Rubber band vehicles ... ...

Well despite the sunshine it's autumn (well more or less) so we can expect more cold weather and no doubt more rain, so here's an easy project for a rainy day.

These aren't by any means a new idea, but they are easy, cost very little (if you have stuff lying about like me) and they are also good as a teaching aid.


Here they are -

The won't win any design awards, but they are fun.

All these are made from scrap bits of wood, and they are all powered by rubber bands, they are basic I'll admit, but they can be messed about with, and it's more about what you can do with your imagination, and it shows how you can store energy.

All you need are some bits of wood, some rubber bands and a few tools.

The Tank - 

See anything familiar about it ?

Okay, calling it a tank might be stretching things a bit, but I used to make these as a kid, from a rubber band a pencil a match stick and an old cotton reel, much to my nans, and my aunts annoyance if memory serves. 

I've just used slightly different materials, but the principal is the same, the rubber band drives the wheel, and the stick (in this case a bit of dowel) holds it steady (ish)

The rubber band is held in place by a bit of skewer that sits in a groove, this stops the whole thing from just unwinding on the spot, I did have to add a little bit of rubber to the wheel though, this was because it slipped a fair bit on our floors as we don't have carpet.

Next the bike - 

It's a bike honest.

Again I'm reaching a little, but it has two wheels, front and back, that makes it a bike in my book, as with the tank this is driven by one wheel with a rubber band through it, each wheel is actually made in two parts (all will become clear later)

With the back wheel I added a small nail sandwiched between the two parts of the wheel to stop the rubber band just twisting about with out moving the bike, I've made a small diagram of what I'm on about.


The bike drive wheel -

Hopefully that goes some way to explaining how it works.

For the front wheel I just used a small piece of dowel as an axle that goes through the wooden frame of the bike, or you could just glue it onto the frame, the rubber band also goes through the frame of the bike, and as long as you make sure you can secure it, the bike should move easily, you can just use a couple of small hooks in a similar way to the paddle boat, which is up next.

If you want an easy way to make wheels for this type of thing then I'd suggest buying a set of hole saws, they can be picked up for very little money for a set like the one in the picture below, great for making wheels, and cutting holes oddly enough.

Hole saws - 

I have about 4 sets of these for some reason.

And last, but not least we have the paddle boat - 

Likes to paddle.

I'm pretty sure you've seen this done before, if not where have you been ? these used to be the staple of most kids toy boxes years ago, they are great fun, and they also explain how those old paddle steamers used to work, obviously we've replaced the steam with rubber bands, but the principal is the same, that being big paddle drives boat.

Here's a diagram showing how to make a simple paddle - 

Quick and simple, but quite effective.

And there you have it, a lesson in wood working, and potential energy (or is it kinetic ? I forget) and it's also fun.

Just in case you are wondering if any of these work, I have video evidence, all be it slightly shaky and a bit too short, but you'll get the idea, have fun.

Thanks for reading.

Pot project ... ...

This is the result of a little project I've been working on.

As I've been learning to turn wood I decided to have a go at turning some end grain, this is basically turning the wood at a different angle to the lathe.

This will hopefully go some way to explaining what I'm talking about.

The wood on the lathe is the lid.

So what we have here is a picture of the wood I used for the lid, in the picture I've marked the direction of the grain, the horizontal line under the wood is the direction of the grain for that piece of wood and the vertical line marks the direction of the grain when turning end grain.

One of the reasons for turning the wood like this is because it shows of the grain in a different way, but there is a down side (as I found out) the wood behaves differently, for example it tears at the ends, which isn't a big problem it does require more care and your chisels need to be razor sharp, and even then you'll have a fair bit of sanding to do, as it turns out I used my Oland tools to turn the pot and the lid, I seem to be bale to get them much sharper.

There are ways to combat the tear off like using oils,waxes and even water, but I still didn't have much luck, not that I'm that bothered by it as this was a voyage of discovery :-)

A picture of the lid on the lathe -

It has a nice pattern.

The lid is mounted on my screw chuck, whilst this is a good chuck there's a little waste which I wouldn't get if I used an expanding chuck, which I'm hoping to buy soon, they are a little pricey (about £100 for one that fits my lathe) but it will be worth it.

This next picture is the base of the pot, this is one of the reasons an expanding chuck would be handy.

Fixing holes from screw chuck -

Not a big issue, but not good if I wanted to sell it.

 

You can see the holes where I've fixed the wood to the chuck, whilst these can be sanded out and made less obvious, it would be better to turn them out, and that's where an expanding chuck would be handy because I could mount the pot the other way round and turn out the fixing holes.

A picture of an expanding chuck, this will be the one I get, each jaw moves independently, which will be very useful.

I will be adding this to my collection soon :-)

Here's a picture of the pot I took while finishing it, it wasn't going to have a lid originally, but I changed my mind at the last minute :-)

The pot -

I'm very pleased with the pattern, it looks great.

You can see where the wood has been affected by the fungus that causes the patterns in the grain, it makes for some interesting features, I'm lucky in that all the Birch I have seems to have this all the way through it, on the downside I'm not sure where I might find some more.

The pot looks a little orange, this is mainly because of the oil I've been coating it in to try and prevent any cracking and such like.

