instructables

Plywood Reindeer

by shinkdifferent

IntroIntro

How about a big reindeer decoration for Christmas ?

It is 1.8m length and 1.7m heght in 100% scale.

8 feet x 7feet in 126% scale.

You can use both indoor or outdoors.

If you fold it in the barn during the o season, you can use it next year.

MaterialsMaterials

Plywood or OSB (Print "patterns" in following scales) ... 2 boards @$10-20

[100%] t12mm x 900 x 1800 mm

[100%] t15/32 (≈ 11.91mm ) or 1/2 inch(≈ 12.7mm) x 3 x 6 feet

[126%] t19/32 inch x 4 x 8 feet (19/32 inch ≈ 15.08mm)

12mm x 126% = 15.12mm

[ 67%] t1/2inch x 2 x 4 feet (slit must be adjusted)

The original pattern size is for t12 × 900 x 1800 mm (About 3 x 6 feet)

Chose water resistant board for outdoor use and pain properly.

Carbon Transfer Paper ... 2 sheets or more @$1 or lessPaint (necessary for outdoor use) $10-20/deerCopy Paper (as large as you can print on your printer)

Total: $30-60 / deer

Working hoursWorking hours

Design: 2 weeks (You don't need this if you use patterns below)

Copy : 1 hour

Trace : 2~3 hours

Cut :2~3 hours

Paint :1 hour

Total: 6 - 8 hours (exclude design and shopping)

One day is enough to make. but might be exhausted nice.

Plywood Reindeer: Page 1

Step 1: Print Patterns

Design is already done for you . Just make it ^_^

Buy me a co eeBuy me a co ee

If you could... supporting me , buy me a cup of co ee from following address. https://www.buymeaco ee.com/shink

Supplies:

Printer (or use print service for A3 or larger size print)RulerJig saw If you use it once a year , this grade is enough.

I you use more I recommend MAKITA, RYOBI or BOSCH

Jig Saw BladesHand sawSafety goggleSafety masksSandpaper sheets #80-160 , # 180-240

1. Print PDF Pattern les for outline

Use Acrobat reader for printoutUse " Poster" in print menu. That will automatically print it on multiple pagesset scale 100% for 900 x 1800mm board,126% for 4 x 8 feet. 67% for 2 x 4 feet.

2. Number it for layout.

3. Draw a 100mm grid ( same size of grid on printed paper) on plywood by pencil softer than B. You can clean it witheraser after cut.

4. Pin the pattern paper with carbon paper on the grid.

5. Trace with ballpoint pen .

Update (Dec/12/2019)

DXF le added for NC cutting.

I am happy if you make a lot and give it "free" to your company employee or neighborhood .

Please pay attention to CC license , especially "Non Commercial" terms.

Plywood Reindeer: Page 2

Step 2: Cut

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F3P/VRY9/K28VTK40/F3PVRY9K28VTK40.pdf

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https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FVU/STY7/K28VTK3Z/FVUSTY7K28VTK3Z.pdf

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https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FEX/WLQP/K41CM8J5/FEXWLQPK41CM8J5.dxf

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Plywood Reindeer: Page 3

Cut using a jigsaw.

It doesn't matter if the outer lines are cut slightly out ofline. It is a wild animal.

The most important part is the slit to be combined withother boards.

Please cut carefully so that the width of 12� slit comesout exactly.

I think that it is also good to make a jig from the unusedpart of the board ,and redraw the slit line according tothe board width. Especially when using a board otherthan 12mm.

Please check clearance when you cut rst slit, and adjust.Cut other slits as same as rst one.

Sand the cutting edge # 180-240 with paper beforeassemble, if you prefer to do.

Do NOT round cut surface of slit , that make wobblestructure. Sand there at.

Safety precautionsSafety precautions

The most important thing is not to cut any part of yourbody.

There is only one point. Do not take your nger, handDo not take your nger, handor others in the direction of the blade.or others in the direction of the blade.

And watch your children keep safe.And watch your children keep safe.

Be sure to wear goggles. Sometimes jigsaw blades breakand y.

So you need some spare blade. I used 3 blades for one

set.

And wear mask.

TipsTips

When cutting small parts, it is easier to cut them intorough parts rst.

If the board hangs down and pinches the blade, or if thematerial is going to break under its own weight, escapefrom the cutting line and cut o the material.

Plywood Reindeer: Page 4

Step 3: Assembly and Setting

Just assemble like puzzle. Pay attention to theorientation of Antlers.

There is no need to glue.

If it is too tight, adjust it with a le or sandpaper #80-160.

File at as possible for avoid wobble.

If you set a reindeer on outdoors, take measures to

prevent it from falling.

Use four camping pegs on the ground and tie the legsdown them.

Please paint it with your favorite color. Clear is nice too.

And add a Outdoor christmas lights .

