First Time Workshop

How to have useful construction workshops.
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michael4262
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Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2005 1:30 pm
Location: Pennsylvania

First Time Workshop

Post by michael4262 »

Well, after researching this topic and gathering much useful information from this forum, we hosted our Pack's first ever workshop. :mrgreen:

We tried to keep it as simple as possible, yet give the boys an opportunity to really do some work on their cars. I don't have any pictures, but I'll try to give a description in case someone finds it useful.

I found some cool templates on the net and we cut them out of cardboard and provided these for use. I only found 8-10 that seemed useful, but that seemed to be enough for the boys. So, we started the boys out with them selecting and tracing a template (or free-handing in a couple of cases).

Then I cut the design out of the block for them with the scroll saw ... coping saw was available for touchup cuts and a couple of dads did use it. Boys wore goggles during the entire workshop event. If the saw blade marks happened to be excessively deep, we hit the block with the belt sander real quick. In most cases we didn't need to do this.

The boys then spent 20+ minutes sanding with different grades of sandpaper to get the car to a nice smooth (boy-sanded) finish. :D

We had the Pack scale available to help get the cars to a decent 4.5ish ounce weight. The boys were able to help run the drill press that we used with a forstner bit to drill hole(s) in the body for weighting. Most cars had enough meat left to allow us to do this. We used shotgun pellets and hot glue. The boys didn't handle the pellets, except for pouring them into the hole from the cup. I also didn't want them using the hot glue. Those glue guns can be pretty nasty.

For the cars that needed the flat weights, we found that tracing the weight on the bottom of the car and using the forstner bit to "rout" out the basic shape, followed up by touch up with the dremel, worked very well.

Once the glue was dry (just a couple of minutes), the boys were able to put on a primer coat of spray paint. I found the plastic clip on spray gun handles to be a great investment and I'm sure that Moms and Dads appreciated the lack of spray paint on the Cubbies clothes and hands.

We have had 20+ boys build cars over the last couple of days with 2 being totally painted and wheels mounted. I expect the rest to stop by this week to put a finish coat on and wheels by this weekend.

The one thing that I'd like to change, would be adding the axle slot jig for next year. We weren't sure what to expect from this event, but I think we can handle that much in the alignment helping department. The investment into a few #44 bits will be well worth it. I'm not sure how much we'll venture into the wheel/axle shaping department. If we get some more help, maybe we'll add that too.

There were many moms and dads that expressed their gratitude at having an opportunity to work with their sons on their car. That was our goal. Having a bunch of good looking, well weighted, competitive cars doesn't hurt either. :mrgreen:

On the wierd side, it kinda feels like I'm helping build half the Pack's cars, and not just working with my own 3 boy's. Goofy ... I know :roll:

Sorry such a long post, but I wanted to hopefully give something useful back to this forum.
- Mike
Down-N-Flames
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Re: First Time Workshop

Post by Down-N-Flames »

Thanks for the info. My step son just joined this pack this year and I see a lot of need for something like this and plan to handle it myself next year.

I have done my boys and a good friend of ours (hope he doesn't beat us... :? )

I like to hear the different stations and what you were accomplishing. We did set up a center piece at the last pack meeting of old pinewood derby cars we had used (he is a webelo now) and had a lot of the tigers looking and parents asking questions. I felt really good about it and look forward to helping more of them next year. Ran out of time this year, but Friday I will be there early to make sure all the cars are decent. I like the competion and think it is better for the boys. I know last year I saw a car with the wheels come off and it looked like a single mother telling him it was okay. I did get the axle glued back in for his next race, but I don't want that to happen again.
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