Grand Prix 2020

This past weekend, we had the AWANA Grand Prix at our church. It's a pinewood derby race that we've competed in for many years. The kids love it and look forward to it almost as much as their daddy does, ha. Leighton lets them choose any design for their car that they want. In years past, we've had a shark, police car, Hershey bar, monkey, shoe, a Camaro and "My Little Pony" Mustang, and various personalized designs. 

Leighton does a fantastic job with the cars, not only because he's a skilled craftsman, but because he's teaching our kids those skills, as well. As they get older, he expects them to complete more of the work. Drawing the design, sanding, painting--all the way down to cutting out the shape and polishing axles. It gives them a stronger pride in their cars and teaches them valuable skills.

Here are our 2020 Grand Prix cars!

  

I always love seeing their creativity. Anything can be made into a race car. Sometimes the kids know immediately what they want, other times we brainstorm until they decide, but we always have perfect designs in the end.  

Nicky suggested a few crazy ideas before he settled on Blaze from the television show (quite the resemblance, right?!) He actually wasn't involved in the design process since this car was a bit more involved, but he made a convincing project manager as he reminded his daddy of important missing details. He needs paint! Where are his wheels? In the end, he was quite pleased to drive Blaze across the gym floor and send him flying down the hallways.

Tyler had initially drawn two different ideas for his car. We all fell in love with his sub sandwich, so that became the winning choice. Tyler painted his buns and cut out felt for his fillings. It looks good enough to eat! He also made sure to have lighter colored slits in the top bun since that's how a real loaf bakes. Smart boy. He does love his momma's homemade French bread. 

Zac wasn't too concerned about a fancy car this year; he wanted to go for speed. He drew his design, sanded, and painted. He even added a number 18 on both sides, but soon realized they were covered by the wheels. Oops. His effort paid off though as he won 1st place for his group and competed in the overall race winning 2nd there. 

  

Alyssa took the longest to decide on a car. I personally suggested at least a dozen ideas (Leighton vetoed my Mount Rushmore suggestion, even though a group of perfectly carved presidents would be a guaranteed trophy). She eventually chose a hot dog, complete with ric rac mustard. Not only did she win a first place trophy for design, but for speed as well. That little hot dog can move!

Jake made his car completely by himself. Leighton gave suggestions and walked him through certain aspects, but Jake did the work. Not bad for a 14 year old! One of the wheels popped it off the track the first couple times down, but after it was angled differently, it really picked up speed. The adult group is only for fun, but I think his design was trophy-worthy. I'm sure there's no prejudice influencing that opinion either, ha. 

Leighton made his car by himself, too, ha! He put his engineering knowledge to work to design a fast car. He won every race in his group, won the overall race, and even beat a car that had never lost a race in many years. His car had hit 205 mph. I think to say he reached his goal of crafting a fast car and one that made his kids proud.

It was another great year at the Grand Prix! Designing, detailing, racing--it's all part of the fun! The trophies are just icing on the cake.

Or mustard on the hot dog.

Make it Monday: $2 Birdhouses

Erika asked me to make birdhouses with the kids last year, yes, last year. I, being a Maker and woodworker, loved the idea. Yet I still managed to forget about the request for a little while. Then one day it was brought up again and I hopped to it. I immediately turned to my favorite DIY site, instructables.com, for ideas. One of the first returns on my search was the $2 Birdhouse posted by CheapChuck. A simple birdhouse that didn't cost much, but still did what we wanted. I knew instantly what birdhouse we were making.

The basis for this birdhouse, or our building material is simple. You need one, yes one, five to six foot long dog-eared cedar fence picket. Small disclaimer: in the instructable the house is referred to as a $2 house but my local Home Depot charges $2.25 for the picket, but I still think it is a cheap build. They do sell a $1.18 pine picket, but that one is treated. Not very bird friendly. Plus cedar is a good outdoor, low maintenance building material. Anything else you need you can probably find in your workroom. I did.

So last year I went and got three, we have three kids old enough to make houses, cedar pickets. I spent a few minutes one evening cutting out all the pieces. You need two peaked, end wall panels, two side wall panels and two roof panels. The floor panel you wait to cut out until you put the rest together so that you can measure what you need.