Plywood Reindeer: Page 5

Step 4: Postscript

[3D print version]

You can get small 3d print version from herehttps://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3213535

This is made for verifying design by myself before woodworking.

[3D print sleigh]

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3926757

[Plywood sleigh]

This is just a drawings. I don't have made yet and will notmake this year 2019.

Please try it before me , if you want.

Two kids or slim adult can ride it ,but can not slide onsnow ^_^.

It was designed seriously, but please try with your ownresponsibility for strength or other problems. Pleasecheck for safety very careful and add metal ttings ifneeded.

It is di cult to use trace technic , because slit pitch mustbe precise than reindeer. For precision cut, you hadbetter to re-measure and redraw the lines with straightruler after trace.

Board size is t18 x 1230 x 2440 mm , almost same as23/32inch ( ≈ 18.26mm) x 4 x 8 feet.

3 boards ( A layout x1 , B layout x 2)

Plywood Reindeer: Page 6

Many thanks for the inspiration. My two daughters love the reindeer and even fit in the sleigh(which I reduced in size). Just adding the paintwork for December

Couldn’t resist having one of these in my front garden, people have been walking by takingpictures or just driving by and stopping to have a look, great instructable!!

Thank you for the comments that make me happy. It's wonderful lighting decorations.

Made a tiny laser cut holiday card version of it!

Thank you! Cutted edge make it looks better.Photos are great too.It is nice for kids ,right?

Loved this build. Also made a 1/5th size for a Xmas gift for my nephews. Not sure why but mypicture is upside down when I upload. Oh well.

Loved this. Also made a 1/5th size one and that looked great and was a fantastic Christmaspresent for my nephews.

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FD0/4Z6F/K2I40XQ7/FD04Z6FK2I40XQ7.pdf

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https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FOA/42I2/K2I40XQ8/FOA42I2K2I40XQ8.pdf

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https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F3R/G121/K2I40XQ9/F3RG121K2I40XQ9.pdf

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https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FY8/M1HH/K2I40XQA/FY8M1HHK2I40XQA.pdf

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Plywood Reindeer: Page 7

Got round to making the reindeer and sleigh. Excellent instructable and designShinkdifferent...thanks.

Thank you.It looks like he/she is saying "when will this start off ?" Merry Christmas.

Yes �

We made it! Turned out GREAT. I printed it out 'poster' from adobe at 75% for the larger and 25%for the smaller one. The smaller one is an indoor decoration. My son made his grandma one too!With a red nose =). This was an easy project. The hardest part part was getting the 1/2" plywoodfrom the store, it's big and cumbersome. I used a sharpie pen instead of carbon paper since wedidn't have any on hand. I dottted along the pattern lines and let it soak through, then removedthe pattern and freehand drew the lines lightly to follow. I routered the edges both sides of thelarge one to smooth the jagged edges instead of sanding. (Well I did some of the work, my 10year old daughter did some, and my 11 year old son did the little one on a scroll saw by himself.)The jig saw was too aggressive for the small mdf board. This was a FUN project!!

we cheated a little, made it with the CNC (2 more coming, my wife wants a herd in the garden)Lena (our chocolate lab) wasn't too happy with it though :-)Thanks for the drawings!

Thak you .^_^This photo was funny. Lena looks really annoying. (´・ω・�)I hope she can be his friend soon.And I hope to try sleigh too.I gave up making it by hand with woodworking, but CNC is easy.

I made 3 deer and put them in the garden, Lena avoids that part of the garden for now :-)

Thank you very much for your work, I bypass the step "print on paper" and use a projector it'seasier ;-) My kids love it. If you have more template don't hesitate ;-)

I did the same thing. So much easier projecting it on the board. Only hard part was lining theboard up.

Wow, instgrammable beautiful photo of son and daughter. Really cute.It seems to be sold as a Christmas card ^_^

And the "Projector!" idea is amazing.

This is a trivial matter, but the direction of the antlers are the opposite of the original.

Way cool project to do foe my wife who is a Christmas fanatic! I think she had more fun paintingthem then I did making them.

i had some surplus 12mm plywood, enough to make a half size reindeer, it turned out really well,many thanks for publishing and sharing your design

Plywood Reindeer: Page 8

Dataretriever made it

Thank you for up photo, and water he drink ^_^

I made it 1/3 smaller. a reindeer and a baby reindeer and in summer I can put it away to savespace. Thank you for this great idea

It looks nice in dark color ^_^Cute parent and child.Thak you.

Mine is much smaller than the original - measuring only about 19" high. I cut it from 1/4 MDFusing a Sienci Long Mill CNC router. It will make for a fun painting project for my friend's kids.

Thank you for photo.^_^I am grad to hear you enjoy my pattern.Hope to try sleigh too.I gave up making it by hand with woodworking, but CNC is easy.

Great project. May I make a suggestion? Instead of transferring the pattern on to the wood, simple stick the paper to the wood with watersoluble glue. Cut the shapes out then using water and a stiff brush wash off the paper. If you aregoing to paint it anyway then maybe you don't even need to remove the paper ?

