Wooden Dummy Construction Photos?

mvbrown21

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Hey guys, anybody have any good pics of their homemade wooden dummy and how they did it?

Here's mine. We've only gotten the body done so far but we did lamination with Country Maple wood. And once we cut the holes I'm going to have my friend Carina over at Little Raven Studios Raven Studios - Wooden practice swords and wooden dummies. make the arms and leg for me

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Thanks guys for all the nice comments and yes, a lot of sandpaper did go into play there! :)
We used a hand planer to shave it down to the basic shape, as you can see in that one photo, and then the Gods opened up the heavens and introduced me to someone who was able to 'turn' it for me!
 
Thanks guys for all the nice comments and yes, a lot of sandpaper did go into play there! :)
We used a hand planer to shave it down to the basic shape, as you can see in that one photo, and then the Gods opened up the heavens and introduced me to someone who was able to 'turn' it for me!

Nice...!

I've tried to get someone to "turn" a body for me as well, but noone seems to have such a large bench in my area :(

What kind of glue did you use to make all the pieces stick together?
 
Nice...!

I've tried to get someone to "turn" a body for me as well, but noone seems to have such a large bench in my area :(

What kind of glue did you use to make all the pieces stick together?

You could round it the "old way". Cut the corners legthwise with a big saw (or whatever tool you have) to make an octogon, then use a large, sharp, plane to shave it down to nearly round, then fine tune with a belt sander.

If you want to laminate the trunk out of good hardwood, make sure to run the planks through a joiner first so they fit up well, use wood glue and big clamps. It doesn't look difficult, but it does look like a lot of work. I speak as a spectator. I used to do metal sculpture years back and had a roommate who was a woodworker. If you're not a woodworker, check out any universities in your area that have a woodworking program. Nothing like finding a starving grad-student with undervalued skills to help you on the cheap. 25 years ago that was me! I even welded a wooden dummy once. Used 10 in diameter steel tubing I found at a scrap yard, cut square holes for the arm-sockets and inserted square steel tubing to line them so I could use wooden arms. Since it was hollow, I threw some sandbags inside to give it the same weight and mass as wood (they didn't slide through since they were held up by the cross slats). Later after finally getting a teak dummy, I lost track of the old metal-bodied one. Too bad. It was quite functional and would be cheaper and quicker to make than a wood one... if you have metal working tools.
 
Nice...!

I've tried to get someone to "turn" a body for me as well, but noone seems to have such a large bench in my area :(

What kind of glue did you use to make all the pieces stick together?

Just regular ol' Titebond, I believe it was the blue bottle, the premium stuff, but I know you can use the regular, I just wanted to use the best stuff I could get though, spending all that money!
 
Hey guys,

For those who were interested, here's my latest progress on my dummy. Finally tracked down a drill press big enough and have started chiseling the arm holes. Country Maple is incredibly difficult to chisel through too!!

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If possible, try with an electric chisel... It'll speed up the process :)
 
Awesome!!

Makes you want to own a light saber to make this easier and faster... guess we'll have them in 3 to 5 years. :D

Again, awesome work! Looks like fun!
 
It looks well, make sure you get the arm placement and position correct.
 
wow that really turned out nicely!
I've been thinking about different body ideas, and this seems like a very plausible option.
only issue for me would be turning...
thanks for the post
 
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