Shop update #124 (3-11-20)
Did you know that Harbor Freight sells cowbells? I’m in quite a few maker groups on FaceBook and somebody posted about buying one. I was already stopping by HF on Friday night to pick up some squeeze clamps so I picked one one and decorated it with some FWW stickers. I am going to try and incorporate it into the background of all my future videos.
A friend and I want to participate in some craft shows this year so I designed a CNC template to batch out some of the exploding outhouses.
Saturday morning was spent helping out with an Eagle Project for my son’s Boy Scout Troop. That afternoon I cut out my first batch of outhouses on the CNC and refined the design.
On Sunday I held 2 – 2 hour Pinewood Derby clinics for my son’s Cub Scout Pack. In the morning I made a bunch of sanding blocks for the boys to use and then setup all the tools for the first clinic that started at 1:00 pm.
I have a picnic table that I built a couple of years ago that lives under our back patio. That was the design station for drawing, cutting out, and taping the templates to the blocks of wood. The Scout and their parent then came to the bandsaw station and watched me cut out their design. We then moved to the small sander and smoothed and rounded out the cars. The Scout and their parent then brought the car back to the picnic table and finish sanded it. They then moved to the painting station (4 ft folding table covered in plastic) and painted them.
Once the paint dried, they brought their whole kit to me and we weighed it all. I bought a bunch of 1 1/4″ washers and we added them to scale until we got as close to 5 ounces as we could without going over. The Scout and I would drill a hole into the bottom of the car and fill it with washers. The Scout and their parent would then attach the wheels with the supplied nails. If the car was under 5 ounces they were given advice on how to add more weight at home.
We successfully helped 14 scouts and siblings build their cars in about 5 hours. I have one more clinic coming up at the end of the month and the Pinewood Derby will be held in the middle of April.
