Dave MacArthur
03-30-2011, 5:38 AM
Here follows the Epic of the Lads' first Projects, worth a read if you're looking for something to do while nursing a scotch (I can attest to it), but I won't attest to 100% truth.
Well, the big current wood project at my house which has taken priority over all is my sons building their first "Pinewood Derby" cars for Cub Scouts.
Here's a picture of my first son James, 8 years, with his car-- a replica of a car from a video game, Super Mario Bros. MarioKart, named the "Poltergust 4000".
189035
The main goal of the Pinewood Derby, as I understand it, is to get boys using some tools and accomplishing a simple project that they're proud of and gets them excited to use tools and do some woodworking. So, we started off with a 7" chunk of 2x4, and I told my son to draw a side view and top view of the car he wanted to build, and explained we'd have to cut the shape out and sand it, paint it. I figured he'd draw a wedge or something, and was prepared to go through some pics online to give him ideas, maybe spend an hour in the design phase... but NO, without a second's hesitation he blurts out,
"Daddy, I want to build the Poltergust 4000!"
"Uhm... what?"
"It's Luigi's car from MarioKart, it's the fastest kart in the game, it looks like a vacuum cleaner and that's what makes it fast! It's very smooth and it's got suction in front which should help the airflow like your plane.", he says and then whips out a game CD insert with a picture of said kart.
"Here now, hold on, you're going to have to build this thing, that looks pretty complicated for a first project?"
"Daddy, I watched you carve my wooden fish and helped you sand it, and I know how to file the curves--this is the one I want."
I thought he'd start off with like a wedge or maybe a block with wheels and stickers, but you just have to admire someone who knows what style they like. I've been trying to decide myself for 20 years if I like Shaker, Arts and Crafts, Mission, or some Japanese influenced Shaker thing, but am drawn like a moth to flame every time I see Dave D post some Chippendale or Federal art piece... I can't get started on anything for lack of style commitment! So, to not quell the enthusiasm and reward that kind of design decisiveness, I promptly agreed.
We started drawing side and top views on paper to transfer onto our block. Son #2 wasn't so artistically inclined...
"Sean, your brother has already picked his design and is drawing it out, do you want to pick one and get started so we can cut them out tonight?"
"No thanks, Dad, I'm driving the Poltergust 4000 right now while James is busy, I never win when he plays, so I don't want to stop. Besides, I want my car to be a wedge, and I'll start tomorrow."
Ahh, the wonder of genetics and differences between kids, never ceases to amaze me.
We cut the first curves out with a coping saw, but it only took James asking me twice,
"Daddy, why can't we just cut this out on your big band saw, the Azzagust 4000 or whatever?", for me to see a golden teaching opportunity. Not one to let such wonderful, dreamt-for bonding moments slip away, I promptly replied,
"James, what an excellent idea! However, in this case the Agazzani B-20 (arrghh arrrgh!!) is not the best tool, I think for this job what we want is this beauty here, the Delta 14 inch Curve-Cutter 4000!"
"Yeah nice! That looks like it can do a lot of cutting, and the blade is smaller too, which is good for all these little curves."
I felt like I was in a dream, or at least a scene from WoodSmith Shop, so I played my part,
"Well, you know James, that's right! In fact, that's the reason Daddy has two band saws, this one is all set up special just to cut curves. Also, a friend of Daddy's named Van Huskey said I couldn't join the secret club without at least two band saws, and it's a pretty cool club because we learn to make things. Now let's go over to the bench and talk about band saw blades!"
"But Father, that saw already has a blade on it?"
"Yes, son, but that's a 1/4" blade, and for the tight curves on the Poltergust 4000, we need a smaller 1/8" blade, and besides...."
----At this point, there was a chorus of trumpets from Heaven, and the workshop was suffused with a golden glow, a fragrance of blossoming tangerines wafted through the shop, it was incredible timing, and I'm surprised that I'm the only one who seemed to notice these phenomena------
"... and besides, this gives us the chance to learn how to change this blade and set the guides and tension up! I know I said before I wasn't going to teach you this high magic until after you were 21, but heck, now's the day!"
