Some of the luckiest kids in the world have to be the ones with hackers and makers as parents. While normal kids are stuck playing with cookie cutter mass produced toys, these kids get one-off gadgets and creations that will be the envy of the playground. Frankly, some of the stuff ends up being so cool that it’ll get the adults wishing they could go back in time and play with it.
One such parent, and one such project, is the Imperial Rocker by [Matthew Regonini]. Hoping to instill an obsession with a galaxy far, far, away on his offspring, [Matthew] designed this AT-AT rocking horse piece by piece in Illustrator, and then cut it all out of birch using his XCarve CNC router. Each piece was then meticulously glued together to produce a final 3D effect from the individual cutouts.
With a liberal application of spring clamps to hold it all together while it dried, all that was left to do was painstakingly sand all the parts so the edges of the laminated construction would be smooth. Dowels were then added for the handlebars and foot pegs, and a few coats of polyurethane seal up the plywood while bringing out a natural look.
[Matthew] notes some issues here and there, notably quite a bit of blowout in some of the detail cuts and a couple miscalculated dimensions. But he reasons that the rocker is going to live a pretty hard life anyway, so best not to sweat the small stuff.
While the Imperial Rocker has that quaint old-school charm, we wonder how long it will be before [Matthew’s] little Stormtrooper starts yearning for the blinking lights and buttons that youngsters just can’t get enough of.
You have learned much, young one. Impressive. Most impressive.
Reminds me of this one.
https://hackaday.com/2014/10/13/your-halloween-costume-may-be-cool-but-its-not-laser-cut-cardboard-vintage-airplane-cool/
Never let your son play with another kid riding an X-wing rocker with a grapple hook!! Just kidding!!! Awesome wood job!
Not big fan of star wars but ain’t that supposed to be A-wing? Still remember ’em from the X-wing DOS game…or some other.
Good job on the rocker, I like the way it looks.
Snow speeder…
Perhaps I am not so fan of star wars as well. No.. surely I am a good fan with a bad memory. Nevermind, the joke is done, LOL!
Stretch goal – stroller.
another maker-built rocker with lights and buttons : https://cypax.net/projects/rocker/
“You can never have too many clamps!” —woodworker’s maxim
Yah, there’s all kinds of clamps there. G clamps, C clamps, F clamps, metal clamps, bar clamps, spring clamps, stall clamps, surgical clamps, wheel clamps, current clamps….
You can never have too many power supplies
You can never have too many meters
-electronics tech
What? No laser?
I really wish that Hackaday had a requirement that projects featured must publish source material that the community can iterate on. It’s less of the ego stroking “check out what I made” and more “have a crack at making this yourself”.
That is what Instructables (r) is for…
Hey, thanks for the rad article!
If anyone wants to try making one, there’s cheap plans for sale on my Etsy page.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/554668232/star-wars-inspired-rocking-horse-at-tv?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=star%20wars%20inspired%20rocking%20horse&ref=sr_gallery_1