Wooden Armature - Part 1 - The Torso

The Torso. I started off the with the same 1"x6"x13" pieces of pine I used for the head. I only needed three pieces glued together this time. I got a new used scroll saw from a coworker so I decided I might as well try it out. The wood was probably a little too tall for the this type of saw but I took it slow and It worked pretty well.

Next I used the a chisel to round out the sides of the block. Unfortunately I cut the block upside down so instead of chiseling top to bottom I had to chisel bottom to top. Although it's wasn't the end of the world, it was annoying.

It kind of looks like a giant thumb.

I used my smaller chisels to carve out the basic shape for the torso. I made a couple more cuts with the scroll saw to give the shoulders a little more definition.

Then I took my dremel to it. By the way, you should never chisel after you start sanding. The little bits of wood from the sanding process can get in the way of your chisel and cause all sorts of problems. I ended up taking quite a bit off as you can see. I think my original idea of the torso changed as worked with the wood. 

I then sanded down the rough edges with a detail sander.

I drilled holes for the limbs and neck in the torso. The hole for the neck is about 1" deep and the holes for the arms and legs are about 1/2" deep.

To attach to head to the torso, I used pieces of animation wire twisted together.

You must be careful not to leave tool marks on the wire. Tool marks creates weak points and can lead to breakage.

I used epoxy putty to attach to wire to the torso. This stuff works great and smells terrible. I kneaded the two compounds together for a minute or so before putting it into the holes I drilled earlier. I then stuck the animation wire into the hole. After about an hour the epoxy putty is dry enough to test the joints.

I attached the head in the same way. Now he's a real boy.

Up next... Various appendages.