I could tell he was super excited about changing the blade and learning about cool-blocks, he even rolled the vernier adjustments to bring the thrust-bearings into position. But his eyes did start to glaze over a bit when I began demonstrating blade tracking and explaining why a blade or belt seeks the highest point of a curved pully, so we moved on to the cutting. I was however able to insert a nice 10 minutes of lecture on "Band Saw Safety" and general power tool safety in while I cut the lines to his pattern. His part of the job was to explain what I should do before each cut to ensure I was being safe, which he did well.
On to the smoothing and shaping. I set James up with a selection of wood-rasps and files and riffles, showed him how the rasps cut and how to hold the work with one hand, how to slide the rasp sideways while cutting. He couldn't understand how the curved rasps could make an opposite shaped curve, instead of ending up with a matching pit in the wood, so I showed him my guitar neck I shaped with a rasp and did some demo. After some minutes practice on 2x4s, he declared himself ready and started shaping. He shaped the whole car himself, once we had it cut out on the bandsaw, fining all the curves in, and did a nice job of it.
In my job I just retired from, I was an instructor, and I had the advantage of a one-on-one captive audience, who I could lecture (and did) on the most minute detail of arcane knowledge. A typical day's one-on-one teaching would run 10 hours, with 4 hours pre-sortie planning and briefing, 3 hours of flying with 1.5 being actual time in the air, and 3 hours of bebrief on every physical muscle move and every second by second thought and decision flow, with the ultimate learning motivation always involved, "I lived, you died here and here, and here..." to keep their interest. My wife tells me I've been living in a completely un-real world, and I'd better give that whole concept up forth-with. In this case, she actually said,
"You're living in a dream-world, that boy needs some food, he can't barely hold that rasp up! Un-chain him from that work bench and get cooking!"
She may be right, as by this time I did find that my son's interest in my finer safety points was flagging. Not one to accept defeat so lightly, we took a break for dinner and some cleverly inserted alternative-instruction: a demo on how to cut up chicken wings and slip the knife right through the joints (they do love them chicken wings, and aligning hunger and survival motivations together as a teaching tool seemed like it might slip past my wife's steely-eyed guardianship. When I whispered in his ear, "This knife is like the normal ol' kart Luigi starts with... band saw blade is like the Poltergust 4000 of meat-cutting, you gots to be careful with it always...", it seemed to motivate him as he glanced around slyly to be sure we were un-observed by the guard, then whispered back,
"Always keep your fingers off the cut line, never push directly into the blade, think the cut through first...", just like we'd practiced before.
After a coat of primer, and a little drill-press work, James got out the acrylic enamel paints and before too long ended up with the final car as above.
----------INTERMISSION, time for a scotch refill. Lagavulin, good.---------
The next day, son #2, Sean, became a bit more motivated after seeing his older brother's highly-curved car. His earlier desire for a wedge soon modified into a skinny, sleek, double curved thing--but at least he was able to draw it out quickly on a piece of paper.
I have to say, I never would have thought so many learning opportunities would abound in such a simple project, and I highly commend the Pinewood Derby to you--them boys are WAY more excited about building those cars than they were about me putting in a new door on a rental, or repairing a roof leak! It's all about the medium I guess, so pick your projects! I've already gotten them excited about their next project, a Captain's Bed with headboard bookcase and build-in reading light for each of them, so the upgrade from derby-car to furniture is quick.
First lesson Sean got and loved was one David Marks taught on most shows, the idea of folding a paper in half and drawing half the design to ensure symmetry. Sean drew out about 30 options for his car as soon as he learned we were cutting them out with scissors and un-folding to see how it looked.
"Sean, this is just a snow-flake design here, you can't make a car like this..."
