The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

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Giant Minnesota Wedding Lock

A woman in Minnesota asked me to build another Giant wood lock for her upcoming wedding.


The design of this wooden lock came from Tim Detweiler's 2nd book on Making More Working Wooden locks.

Making Lever

Front cover

Gluing Up Red Oak Blanks for Hasp

Gluing Center Sections to the Back

Stain

I used Spanish Oak on the previous 2 giant locks I built. I decided to try Cherry stain on this one.  I have been using the Cherry stain on recent projects, and I like the color.

After the stain dries, then I do 3 rounds of 220 grit sanding followed by gloss polyurethane.........

Final Glue Up

After cleaning out all the dust in the interior of the lock, I applied Johnson Paste wax to the moving parts.  Then I glued up the assembly, using spacer blocks to not mark the soft pine surfaces...........

Band-Sawing Operation

I next band-sawed the square assembly to give the rounded final shape of the lock...........



1st Coat of Polyurethane

I stain the red oak parts first.  I masking tape the key to keep the stain from the round maple end.  I also stain the 3/4" oak buttons.

I used super-glue to attach 3 of 4 of the red oak buttons. I leave the 4th loose until the very final assembly.

I glued the stained red oak key face onto the front.

Then I apply the 1st coat of gloss polyurethane to the whole lock.


Finished Minnesota Wedding Lock

Closing Thoughts on this Project

Remember to drill the 3/8" dowel holes with a 25/32" diameter drill to give some clearance. I also did angle the cut in the middle section for the ash spring so it stays against the left stop.


These giant locks sure take a lot of wood to make !