How to make a wooden toy boat

I wanted to make a summer project. I wanted to be fun and if possible to combine playing in the sea. So I made this toy boat out a few scrap spruce pieces and an oak dowel.

First of all I designed a template, glued it on the wood with spray glue and cut it out on my scroll saw.

For the propeller of the boat I planed down a wood piece. To do that I clamped my plane upside down on my vise.

I joined the two pieces of the propeller with a half lap joint.

To sand the pieces I used 80 grit sand paper and my metal ruler in order to sand the curves of the boat.

Then using a round over bit on my router I rounded some of the edges.

Using a conical bit I made a bevel on the bottom of my boat.

I glued everything together using two part epoxy, because it is water proof.

I made a jig to cut the dowels to the same height, using my flush trim saw.

I wood burned the name of my boat.

I finished the piece with 9 coats of polyurethane varnish while sanding between coats. I used 2/3 poly and 1/3 thinner for my mixture. I did that because I wanted my coats to dry pretty fast.

After everything was dry I added a rubber band on my propeller and my boat was ready!


Free plans for the boat here.