We finally settled on a wafer-thin car, and cut it out. Since no rounding of the shape was required (Sean had practiced rasping notches in boards the day before, and was all over that excitement), I decided we needed someting else as the main learning thrust for the day. What though? What simple but critical task could I focus on? I couldn't think of one... I needed inspiration.
"Daddy, I want my lead weights to be INSIDE my car, not screwed and lumpy."
Taaaa Daaaa! ----At this point, there was a chorus of bagpipes from Heaven, and the workshop was suffused with a golden glow, though more of a "Natural Daylight CFL" illumination temperature than last time, and a fragrance of oaky-vanilla wafted through the shop, and yet again it seems that only I seemed to notice these phenomena------
"Sean My Son, you speak rightly, and there is only one way for us to get these lead sticks inside this car, we must build us a..... MORTISE! This is a square hole in the car, into which we'll insert the stick-shaped lead weights, called a Tenon!"
"Well, Daddy, that sounds about right, but should we make the mortise hole first, or shape the tenon weights first?"
"Has Mommy been letting you read SMC again? That thread comes up every week, you know I don't want you reading all those heretical opinions at such a young age! We shall refer to The Norm for our answer, go get the DVDs of Norm and bring it forth, and we shall seek our answer in Chapter Colonial-Style Cupboard, Verse Dado."
Well, since I can't abide putting a dado blade on and off the table-saw to make tenons, and since we actually didn't need to make a tenon, we shortly ended up at the drill-press. I was able to show both boys how to use the drill press to set a depth of cut, use a fence, and then drill out a series of holes to "waste out" a mortise. I actually got started on a description of brad-point drills vs. flat wood-bits vs. twist drills vs. forstner bits, but couldn't get too far along because both boys were much more enthused in drilling holes in scraps than in changing out bits to see how they were different. So enthused in fact, that on the 4th waste-hole drilled in our pinewood derby car mortise, they forgot to lift up the bit and let the chips exit, and the car body cracked.
Sweet! Golden opportunity to demo some Titebond II, clamping pressure, and show that the glue would be stronger than the wood---"No, No, it's not ruined! Far from it! Your car will actually be stronger now with this glue in it!". So we had to rip apart a stick and glue it together also, so I could rip it apart the next day to prove the glue was stronger.
Next day the boys were ready for their demo of Glue Strength---you see, those dang threads on Joint Strength are a universal interest, we needn't be ashamed. I prayed that all the articles I'd read in FWW and PWW over the years were true, and that the Word as I had heard it was true, glue really was stronger. I had the boys pull on our test-piece like a wishbone to see if the glue was stronger than the wood. Thank TiteBond II, the Word of Glue was revealed to be Truth, and the wood did split asunder like the Red Sea's parting, leaving the glue line intact.
Well, I got in a good 30 minutes teaching on chisels, and before too long Sean was tapping on the top of various chisels as I held them into the mortise, wasting out the remaining wood. From the mouths of babes comes wisdom it's said, and I found it to be true:
"Daddy, why do we have to chisel so many corners out on this mortise, there are like a thousand corners you have to do, my mallet-arm is getting tired."
"Well, Sean, I have to do this corner edge, then slide the chisel over to do the other corner edge.... you have to cut across the grain first so it doesn't split."
"Why don't you just use a chisel that's the same size as the mortise, and then you'd do both corners at once?"
"Well now, Sean, that's a very wise thing for you to have come up with, and just as we have to stop for bedtime too...." , I couldn't think of a good answer, the lad had caught me out doing something silly, must think.... Ah HA!
"Sean, that's a great idea--very proud of you to have thought of that!--and when Daddy gets a new Lie Nielson 3/8" Bevel Edge Socket Chisel, that's exactly how we'll do it! Do you think you can remember those words exactly and run and tell them to Mommy now, before bed? There's some ice-cream in it for you if you can... be sure to tell her we couldn't do the Cub Scout project right without it!"