I also trimmed one of the roof panels for each house along its width equal to the thickness of the board. This allows for a symmetrical look to the finished roof.

Cutting it all out really wasn't difficult. Getting around to putting the houses together, now that's a different story. We didn't get around to making them last year before the birds nested. So I intended to get them together for this years nesting. Still not entirely sure if I managed that, but they're together none the less.

To construct these I used exterior wood glue, 18 gauge brad nailer, hammer, drill with 3/32", 1/4" and 1 1/4" bits. I have to admit, I had to buy exterior wood glue since all I generally use is interior, but that is not much cost added to the project. When it came time I covered the kitchen table with newspaper, and ran my air hose in from the porch. I called the kids in and we began assembling birdhouses.

We started by assembling the four walls. A peaked wall goes at either end with the rectangular walls between them. Apply glue to the edge of the rectangle wall, align with the peaked piece, and give it a couple of nails from the gun. If you are going classic with a hammer and nails I recommend pre-drilling the holes so as not to split any wood.

There was no problem getting the kids to help with the gluing process, they're used to that. But the nail gun brought fear to their eyes. It's new to them and loud, none of them like how loud my tools are. I do appreciate their fear of the tools though. It will help them learn to respect how dangerous they can be and the proper way of using them.

From the walls you move to the roof, putting on the piece you trimmed first. Apply your glue on one side of your peaked walls. Align the edge of the roof piece with the other peak surface to create an even surface for the other, wider piece to sit on. Nail again.

And this is when the battery in the camera died. Not too many more pictures were taken. I apologize for that. I plan to make another house with a clear rear wall. At that time I'll take more pictures of the process. We're hoping that we can mount that house someplace close to a window so we can observe what is happening inside.

Once that side of the roof is secured you can apply glue for the other side. Make sure you put plenty along the top ridge so that it will create somewhat of a seal from rain when it dries. Place the piece and nail again. Once the roof is in place you can work on your entrance. I drilled a 1 1/4" hole center on the front in line with the bottom of the roof. Make sure to sand both sides of the entrance so has to help avoid a splintered bird. Before you drill that hole though, mark the spot for a perch two inches below the center of the entrance. I used a 1/4" drill and inserted a sanded 1/4" dowel roughly three inches long.

Now for the bottom. This will also be your entrance to clean the house out once the occupants leave. Yes, just like human renters, these users do not clean up after themselves. Cut you base leaving yourself about an 1/8" around the perimeter, 1/4" smaller than what the house measures. On one end cut or sand a 45 degree angle off the bottom so the panel can hinge out for cleaning.

Pre-drill holes for a standard nail, I used a 6d 2" nail on either side as my hinge. A 3/32" bit made a hole just the right size so I could simply push the nail in with almost no hammer use. On the other end of the base I drilled a hole the size of which I do not remember and insert a standard coarse thread drywall screw to hold the floor up. When it comes time to clean the home I will remove this screw and swing the bottom out and allow the contents to empty.

Yes the kids did help me with this project in between trips to the living room to slide on a big cardboard box they had been playing with. I still get a little nervous having them run power tools so I do a lot of that for them, but I try to get their hands on the tool while I am doing it.

What they had fun with was painting them. I was not at home for this process, but it was something they can do mostly on their own. So with no one hindering what they had to do, they went wild painting them however they felt.

Well, our kids had fun making our "$2" birdhouses, and if I manage to get them up in time some birds will enjoy them. How about you, want to give your kids, or yourself, a good time and a couple of birds someplace cozy to stay for a while?

Antioch Grand Prix

The past few weeks have included many nights with me secluded out on the porch doing more woodworking. I wasn't finishing the dollhouse, nor was I making any more beds. I was carving pinewood derby cars, three of them. It was supposed to be four, one for me, but I ran out of time. I thought about doing a step-by-step of the process, but they took enough time as it was. I couldn't imagine how much longer they would have taken. I'll tell you what I did. I just won't be able to show you.

