I still have a vehicle, and a video camera, and a desire.... just no unicorn.

Your perverse desire may still be fulfilled. :nuts:

Maybe you need to re-assess the purity of your heart...:D

That unicorn works on an excellent principle.

It needs some kind of pushing device so the human is not holding (or within a few feet of) the log as it is pressed on to the horn.

It needs a safety shut-off switch that both disconnects the power and immediately stops the horn from turning.

With these, it would be a reasonable device.

Oh and that machine FFF posted - damn, that's efficient!

danger! Dad and I being unsafe.

I'd love to sit in front of a real fire with both you and your Dad.
I'll even bring the whisky (in a can).

All the ladies in your lives are welcome too of course.
As long as you can deal with me bursting spontaneously into "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..."

Not completely unsafe. Your ears are protected. That way, you'll be able to hear the screams of agony when one of you cuts your arm off.

On Sunday afternoon I was messing around with "whittling" a ball in cage.

I started by splitting off a hunk of walnut with an axe.
Attachment 37484

Then I used a draw knife and a couple different planes to get two sides flat and square enough to take the wood over to the table saw.
Attachment 37485

I cut a nice 1.25" square blank off to work with.
Attachment 37486

I drew a pattern on each side, based on a photo I saw online. I was going to need to carve out the areas on either side of the ball to hollow out the cage. I started by drilling a big enough hole to pass the blade of my coping saw through, and then I cut into the corners to make paring with a chisel easier.
Attachment 37487

I started chopping and paring wood out with a small chisel.
Attachment 37488
The ball is the tricky part, but I just eyeball it and try to make it round. The circle drawn on each face helps a lot.
Attachment 37489
I'm getting close to finishing it.
Attachment 37490

I ran out of time, but hopefully I'll have more time soon. I'll whittle the ball a little smaller and then use a pen knife to break it loose from each corner. Then it will roll around in its little cage, and people will wonder how it got in there.

Very nice work! Question, will the posts be square in cross section all the way up? Or will the ball be ... nevermind. I just answered my own question. But I was uncertain because the circle outlining the top picture of post #218 seems to show a ball larger than the inside distance post to post.

Of course the ball will be smaller than the post everywhere, otherwise it couldn't roll and rattle around. Looks like a fun project.

I, too worked with wood recently, with straights and curves. I'll post the pics soon.

Yeah, the ball's too big right now. I need to reduce it in diameter all over. I think I drew the circle too large initially. I was working from a photo and not measured plans.

The diameter of the ball will be greater than the distance between the pillars on each side, but smaller than the distance between the pillars on the diagonal.

Lookin good. Thats a neat project.

Not sure if you will be able to use this technique inside the cage, but...

You can smooth something to a near perfect sphere using a circle slightly smaller than the diameter of the sphere. A circle intersects with a (larger) sphere all around the circle's circumference, meaning that if the circle is moved around on the surface of the sphere, it should abrade all the protrusions.

Saw it on mythbusters when they were trying to polish turds.

ETA: if you really want a ball in a cage ... aren't you married already? ;)

Next time trim the final length from the blank as the last step. The extra length gives you summat to muckle onto.

eta: nice job, you slacker. ("messing around" imagine what you could do if you applied yourself?) :D

Yeah, I realized that as i was trying to clamp the thing down. Next time. :)

Very cool. I've wanted to make one of those for a long time, but never got around to it.