Thursday, April 15, 2010

Kids Workshop at The Home Depot - Butterfly House

I went with Daniel last week to the Kids Workshop at the Home Depot to make a Butterfly House. Daryl was not available so I only have Daniel with me.

Daniel looking at the instructions
Two of the pieces have been nailed together
3 pieces nailed. The butterfly house is taking shape
The last of the 4 walls.
Nailing it down.
The bottom is being nailed. Daniel is almost complete.
It's just the top that's missing
Only a screw holds the top cover.
The final product with the certificate
Instructions and pin.
Daniel painted the Butterfly house
Yellow on the inside, red and blue on the sides.

Daniel had fun that day and now he wants to go back to be able to collect the pins.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

2010 Pinewood Derby - Daryl's Car

Here's Daryl's car for the Pinewood Derby. Since he's not a cub scout yet, I just bought a Pinewood Derby kit where the block is already pre-cut.

Daryl drew a face and put the windows on the block.
He asked me to put the number 95 since he wants it to look like Lightning Mcqueen.
He wrote his name at the bottom of the block
Sanded and painted it red.
I'm adding the weights at the bottom.
The block needed a few more weights because it's too light.
Covered the weights with wood putty.
Sanded and painted the bottom
Attached 'red' wheels on it.
Added some stickers with the number 95 on top.
Initial weight is 4.9 ounces.
Close up on the stickers
Front of the pinewood Derby car. STP stickers as headlights.
Again, similar to Lightning Mcqueen with stickers as headlights.
Added a couple of weights at the back since the car 
is below the weight limit during the Official Weigh-in
141 grams on my weighing scale.
Daniel and Daryl's car after the race.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

2010 Pinewood Derby - Daniel's car

Daniel had his 2nd Pinewood Derby race about 3 weeks ago. His car did better this year compared to last year as far as the speed is concerned. I believe we shaved off about 1 second on the time. Here's Daniel's Pinewood car this year.

We traced the design on the side of the pinewood block.
The other side of the block
Started cutting the design using a coping saw. 
I told Daniel to change the design a bit.
Cutting is still going on
Done with the cutting. Working on the filing/sanding next.
Didn't have much pictures for the filing/sanding. 
We used a flat file and a medium and a fine grit of sandpaper.
Here's the sanded wood block.
The edges are smooth. 
We decided to use quarters this year as weights. We're putting 3 quarters on top.
I don't have any router so I just cut the circle pattern using a craft knife.
Here's the 1st one of the 3 holes.
We used super glue to attach the 2 quarters.
Applied wood putty to cover the holes. 
I told Daniel that I'll just put a few more quarters at the bottom.
Here's a couple more places to put quarters.
Super glued the quarters again.
Daniel wanted his car to be yellow (similar to last year).
Weighed the car and we have to add more weights. 
Here's one more quarter.
Added 2 quarters in total.
Covered them with wood putty and sanded it after it dried.
Painted the bottom and attached the wheels
Daniel attached some stickers.
Initial weight of 4.87 ounces
Additional stickers
Full view of the car.
Added a few weights on top. 
It seems that my weighing scale is not accurate.
Weight is 142 grams. We'll target this weight next time.
The limit is 141.7 grams.

I'll be posting Daryl's car next. He wanted to join the pinewood derby race this year with a red car.