Make Stuff with Your Kid

I should be able to get a new post up this weekend with a project to make with your kid but I thought I would give you a pic of something I have been doing for myself. A friend recently got me interested in target shooting with a bow and arrow. I did this some with my dad and my uncles when I was younger but haven’t thought about it in years. In normal fashion for me, I have to make all the parts myself.

Here is my first arrow:

The most fun part of this was making a jig for making custom dowels. The shaft of the arrow was a piece of an old Douglas fir 2×4 that I had in the basement. I can post a pic or instructions of the jig if anyone is interested - just send me an email at jim@makestuffwithyourkid.com

See you this weekend.

UPDATE:

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This one does not work… I apologize, it seemed so promising but 6 different readers had poor results as did I.  The best thing we caught was a raccoon(It licked the bottle completely clean - yeeeech!). I will let you know if I find a better device!

Thanks,

Jim

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I read about this last year sometime and have been wanting to try it ever since.
We are going to make a mosquito trap from an empty two liter pop bottle, sugar, warm water, and a packet of regular bread yeast from the grocery store.

First, a trick to draw a straight line on a cylinder:
Push the cylinder (pop bottle in our case) into a corner. You can hold the pen in your hand or tape it to a heavy book if you need. Press the pen against the bottle and spin the cylinder while keeping it trapped in the corner.

Stop and feel really smart for a minute for knowing the line trick, then, (all careful like…), follow your really smartly drawn line and cut the top off. I am using a utility knife but you could use scissors or anything that will suit.

Once you have the top cut off, set it aside but don’t throw it away. It will go inside the bottle but turned upside down.

Next, off to the kitchen for the filling.

Mix 1/4 cup of sugar with 2 1/2 cups of warm water. The water should be warm but not hot.

You will need a packet of regular bread yeast to add to the water and sugar mix.

Stir the warm water and sugar until mixed and add the yeast.

Pour all this nastiness into the pop bottle and put the top part of the bottle in upside down. (Take the cap off first)

That is it. Put it outside somewhere shady in the evening and wait. The mosquitoes will fly down in thinking that the gases coming off the yeast concoction is some tasty kid to bite. They will fly in but not be able to get back out. I just put mine out in the yard. Email me and let me know how yours works.

(jim@makestuffwithyourkid.com)

Thanks for playing!

So, I had a bunch of part cans of spray paint around in the basement and I got rid of three of them painting this boat…

For the base coat, I emptied a little can of red spray paint.

Once that dried, I put a couple coats of yellow on one side and a few coats of blue on the other and here it is. (Guaranteed the fastest boat in any bathtub!)

The high powered engine is the rubber band off a bunch of asparagus. (Even boat builders need to eat their veggies.)

Thanks for sticking with me through this project. If you have a specific project you would like me to make or if you have any questions or would like plans of this boat to print, send me an email at jim [at] makestuffwithyourkid [dot] com. I can also get you more information on the more complex boat pattern from the first post.

-Jim

Last time, we had just started drawing our boat pattern on a board. Now we will finish laying it out. When you are done, it should look like this picture.

If you want a full size pdf that you can print, cut out, and trace on your board, email me at jim [at] makestuffwithyourkid [dot]com.
After you have everything drawn out, go ahead and cut out the boat and paddle pieces with the coping saw.

Before you cut out the pieces, think about which parts you are going to leave and which parts you are going to remove. It is really easy to cut off a part that you meant to leave on. I have a lot of experience at this… A trick to help you remember what to leave is to draw squiggly lines on the parts that you want to remove. Be careful when cutting out the notches in the paddle pieces to keep them tight. The notch should be just barely wide enough to allow the other paddle to slide into it. If you have any question, cut tighter and sand until they go together. It will be much harder for you if you cut it too large.

Here is a shot with all three pieces cut out.

In the pic, I have placed the paddle pieces so that you can see how they will be assembled.

All that is left to do is sand, finish, and start playing.

Any sandpaper made for sanding wood will work fine but I think that one of the best inventions of all time is adhesive backed sandpaper.

As you can see in the picture, I tore a piece of adhesive backed sandpaper off my roll and stuck it on a scrap. For me, moving the boat over the stuck down sandpaper is easier than the other way.

Once you have sanded off all the pointy ends and sharp edges, you are ready to assemble, paint, and play!

Put a drop of glue on the inside surfaces of the paddles where they will touch and press them together.

Right now, I am going out to paint the boat with spray paint.

Tomorrow, after the paint dries, I will put up a pic of the boat all finished.

This last week, I got really interested in toys that you could take to the pool. I made a couple of these boats (seen above) and they are a blast.

The only problem was that I used quite a lot of expensive tools from my wood shop and I wanted to find a way that anyone could make a working toy boat - so here we go.

You need a four dollar board that you can get at the hardware store or a hobby shop. (I bought this 1/4″ thick piece that is 2′ long and 4″ wide in the bin at Cottin’s Hardware.) and an eight dollar coping saw like the one in the picture and you are in business…

The first step in laying out the boat is drawing a curved bow (or front end of the boat) on our new board. In my shop, I had a paint can that was about the right width but you could use anything that is near 4 inches. If you are feeling adventurous, you could also mark out a more traditional pointed bow like the boat at the top of the page.

When done, this particular boat is going to look a little like Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder.

marking bow of the boat

In part 2 of this post (coming this Saturday), we will finish marking out the pattern, cut it out, and assemble it.