The remains of the tree trunk -

I still have a fair bit left, and there's always the Pear ;-)

And here is the finished article -

Not perfect by any means, but an interesting piece.

There's a lot wrong with it, for a start the pot rim has warped slightly and is now an oval shape instead of round, and the lid has shrunk a little so it's quite loose fitting, there are a number of things I could do to fix it though. I could re-turn the rim of the pot down to where the wood is slightly thicker, this would help prevent warping, and I could also make a new lid, but make sure it's a little bigger than it needs to be, this would then help the rim keep it's shape, but it would make getting the lid off a little hard, at least until the wood had settled down.

As it's my first pot type thing though I'm happy with it, and I've learned a lot so the next one I make I can approach it in a different way and hopefully I'll be happier with it.

From a slightly different angle -

I think the pattern of the lid works well with the pattern of the pot.

And another slightly different angle -

Shame about the lid, I may try and fix it, not sure yet.

And that's about it really, the pot has changed colour slightly and now looks a little less orange, it's worth giving it a good few coats of oil though as it keeps the wood in good shape.

The pot after a few days -

Still a little orangey, but it will fade as the oil soaks in.

One of the other down sides of wood turning is the mess, I've been bagging the shavings up so I can use them as a mulch either in the garden or at the allotment, or both :-) it gets very dusty so I've had to come up with some kind of extraction system, which I made using 2 hoovers, I'll write a post about it some time ;-)

Here's a picture of the mess, I have a lot of spiders in my shed, which is why some of the shavings seem to be stuck to the wall :-)

It gets every where.

Hopefully I've solved this little problem now :-) we shall see.

Thanks for reading.

Electronics kit fun ... ...

It's been a while since I posted, and seeing as I haven't as yet finished some of the projects I have on the go I thought I'd post about the electronics kit we got for our son to mess around with (and hopefully learn from)

I can remember playing with these types of kit when I went to school, but they have come along way since then, much more interactive and fun, which I guess is the main thing, if it's fun kids generally get into it more.

Here is the kit we got -

Hours of fun & learning.

So I guess this is kind of a review for the kit, which comes from Maplins ---> Amazing all in 1 connect & learn. it costs £16.99 (it was on offer when we bought it)

All in all for the price I think it's a great introduction into how electricity works, it has various things to do, from simple circuits, like making an led light with a battery, including a switch to control the light and some more advanced stuff like a motorised basket ball game, and there are options for making the basic experiments more interesting, one of which we tried when we got the kit out the other day.

Although it says 8+ on the box my six year old son soon got to grips with it, and don't worry if you aren't the most technical person around, it's easy for adults too ;-)

Here is a picture of my son and daughter playing with one of the experiments -

We added a bell to this one.

Another picture of the experiment -

Some of the wiring looks a little messy, I kind of rushed it :-)

This was an extension of the basket ball game, the hoop is connected to a motor which makes it move from side to side, to make it more difficult, there is also a little ball and a small plastic launcher for it, the circuit for this experiment is pretty simple to put together, and as an after thought I added the bell, and thanks to the little micro switch that's in the red tray that catches the ball we were able to make the bell sound every a basket was scored, there are other things you can add to it as well.

The basket ball game - 

With ball launcher.

The instructions are easy to follow, with step by step how to's, and they cover pretty much all of the things this kit can do. One of the other experiments we tried was the bubble blower, this actually does three different things by way of various attachments, it has two nozzles that you can either use to blow bubbles with or make a small polystyrene ball hover (this one got a good reaction) it also acts like a hoover, and the third attachment is a little hose and filter, so you can teach them about circuits and also how a hoover works.

The instructions - 

Parts list, and step by step instructions.

You can see that each experiment has a parts list, and if there are any things that need putting together it will also show you how to do that, it gives easy to follow instructions on how it should be wired up, and things you can try after it's working.

Things to try with the bubble blower - 

Further experiments.

Here are some pictures of some more wiring diagrams, ranging from the easiest to more complex ones.

They are easy to follow.

These diagrams show how you can expand the basic experiments.

You can't really go wrong with this kit, as long as you follow the diagrams you should be fine, most of the parts are encased in clear plastic, like the battery boxes,switches and led's.

Pictures of some of the parts - 

Switch.

Each experiment uses 1 or 2 batteries.

All the components connect to white / light grey plastic boards by way of pegs on the undersides, this means it's easy to get everything lined up, and it's secure so that things don't rattle apart, all electrical connections are made using springs, which also fit securely into the boards, the springs are quite small so not ideal for really small children.

The spring connectors - 

You can see how they fit into the board.

Making connections easy.

If you want to have some fun with electronics this is a good starting place, it has plenty to do, and you can expand on some of the experiments to add extra interest, for example there is a flapping duck experiment, you could connect this to the maze challenge, so that if you touch the wire the duck flaps, or you could use a bell instead, or you could us both, and like we did with the basket ball game you can add what you want, why not connect the duck and every time some one scores a basket it will flap like mad, it is also possible to connect everything up at once, although this may get a little hectic.

It's a great kit for mum or dad to teach the small ones a little bit about electricity and most of all it's fun as well as informative.

Thanks for reading.