Wooden Sled
Will it be his rosebud? I decided that the boy needed a great sled. I looked for a Flexible Flyer and they are not the same as the one I had when I was little. So, per usual, I headed into the shop. Here are the results:
You can click on the pictures to make them larger.
The deck and ski’s are ash, the rails are cherry, and the supports are walnut. I added a aluminum rub rail on the bottom of the skis.
If you have made a sled or you would like to make this one, I would love to hear about it.
Leave a comment on the post or email me at jim@makestuffwithyourkid.com.
Happy sledding!
UPDATE
One of our readers (Cullen) built a great looking sled from drawings I sent him. Here is a photo:
Thanks for the update Cullen.
Tags: Sled
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Hi,
I want to make a sled for my son who is 11, I like the look of your sled, and was wondering if you have any plans or dimensions/cutting list?
Regards,
cullen.
January 6th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Hi Cullen,
Expect an email from me.
-Jim
January 6th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Dang. That’s some fine looking sled you got there.
January 7th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Hi just found your sled on the net do you have any instructions to make this please if so please will you e/mail them to me at nwl@btconnect.com thank you so much Nigel
January 8th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Nigel, I have some rough line drawings with dimensions that I will send your way.
-Jim
May 5th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Great looking sled. I tried to make something quickly (before the snow melted !) this year, with results that did not look anything like yours. Now I’m in the planning stage for next winter. I will build one over the summer. My question on yours is ‘how heavy is it’? Mine was too heavy and I’m keen not to repeat the mistake, so I was planning something narrower than yours, with bigger gaps between the slats that you sit one (even considering not having these go the whole length of the sled).
May 6th, 2010 at 1:38 am
Hey Airport,
It isn’t especially heavy. Since the slats and skis are ash, I was able to mill them down to 1/4″ or so. The rails are milled to 5/8″. The handhold cutouts were large on purpose to remove weight. The metal rub strip on the bottom is aluminum, not steel - so that is pretty light also.
You could definitely have bigger gaps - that should help with the weight if you could get rid of one slat altogether.
Do you have a picture that you could share?
I don’t know if Cullen is still following along - but if you are Cullen, was your sled heavy?
-Jim
June 21st, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Airport,,
No, my sled was not that heavy I skeletoned as much of the wood away as I could without compromising it’s strength. My sled was made of plywood with plastic ski’s capped with a thin strip of aluminium. The wood Jim made his from would be too expensive here in the U.K (as is most things!). I will try to get a weight and some dimensions for it when I next go to the loft.
Cullen.