Evolving a Magic Wheelchair Costume's Frame!

The whole Magic Wheelchair build team is extremely excited about our latest adventure! ...building an epic costume for our kiddo Freyja! We're not ready to reveal the costume design just yet, but I thought I'd take you on a trip down memory lane and show you how we've evolved the design for our costumes over the years.

Our first costume was a Monster Truck for Jonah! We used PVC pipes and tees to build the frame. This was a great way to build, as we could use readily available, off-the-shelf components and simple tools to fabricate it. It also matched the aesthetic of the monster truck as the exposed pipes mimicked the steel frame of the real Max-D truck!

Our second costume was an Akira-inspired motorcycle for Ben! The close contours of the motorcycle required us to design a frame that could more closely hug Ben's wheelchair and taper in the front. To accomplish this, we turned to plywood, and designed a frame where each of the four sides mimicked a truss. 

The second frame worked out really well, so we approached our third costume with this technique in mind. In fact, we used Ben's frame design as a starting point and modified it to suit the elements of Freyja's costume. We removed the out-riggers that supported the tires as well as the dashboard frame, and then added a taller back wall, as well as a large flat surface in front of Freyja's lap. You'll see how these elements come into play as we share more about the build in the coming weeks!

To pull off the curved portion of the frame, we cut kerfs into the 1/2" plywood (which allow it to bend) and grooves into the 3/4" plywood (which will trap the 1/2" plywood and create the truss). 

Here's a video showing our test cut to verify the kerf depth and width. *NOTE: I only had an 1/8" spiral up-cutting bit on hand to prototype this, so I ended up with the nasty tear out you see in the video. If you are looking to employ this technique, you'll get a much better result if you use a spiral down-cutting bit. Alternatively, you can cut the kerfs on a table saw. This too will produce a good result.

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