Playhouse Rocketship - Part 1

Joshua's birthday is in about a week and I decided a few days ago that I'd build him a rocketship playhouse for his birthday. One of his favourite things to do right now is to play in a little IKEA KOJA tent. He is always asking for one of us to go in the tent with him.

His little sister Lauren and Oscar the cat both like playing in the tent as well. Hopefully they'll all like the new rocketship.

With a little more than a week to go I'm not sure if I'll get this one done. Maybe the time crunch will be a good thing and force me to finish this project off in a reasonable amount of time.

First I drew up a quick plan in Sketchup :


Using Sketchup, I haven't been able to figure out how to cut the door out of the cylinder. It'll be easier to cut the hole in the wood :)

For the cylinder and cone I'll use some 1/8 masonite, white on one side and brown on the other. This'll save me from having to paint it. The floor and support rings will be out of 3/4" good one side plywood and the rocket motors are from leftover dimensional lumber.

I picked up the plywood last night and stacked it in the shop. Next I scrounged up some leftover dimensional lumber and glued up almost enough blanks for the rocket motors. I managed to use up all the Bessey clamps in the shop - does that mean I can buy some more?


Next up - a circle cutting jig for rotor and bandsaw table.