Anyways, here's a picture of the lad after cutting his first Mortise. Very proud, all of us.189037189036
Best Regards, thanks for making it this far, if you did;)
Well, the big current wood project at my house which has taken priority over all is my sons building their first "Pinewood Derby" cars for Cub Scouts.
Here's a picture of my first son James, 8 years, with his car-- a replica of a car from a video game, Super Mario Bros. MarioKart, named the "Poltergust 4000".
189035
The main goal of the Pinewood Derby, as I understand it, is to get boys using some tools and accomplishing a simple project that they're proud of and gets them excited to use tools and do some woodworking. So, we started off with a 7" chunk of 2x4, and I told my son to draw a side view and top view of the car he wanted to build, and explained we'd have to cut the shape out and sand it, paint it. I figured he'd draw a wedge or something, and was prepared to go through some pics online to give him ideas, maybe spend an hour in the design phase... but NO, without a second's hesitation he blurts out,
"Daddy, I want to build the Poltergust 4000!"
"Uhm... what?"
"It's Luigi's car from MarioKart, it's the fastest kart in the game, it looks like a vacuum cleaner and that's what makes it fast! It's very smooth and it's got suction in front which should help the airflow like your plane.", he says and then whips out a game CD insert with a picture of said kart.
"Here now, hold on, you're going to have to build this thing, that looks pretty complicated for a first project?"
"Daddy, I watched you carve my wooden fish and helped you sand it, and I know how to file the curves--this is the one I want."
I thought he'd start off with like a wedge or maybe a block with wheels and stickers, but you just have to admire someone who knows what style they like. I've been trying to decide myself for 20 years if I like Shaker, Arts and Crafts, Mission, or some Japanese influenced Shaker thing, but am drawn like a moth to flame every time I see Dave D post some Chippendale or Federal art piece... I can't get started on anything for lack of style commitment! So, to not quell the enthusiasm and reward that kind of design decisiveness, I promptly agreed.
We started drawing side and top views on paper to transfer onto our block. Son #2 wasn't so artistically inclined...
"Sean, your brother has already picked his design and is drawing it out, do you want to pick one and get started so we can cut them out tonight?"
"No thanks, Dad, I'm driving the Poltergust 4000 right now while James is busy, I never win when he plays, so I don't want to stop. Besides, I want my car to be a wedge, and I'll start tomorrow."
Ahh, the wonder of genetics and differences between kids, never ceases to amaze me.
We cut the first curves out with a coping saw, but it only took James asking me twice,
"Daddy, why can't we just cut this out on your big band saw, the Azzagust 4000 or whatever?", for me to see a golden teaching opportunity. Not one to let such wonderful, dreamt-for bonding moments slip away, I promptly replied,
"James, what an excellent idea! However, in this case the Agazzani B-20 (arrghh arrrgh!!) is not the best tool, I think for this job what we want is this beauty here, the Delta 14 inch Curve-Cutter 4000!"
"Yeah nice! That looks like it can do a lot of cutting, and the blade is smaller too, which is good for all these little curves."
I felt like I was in a dream, or at least a scene from WoodSmith Shop, so I played my part,
"Well, you know James, that's right! In fact, that's the reason Daddy has two band saws, this one is all set up special just to cut curves. Also, a friend of Daddy's named Van Huskey said I couldn't join the secret club without at least two band saws, and it's a pretty cool club because we learn to make things. Now let's go over to the bench and talk about band saw blades!"
"But Father, that saw already has a blade on it?"
"Yes, son, but that's a 1/4" blade, and for the tight curves on the Poltergust 4000, we need a smaller 1/8" blade, and besides...."
----At this point, there was a chorus of trumpets from Heaven, and the workshop was suffused with a golden glow, a fragrance of blossoming tangerines wafted through the shop, it was incredible timing, and I'm surprised that I'm the only one who seemed to notice these phenomena------
"... and besides, this gives us the chance to learn how to change this blade and set the guides and tension up! I know I said before I wasn't going to teach you this high magic until after you were 21, but heck, now's the day!"
