Making a Creative Pirate Ship Wheel

Making a creative Pirate themed ship wheel DIY Halloween prop that really works. We made a real working pirate ship's wheel that spins. Its made of wood and attached to a pedestal that looks like a tree stump carved from foam and hard coated. The pirate props were created for a Halloween event at the Arbor Day farm in Nebraska. So we really tried to theme all of our pirate props with a nature twist. We made a pirate treasure chest prop with pirate loot from nature. We made a pirate ship crow's nest with pirate skeletons that hung up in the tree tops looking out in the forest. We also made a couple working cannons that kids could interact and shoot fog and fun sound effects. Here are some key construction techniques people use to make these ship wheel props compared to our design. Some use a six or eight-sided wooden block to attach the spokes for the hub of the wheel. They create eight spokes and handles that pass through the rim and connect into the central hub. These are usually thinner than the wheel rim for a more realistic aesthetic. We just used several 2 x 4 with one going all the way through the center. I cut groves and carved decorative details on each handle. You can create the circular rim or felloes by joining 6–8 arc-shaped pieces of wood. What we did is draw a large circle on paper and used it as template. We were able to get all the pieces cut pretty close. Then there are the front and back outer wood rings that we made. You can cut these using a jig or trace them out like I did and cut them out with jigsaw. We glued the arc segments together, using end grain to side grain joints. You can reinforce these connections with dowels and add thick wooden rings to both sides for maximum strength. We used a bunch of wood glue for the extra strength. We used blow torches to burn the soft wood and wire brushes and wire brush grinding wheels to raise the wood grain. We sanded all the edges smooth to make them safe and then applied dark wash. We added a light off white watered down paint to the whole wheel for a salty sea weathered look. Jeana added some fun bright colors to break up the wood stained rustic pirate ship's wheel. Common materials we used for this project are 2x4, 2x6, and 2x8 Douglas fir framing lumber for the wheel and spokes and handles. Instead of using a solid block of oak or pine for the center hub we just sandwiched a couple 1x6 round circles with a 1/2" inch gas pipe flange inside it. The wheel pedestal was constructed with plywood and foam. This video also shares how to make a DIY fake tree stump with foam. The foam was hard coated with fiberglass and covered with a concrete mortar mixture. Both props was custom painted to look like a realistic tree prop. Other decorative "Pirate" touches were weathering and adding hand carved wooden acorns to mount to the Captain's wheel. We had planned on adding barnacles to the wood as well as seaweed and paint with a gray wash to create a "sunken ship" look. Another detail I had hoped to add was iron strapping some how. We could have painted the rings and joints with metallic spray paint to simulate metal reinforcements. We could have also added a small skull and crossbones to the center hub for a menacing, thematic touch. 🧰 MATERIALS: _________________ 🔨 TOOLS: _________________ 🔔 SOCIAL: _________________ 🎬 YouTube -    / hollywoodhaunter   📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hollywoodha... 📸 Instagram -   / pickertreats   😀 Facebook -   / hollywoodhaunter   🎃 Website - http://www.hollywoodhaunter.com/ ✉️ Contact - http://[email protected] ☕ Thanks for the Support! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/hollywoo... Sign up to BuyMeACoffee here: http://www.buymeacoffee.com/?via=holl... (Affiliate link) If you found this video helpful or entertaining please give us a 👍 consider subscribing and hit the 🔔 for notifications. 💗Thanks for watching, commenting, and supporting the channel. 🎹 Music - #hollywoodhaunter #pirates #halloween #diy