Kids building things.

[tomwalz]

Kids building things.

When I was a kid we built a “soap box derby racer” (entirely unofficial, but that’s what we called it) out of scrap wood and wheels off an old baby buggy. We also built forts and tree houses with pulley systems, etc.

We had a lot more mechanical and structural odds and ends around the house then than people do now. They used different manufacturing methods then, mostly.

Anyway, my grandkids are interested in building “stuff”. What would be good things to have around for them? We start them with the Rockenbok toys and they are great but I am looking for materials to build forts, and pulley systems, conveyors, “soap box derby racers and so on.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,
Tom



Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com

Good engineering starts with a Grainger Catalog.

 

[kacarrol]

For university frosh week we had a junkyard wars competition between various teams. Some of the best dumpster diving was at COSTCO they threw out a whole bunch of appliances and home electronics.

A great resource for ideas on stuff to build is the Makezine blog:

http://blog.makezine.com/

I also buy the magazine. It's a little pricier than other magazines at around $15 per issue but it's worth every penny. Each issue is like a book, there isn't much advertising and it's crammed full of great articles. I have the latest copy sitting on my desk here at work as I just picked it up.

Some of the non-electronic projects it has in this issue are:
Toy Steamboat
Mini foosball game
Backyard catapult
Van de Graaff Generator

And there are tons of projects with varying levels of electronics involved.

I used to raid my neighbours trash all the time and drag home broken stereos etc, fix them and re-sell or just tear apart and try to figure out how they worked.

Good luck!

 

[logoslarry]

Lots of sources out there. For instance, Lee Valley's reprint of the Boy Mechanic series or the PM Shopnotes. Dan Beard's Shelters, Shacks and Shanties or Boats and Boatbuilding are also good. Or they could simply Google them. Another is Instructables .com, lots of projects of all types.
For materiel, dumpster diving, pallets and trash picking are generally good. What is called nowadays, freecycling aka scrounging.

 

[Compositepro]

How many of you remember the "Amateur Scientist" column in Scientific American magazine? Every month there was an article on some hands-on construction project or experiment,like how to grind and silver your own telescope mirror, or build your own CO2 laser using a neon sign transformer for the power supply. When I was in high school I asked a sign company for an old transformer for this project. Can you imagine someone giving a 12,000 volt transformer to a 16 year old today?

 

[jbattershell]

i think one of the best life lessons that you can teach your kids is how to use tools properly. teach them how to use a chop saw and that will allow them to make "stuff" much better.

teach them how to use good screws to hold stuff together. how to predrill and such so that things hold tight. have a good selection of different length screws. this is always better results than the traditional nails and hammer bit. but that skill needs to be taught too but for larger projects like framing.

My boys have started to build a tree fort across the street. I supplied the 2x4s, they nailed and screwed them up. they measured and cut cheap plywood i had left over from my porch project to use as decking. they had a bit of trouble with the big framing nails, so we went to screws and the screw gun.

help them fix a bike, or some other mechanical things. we just took apart my rifle and cleaned it. they love it. we also shoot alot of air rifles, always good fun for that if your neighbor hood can support that. not so good for city dwellers.

 

[btrueblood]

C'Pro -

The demise of the Amateur Scientist column has led (IMO) to a steady decline in the value of the parent magazine. I still have a few back issues, held mainly because someday I hope to have time to build a few of the devices shown in the Am. Sc. columns.