Once the stain was set we stained the other side of each piece. When it was dried, we screwed the top portion on to the dowels. To make this a little easier I did a few things.
First, I made an indentation in the center of the dowel.
Then, I screwed from the top of the scooter, going going about 1/2 way.
Next, lining up the indentation with the 1/2 way screw I hand screwed the dowel into place. I did alternate from screwing from the top, then hand screwing the dowel onto the screw until it was tight. I did this because I wanted to make sure I had control over exactly how the two pieces were coming together.
Now that we had the top, I double checked where I had lined everything up by setting the top on the bottom piece to verify that my holes were in the right place.
Once I was sure they were, I went to work on screwing the bottom portions into the dowels. I found it necessary to pre-drill holes into the dowels to help them come together easily.
Next up were the wheels. I purchased ones with a covering to them to protect little toes (just in case!) and screws to hold them in place.
I made certain to put the wheels as far out as I could (for stability), WITHOUT them going outside the border of the wood when they spun. Again, those little toes are so precious, I wanted to make sure that they have as little chance as possible of getting snagged.
Now that most of the components were in place, I needed to do some touch ups. The screws brought up some splinters when they went through, so I sanded those off and re-stained those areas to match the rest of the scooter.
Once those were dry I put on the U-bolt. Now, I'm certain that you can probably buy a wide U in a shorter length, but when you're shopping with 4 kids under age 8 at 7:30 at night after dance class you tend to just grab the closest thing. Am I right?! You could probably also cut yours to a shorter length if you have the right saw...which I don't. So, mine is longer than I would have liked, but I bought acorn bolts to cover the sharp edges.
I was tempted to do the plastic dip finish on the Ubolt, but it was $6 for the can so I decided to skip it. If we find we need it later, I'll take off the U bolt and add it.
Since it is underneath where TJ will sit, I don't think it will be an issue.
Once that was on and tight, we had ourselves a scooter! Now, just to wait until Christmas morning to see his sweet face....the excitement is killing me...perhaps this is why Santa says, "Ho, ho, ho" so much?! Maybe he's worried if he uses actual WORDS he'd give the surprises away!
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