I could tell he was super excited about changing the blade and learning about cool-blocks, he even rolled the vernier adjustments to bring the thrust-bearings into position. But his eyes did start to glaze over a bit when I began demonstrating blade tracking and explaining why a blade or belt seeks the highest point of a curved pully, so we moved on to the cutting. I was however able to insert a nice 10 minutes of lecture on "Band Saw Safety" and general power tool safety in while I cut the lines to his pattern. His part of the job was to explain what I should do before each cut to ensure I was being safe, which he did well.
On to the smoothing and shaping. I set James up with a selection of wood-rasps and files and riffles, showed him how the rasps cut and how to hold the work with one hand, how to slide the rasp sideways while cutting. He couldn't understand how the curved rasps could make an opposite shaped curve, instead of ending up with a matching pit in the wood, so I showed him my guitar neck I shaped with a rasp and did some demo. After some minutes practice on 2x4s, he declared himself ready and started shaping. He shaped the whole car himself, once we had it cut out on the bandsaw, fining all the curves in, and did a nice job of it.
In my job I just retired from, I was an instructor, and I had the advantage of a one-on-one captive audience, who I could lecture (and did) on the most minute detail of arcane knowledge. A typical day's one-on-one teaching would run 10 hours, with 4 hours pre-sortie planning and briefing, 3 hours of flying with 1.5 being actual time in the air, and 3 hours of bebrief on every physical muscle move and every second by second thought and decision flow, with the ultimate learning motivation always involved, "I lived, you died here and here, and here..." to keep their interest. My wife tells me I've been living in a completely un-real world, and I'd better give that whole concept up forth-with. In this case, she actually said,
"You're living in a dream-world, that boy needs some food, he can't barely hold that rasp up! Un-chain him from that work bench and get cooking!"
She may be right, as by this time I did find that my son's interest in my finer safety points was flagging. Not one to accept defeat so lightly, we took a break for dinner and some cleverly inserted alternative-instruction: a demo on how to cut up chicken wings and slip the knife right through the joints (they do love them chicken wings, and aligning hunger and survival motivations together as a teaching tool seemed like it might slip past my wife's steely-eyed guardianship. When I whispered in his ear, "This knife is like the normal ol' kart Luigi starts with... band saw blade is like the Poltergust 4000 of meat-cutting, you gots to be careful with it always...", it seemed to motivate him as he glanced around slyly to be sure we were un-observed by the guard, then whispered back,
"Always keep your fingers off the cut line, never push directly into the blade, think the cut through first...", just like we'd practiced before.
After a coat of primer, and a little drill-press work, James got out the acrylic enamel paints and before too long ended up with the final car as above.
----------INTERMISSION, time for a scotch refill. Lagavulin, good.---------
The next day, son #2, Sean, became a bit more motivated after seeing his older brother's highly-curved car. His earlier desire for a wedge soon modified into a skinny, sleek, double curved thing--but at least he was able to draw it out quickly on a piece of paper.
I have to say, I never would have thought so many learning opportunities would abound in such a simple project, and I highly commend the Pinewood Derby to you--them boys are WAY more excited about building those cars than they were about me putting in a new door on a rental, or repairing a roof leak! It's all about the medium I guess, so pick your projects! I've already gotten them excited about their next project, a Captain's Bed with headboard bookcase and build-in reading light for each of them, so the upgrade from derby-car to furniture is quick.
First lesson Sean got and loved was one David Marks taught on most shows, the idea of folding a paper in half and drawing half the design to ensure symmetry. Sean drew out about 30 options for his car as soon as he learned we were cutting them out with scissors and un-folding to see how it looked.
"Sean, this is just a snow-flake design here, you can't make a car like this..."