When I asked Jake what kind of car he wanted he told me, "A race car that the hood opens." Really? Do you understand how this race works? Opening hoods don't matter, you're not going to do anything to the engine. It won't have an engine! After some talking we determined that winning a race was more important to him than the car looking cool. So we looked at other low profile cars for ideas. We decided on a design and cut the shape. I didn't start carving right away because I was more concerned with how much work I had to put into Alyssa's, so I started hers first. When Jake saw it take form, he decided looking cool was much more important. A completely new idea, and a new block of wood later; we were on our way. I decided on the Camaro aspect, he chose the black with green flames and the red number six.

Alyssa's design was easy to come up with, "I want a pink My Little Pony car!" "Pony Car!" A Mustang! Idea, easy; following through, not so much. I decided on basing it off the 2013 model on Ford's website and Alyssa decided on Pinky Pie being the art work.

When I asked Zac what kind of car he wanted,"I want blue one!" So the design was up to me. I chose to try and win a race with this one. While still trying to keep it stylish, I removed as much wood as possible. Once I finished the cutting, sanding, and priming I let Zac do the painting.

Zac's car did not require any extra wood but the other two did so that they would look real.

I used the standard block of wood you are given with the kit but added a piece of wood 1 1/2" wide and 1/2" inch thick (actual measure) to the car. Before I could glue it to the block I had to cut openings for the wheels.

I measured the distance from each end to the axle cut and mark it on the side pieces. I used a 1 1/4 inch spade drill bit to drill the openings. About one-third of the bit goes over the edge of the board, so clamp it down and go slow. Or drill just enough to get the line to follow the edge and cut it out with the scroll saw. I did some of each. Once the holes are done glue them right to the block with wood glue using clamps to hold it over night.

With the added wood the block would not fit under my scroll saw so I had to use a band saw. I simply cut out the basic shape with the saw and used a Dremel to do all the carving. Most of the work was done with a sanding bit, but a lot of excessive removal as well as much of the detail was done with a variety of high-speed cutters. Use what tools you have, but be PATIENT! Speed leads to mistakes. Trust me! When I was little my dad would cut the basic shape and I would do the rest with a pocket knife. It just takes longer.

I did just about all the priming and painting with sprays. The tail lights and some touch ups were done with acrylics. Use fine sand paper before you paint if you want a fine finish when you're done. A lot of people at the race thought our cars were plastic because of the finish. I also added a coat of clear to make them really shine. Word to the wise though, don't draw any designs with a Sharpie if you're gonna use clear coat. It makes the marker run.

The races went completely backwards of what I expected. I lost one of the polished axles that I prepped so I had to use a spare axle that was too tight of a fit for the wheels so Zac's car didn't go anywhere. Jake's car with it's blunt nose won second for speed and Alyssa's won third. I had assumed that their cars would not do well on the track due to how much wood was on them. But it turns out it comes down to what you do with your axles. Polish your axles, it pays off. But depending on the age, as long as they end up with a car to play with they're happy.

I already mentioned that Jake won second and Alyssa third for speed. But Alyssa also won first for design. I'm sure that had nothing to do with the pony to mustang reference.

Have you made any pinewwod cars? What creative designs did you come up with? Any cool paint jobs out there? Any success tips to share? Make a car and have fun!

Make It Monday: Wooden Helicopter

Monday was spent utilizing some of the crafty gifts the kids got for Christmas. They were busy stamping with the Melissa & Doug alphabet set, painting with watercolors, painting in paint poster books, coloring, stickering, etc. 

Jake also decided to assemble his wooden helicopter that he found in his stocking. He cut open the top and dumped all the pieces on the table. 

And 5 minutes later it was completely glued together. The kid amazes me.

Every 2 minutes after that, he asked if it was dry yet. Much competence; little patience.

I was planning to take a picture of the finished product, but little Zachy got a hold of it and broke it into pieces. I asked Jake if he was going to put it back together. "Uh, maybe. Not today." He wasn't very impressed once he realized that it couldn't actually fly, that the rubber band just made the rotor spin.  

One thing he has especially like was the glue that came in the kit. He's already used it to fix Zac's new car track thingy after he stepped on it and broke a piece off and he's glued miscellaneous things around the house. 

I'd say it was a dollar well-spent.