The Woodshop Shed

Articulated Dragons - (John Hutchinson Design)

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


Many thanks to fellow LJ John Hutchinson for this design and for sharing it with fellow woodworkers. I've always thought these dragons were awesome since I first saw the feature in Woodworkers Journal but I didn't have the skill or equipment to tackle this. Now a few years later with a thickness planer, a better bandsaw, and a bit more experience I decided to try building one for my grandson Owen's 3rd birthday. When I started out I was going to build 2 pretty much the same with the bodies made from sapele that I had in the shop, the first being a prototype in case I made any mistakes. I soon realized that I needed more contrast so I added some cherry that I also had and was kind of on my way to making 3. I proceeded with one sapele, and one cherry, purpleheart head and tail, leopardwood and cocobolo wings, walnut hips, zebrawood wheels on one, butternut on the other. After completing the first one (sapele) I decided to add some roundovers on the cherry version that I completed and shipped off to Owen in time for his birthday.The third dragon took shape a couple weeks later when I was isolating in the basement (conveniently near my shop) after my wife contracted covid. It was a great distraction to keep my mind occupied during a very stressful time and I decided that this one would be our household 'protector dragon'. She recovered just fine and I never contracted it so I think it worked!By the way, I did everything on the bandsaw including the 'wing bones'. I used spray adhesive to laminate 6 layers of 1/8” cocobolo and cut all 6 at one time using a 1/8” blade and Carter stabilizer guide on a 14” bandsaw. Dropped the whole cut 'assembly' into a dish of mineral spirits and they slid right apart. Similar process for the 1/4” leopardwood wings but I did those as 2 sets of 3 layers each.

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