We finally settled on a wafer-thin car, and cut it out. Since no rounding of the shape was required (Sean had practiced rasping notches in boards the day before, and was all over that excitement), I decided we needed someting else as the main learning thrust for the day. What though? What simple but critical task could I focus on? I couldn't think of one... I needed inspiration.
"Daddy, I want my lead weights to be INSIDE my car, not screwed and lumpy."
Taaaa Daaaa! ----At this point, there was a chorus of bagpipes from Heaven, and the workshop was suffused with a golden glow, though more of a "Natural Daylight CFL" illumination temperature than last time, and a fragrance of oaky-vanilla wafted through the shop, and yet again it seems that only I seemed to notice these phenomena------
"Sean My Son, you speak rightly, and there is only one way for us to get these lead sticks inside this car, we must build us a..... MORTISE! This is a square hole in the car, into which we'll insert the stick-shaped lead weights, called a Tenon!"
"Well, Daddy, that sounds about right, but should we make the mortise hole first, or shape the tenon weights first?"
"Has Mommy been letting you read SMC again? That thread comes up every week, you know I don't want you reading all those heretical opinions at such a young age! We shall refer to The Norm for our answer, go get the DVDs of Norm and bring it forth, and we shall seek our answer in Chapter Colonial-Style Cupboard, Verse Dado."
Well, since I can't abide putting a dado blade on and off the table-saw to make tenons, and since we actually didn't need to make a tenon, we shortly ended up at the drill-press. I was able to show both boys how to use the drill press to set a depth of cut, use a fence, and then drill out a series of holes to "waste out" a mortise. I actually got started on a description of brad-point drills vs. flat wood-bits vs. twist drills vs. forstner bits, but couldn't get too far along because both boys were much more enthused in drilling holes in scraps than in changing out bits to see how they were different. So enthused in fact, that on the 4th waste-hole drilled in our pinewood derby car mortise, they forgot to lift up the bit and let the chips exit, and the car body cracked.
Sweet! Golden opportunity to demo some Titebond II, clamping pressure, and show that the glue would be stronger than the wood---"No, No, it's not ruined! Far from it! Your car will actually be stronger now with this glue in it!". So we had to rip apart a stick and glue it together also, so I could rip it apart the next day to prove the glue was stronger.
Next day the boys were ready for their demo of Glue Strength---you see, those dang threads on Joint Strength are a universal interest, we needn't be ashamed. I prayed that all the articles I'd read in FWW and PWW over the years were true, and that the Word as I had heard it was true, glue really was stronger. I had the boys pull on our test-piece like a wishbone to see if the glue was stronger than the wood. Thank TiteBond II, the Word of Glue was revealed to be Truth, and the wood did split asunder like the Red Sea's parting, leaving the glue line intact.
Well, I got in a good 30 minutes teaching on chisels, and before too long Sean was tapping on the top of various chisels as I held them into the mortise, wasting out the remaining wood. From the mouths of babes comes wisdom it's said, and I found it to be true:
"Daddy, why do we have to chisel so many corners out on this mortise, there are like a thousand corners you have to do, my mallet-arm is getting tired."
"Well, Sean, I have to do this corner edge, then slide the chisel over to do the other corner edge.... you have to cut across the grain first so it doesn't split."
"Why don't you just use a chisel that's the same size as the mortise, and then you'd do both corners at once?"
"Well now, Sean, that's a very wise thing for you to have come up with, and just as we have to stop for bedtime too...." , I couldn't think of a good answer, the lad had caught me out doing something silly, must think.... Ah HA!
"Sean, that's a great idea--very proud of you to have thought of that!--and when Daddy gets a new Lie Nielson 3/8" Bevel Edge Socket Chisel, that's exactly how we'll do it! Do you think you can remember those words exactly and run and tell them to Mommy now, before bed? There's some ice-cream in it for you if you can... be sure to tell her we couldn't do the Cub Scout project right without it!"
Anyways, here's a picture of the lad after cutting his first Mortise. Very proud, all of us.189037189036
Best Regards, thanks for making it this far, if you did;)