Weekend Work

  My local Grandchildren arrived for the weekend on Friday and they always like to build something in the workshop.  K arrived with a homework project.  He needed to make a cottage for a project. K likes to build with screws, so after he cut the wood on the band saw he drilled and screwed it all together.  I got him a four volt screw driver last year, it is smaller and easier for small hands to control.

  After he finished his homework we began work on a fun projects.  Between he and I we designed and built a rubber band powered catapult. The catapult threw marshmallows all over the house. For this project Kieran used the band saw and the drill press, and his screw driver.  

  Sunday's projects were boats. I bet you can guess which boat was designed by the 5 1/2 year old girl and which by the 7 1/2 year old boy. The round colourful boat is an "aircraft carrier". So says the young princess.  

  The grey boat is a destroyer with three turret guns that turn and shoot rubber bands.  My Grandson did most of the designing and nearly all the cutting.  I helped with the hot glue gun and shaping the hull a bit.  Having discovered the heat gun paint drying method we were even able to paint the boats.  

  The major issue for young wood workers  I have found is hand strength.  The band saw and drill press don't need the wood worker to have a vise like grip, sanders and routers do.  Also hand planing needs grip strength but K is getting better.  This weekend he used a block plane to do some shaping and spend more time sanding than in the past too.  Best of all, he helped his sister by cutting out some of her pieces on the band saw, all by himself. Who's the proud Opa??

cheers, ianw

P.S. never throw out the off cuts from your hole saw.

  You never know when they will be needed to build a destroyer.