Thank you. It is nice idea " stick and wash " .If it is a plywood for outdoor use, it will be no problem if it is quickly wiped and dry after washing(May be ).

Another type of glue I've just remembered is mounting glue https://www.amazon.co.uk/SprayMount-YP208060506-Adhesive-Spray-Transparent/dp/B000J68HBO/ref=asc_df_B000J68HBO/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=262024380476&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7814422438779741391&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=20343&hvtargid=pla-436109169041&psc=1

The above is an amazon link to it. Basically you can get glue that would hold your pattern to theply nice and firmly but the patter can be pealed off afterwards. I've got some so I'll give it a bashwhen my ply turns up..

I am a high school shop teacher and a trick that I use is to glue the patterns to inexpensiveunderlayment and then cut those out. This creates a template that you can use over and over. Ifigured out pretty quickly that if I make one of something sometime down the road someone isgoing to want me to make one for them or a student wants to make one. Rather than go to theexpense of making another paper copy or spending time drawing it out, I just grab the templateand go.

It is a nice idea for mass production :-) Please make your town a raindeer town!I think it's very valuable to show the students that the teacher moves his hands and makessomething for himself.People who can make something will change the world better, right?

I downloaded your .dxf file, and used it to make a small reindeer from 1/4" MDF. I cut it out on myCNC. I am a hobbyist and any that I make will not be for sale.After resizing your components so that I could cut it all out of a 24" x 24" panel, I resized all the

Plywood Reindeer: Page 9

slots to match the thickness of my material.It worked great! Thank you very much for posting this. I will,of course, credit you with the designwhen I post my reindeer on the CNC forum.

Thank you for informing me and I am glad to hear it.And wow, you have your own cnc that can cut 24inch.

I'm glad you saw this. Here is a link to the post that I just put onto the CNC website that I am amember of.

https://forum.sienci.com/t/reindeer-games-slot-ani...

I've just finished a .dxf of your sled, too. It will be much smaller than your's, but uses your design.

This is great!!!!! I have wanted to do this as I have seen some in yards. I am 68 years old andhave never used a jig saw before. I want to make two. I want one male and one female. I will justleave off the antlers and not put the ruffle down by her throat. I can't wait to do the sled as well.Thank you so much for all the information and the instructions and photos!!!!!!!

Thank you for warm comment. I made first long round cut for this too. Don't afraid but don't forgetto wear protective equipment especially goggles. I really looking forward to see the photos of that you made one.And I googled now and see that, female reindeer has antlers too . and male antlers drops inwinter season. wow : )

Love this reindeer and would like to try it. I am having trouble printing the tile or poster format onapple products (Abobe Acrobat doesn’t give the tile size options for iPhone/iPad). Does anyonehave any suggestions?

Thank you .Excel can be used for muli page print for large photo . Just paste and print . Print one page firstand adjust scale please .If you done , please take a picture and show me.

A DFX or SVG of the original file would be a great addition! The included PDF was way too manyline points to be usable in any design software I've tried.

Excuse me . What do you want to do with DXF files?This design is open on CC license for Non-commercial use.Very few people can use NC routers(I think). That is why I did not upload DXF.If you are thinking about mass production and sales, I'm sorry but I can't give you DXF. If not, please send me a message directly, introducing yourself, what you are trying to do, andyour email address.If I understand that you can personally use an NC router etc., I will gladly give you DXF.I'm not good at English so I'm sorry if it's a strict expression.

I would really like to have a dxf file as well, please.I have access to an A0 plotter and I have CAD software. I haven't got photoshop and can't getthe PDF thing to print properly and at the right size. If I had a DXF then it would be simplicity to print it. I can assure you I have no intention of doinganything other than building one for myself.. Thanks you

I uploaded DXF.Please use free for Non commercial use.

Thanks, I'll get it printed and order some Ply.....

DXF... :)

I changed my mind so I uploaded DXF.Please use free for Non commercial use.

This was just a down and dirty. I will use some nice wood when I decide to make more. I plan onusing this one as my pattern. I am told i need 7 for my yard, i dont know about 7 but a few more. Iwill be lighting them with Individually addressable LED lights.

Thank you for "make" report : )I think it had cut nicely, and looks beautiful in the photo view.If you make another one or more , use first one as a pattern make traceing easy.And maybe the front and back legs are reversed from original....

Plywood Reindeer: Page 10

I voted for you, good luck

Thank you very much.Glad to hear it ^_^

What a wonderful project ! Made it at work on a cnc ��

Thank you for first "made it" report ^_^ Grad to see it. Material looks nice. Is this a particle board or OSB?

I am envied that you are free to use CNC.Please try sleigh with CNC power too. I can upload dxf ,if you want.

I don't mind if you make this many and " give " others.If you " sell " this, please talk about some design royalties ^_^

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