Making a model guillotine

I decided early on in the fame project that I wanted my do-make to tie into by teach a class about the storming of Bastille and the rest of the French revolution. So I decided to make a Guillotine. Once my Proposal was accepted I immediately went to the hardware store and bought five different pieces of balsa wood. I got three 2cm x 2cm by 90cm pieces of wood and one 1cm x 1cm by 90cm piece of wood. I also got two other thin sheets of balsa. I cut two of the 2 by 2s and the one 1 by 1 in half with a hand saw and made the tall beams with them. The way I glued them together was: half a 2 by 2 then in the middle a 1 by 1 and on the other side was another 2 by 2 Like this:

It created a groove for the blade.

 I then used my last piece of 2 by 2 and cut out the supports with a handsaw. I attached the supports with glue and screws and then screwed the two beams on.

Then I used some metal I had and cut it in half with a 45 degree cut using a hack saw and used screws to attach the metal from the side supports to the two beams.

Then I made the Blade by cutting some metal into a 45 degree edge and attached it to a piece of thin balsa with three screws and then drilled a hole in the top of the wood for the string to go through.

Next thing to do was the table where the person would lie. I used 1 of my sheets of thin balsa wood and cut two pieces from it I glued the first one vertically onto the front support. Then I glued the other sheet square to the first sheet and glued it the space between the two beams and where it met the other sheet.

Now it was time for the Lunette or the thing that the executed put their head in I cut a square piece out of the leftover balsa wood and drilled a hole in the center. I then cut it in half and glued the bottom piece to the two beams I then created a rail for the top lunette to slide on using a similar technique as when making the groove in the two beams

I then made the top and cut out a design and glued the top on and gave the hole guillotine a coat of brown spray paint

I screwed an “I hook” into the top upside-down. Then I drilled a hole in the side of one of the beams and threaded a string though it.

I then tied the string to the wood connecting it to the blade and I was done!