Clockwork: Buildig the Sleigh

Last week we completed building a sleigh for the PT group to start rehearsing with. Initially Kasia had wanted a sleigh that was large enough to fit three people in and sturdy enough to be worked with by the physical theatre students.

Originally sketch for the sleigh, originally I had considered mounting the structure on steel deck.

Originally I had considered building some kind of sleigh on top of a piece of steel deck I had put wheels on for use in rehearsals. However, Kasia decided this wouldn't be easy to work with, due to the weigh and shape. As she didn't mind the performer's legs being on show, I suggested that we build a sleigh frame instead, which could be held up by the performers.

The final design for the sleigh, focusing on the frame instead of the whole structure.



With the design in place we started construction of the sleigh. As we were only constructing its frame I decided to use quite a thick wood. This would give the structure the strength it needed to be used in rehearsals without being too heavy and awkward.

Primarily the sleigh would be constructed of three main pieces (the two sides and the middle frame section). I therefore divided up the wood and drew out the middle frame piece first. As this was the simplest part to draw out I did it first so one of us could get on with cutting out the frame whilst I drew up the two side sections of the sleigh, which would take longer to design.

Once we had one of the sleigh sides cut out we checked it next to the bottom section of the sliegh to see of it looked in proportion and line up perfectly. I then sanded it down ready to draw out the other side on the remaining wood.

Once I had drawn out a design that fitted both side sections of the sleigh on the same piece of wood I  began cutting it out. By cutting one piece out and using it to stencil the other side we maintained an exact size of the sleigh design. Once we had both sides drawn out we could work separately on the two pieces.

With the two sections separated we began to cut out the outline of the sleigh to give it its light-weight frame. As well as the middle section we would be putting in a number of supports to hold the whole structure together.

Completed side frame of the sleigh.

The frame work assembled.

 Once the main pieces were completed we sanded them down and began gluing and screwing them together. In order to get strong bonds between the pieces we glued them and braced them together with clamps while they dried, before screwing them together for added support.



Once the pieces had dried we added in a number of supports hidden on the inside of the frame work. This gave added support to the sleigh but didn't change the look of the sleigh or detract from its design. We also added some batons of wood that joined the two sides of the sleigh higher up. This gave more support but also made it easier to hold the sleigh up. Our final job was to paint the sleigh and get it into the rehearsal space ready for the PT lot.

Completed sleigh.