings for a 3/8" carriage bolt that acts as a pivot. The axles are 1/2" threaded rod epoxied into solid oak axle housings. The wheels have steel rims with metal sleeve bearings and solid rubber tires. The pull handle and rod are solid oak. I added a solid oak "tool box" to the tongue area to discourage my nephew from using the tongue as a step.
The finish for the box is two coats of Dutch Boy latex primer (tinted pink to make coverage easier) and three coats of custom mixed Dutch Boy gloss "Fire Engine" red exterrior grade latex. The undercarriage got two coats of the same pink latex primer plus three coats of Dutch Boy gloss black exterrior grade latex. I left the rear bumper , the handle, the handle block, and the tool box in natural oak for contrast. They are coated with three coats of ZAR Aqua gloss polyurethane.
In Progress:
Finished Wagon:
