Slide of the Month: Rotating gear cubes

 

March 2026

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: .5 hour

Original design:  Bill Macfarlane

3D file: 3 Cube Gears by BB8blazer






March brings a good many Merit Badge Universities and one of my favorite classes to sit in on is the Engineering.  Along these lines, I fascinated by gears that oddly work together in unexpected ways and this is one of those times. The corners of the cube turn together in different rotating in ways to form shapes.

I printed three of these cubes (red, white and blue filament) using the FDM printer and mixed the parts to assemble these cubes. The loops are connected to the center piece allowing the cube still to function

Slide of the Month: Mayan Scream Whistle

February 2026

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 3 hour

Original design:  Bill Macfarlane

3D file: Maya Deat* Whistle (Easy Print, Very Loud) by Tacblades

Note: the name has been changed with google in mind (If you know you know)




It's dark and cold ... there an eerie sound in the distant. Is it a scream? Is it a wail of a wild animal? No it's a Mayan scream whistle. I got to admit I never heard of one before I saw one on an episode of Tracker and yes I've never seen Ghostbuster Afterlife which also mentions it.

I first printed this on a resin printer which required a lot of supports to print. That was a big mistake because I couldn't effectively remove the supports from inside the chambers. Once I cured the print, it became a paperweight as I could not blow into it. To the FDM printer next and within a few hours I had a working whistle. Next I gave it a black wash, with multi surface hobby paint, to bring out the detail. I added some loops to the back to finish off this slide.

Slide of the Month: Vacation Slide

  January 2026

  Time to make: 3 hours

  Finishing: 1 hour

  Original design:  Bill Macfarlane

So ever wonder what a carver like me does on vacation. Well there's nothing like sitting out in front of our room with my wife in the early morning enjoying my tea and letting the wood guide me. Incredibly relaxing.

This will be the first in a series of Vacation slides. Now I'd love to say this slide was influence by the surroundings but in truth it's based on a planter (maybe its a cup?) I saw somewhere.

Carved from basswood I brought with me and sanded. When I got home, I finished it off with some golden shellac.   

Slide of the Month: Shell cutaway

 

December 2025

Time to make: .5 hours

Finishing: none

Original design:  Bill Macfarlane








While on vacation I happened to see this shell in a souvenir show and it reminded me of a Christmas ornament.  Drilled a couple of holes in the back and glued a wire loop in the back 

Slide of the Month: Colman Stove - white gas

November 2025

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1 hour
Boy's Life
Original design:  Bill Macfarlane

3D files: 1:8 scale camp

stove like coleman - BlackCrow (RockyTop)

Cast Iron Skillet - SirAngusSteele

Coffee Pot - freddymills59 (with some editing by Bill Macfarlane)

Ah the weather is turning chilly and my mind goes back to early in my Scouting career when the adults cooked on Coleman white gas stoves. The smell of the coffee and bacon while we were boiling water for instant oatmeal.

Ok this slide will took some work but I'm pleased with the results. The stove requires a few prints with different color filaments (green, grey, and silver) and assembled using 3 mm screws . The skillet was printed with black filament and bacon/eggs were painted with paint pens. I found the right type of coffee pot file but it was made as a drawer handle. I imported into Thinkercad and modified it for this project then painted it with multi surface paint. Using super glue, the components were glued together with a 3d printed loop. 

Slide of the Month: Spider

October 2025

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

 

Original design:  Bill Macfarlane

3D print file: Spider by IogSotot

"Creeper, crawler!

Creeper, crawler!

Did ya ever see such a sight?

Creeper, crawler!

Creeper, crawler!

I wonder if he’ll bite!..."

It's funny how "Creeper Crawler" by The Rolling Headstones come to mind with this slide. Some how the thoughts of a large spider creeping up the neckerchief turned into an idea for a slide just in time for Halloween. 

Printed on a 3D resin printer using the file listed above. I painted the slide using multi surface hobby paints and used a dry brush technique to paint the skull. I used the drain holes in the back to glue in a coat hanger loop. 

Slide of the Month: "Gillman"

September 2025

Time to make: 3 hours

Soaking: 2 days

Finishing: none
 
Original design:  Mr. Gillman

One night at a Scout meeting I noticed a Scout wearing a similar neckerchief slide. "Did you make it" I asked. The Scout explained that his father made it when he was a Scout. I grabbed my notebook and sketched the design for making when I had the chance. Well many years passed and recently I came upon the sketch I made. So here's to you Mr. Gillman for a great design.

Made from bamboo this slide was harder to make than I thought it would be  as I kept breaking off the horns. (Lucky for me, I had a lot of bamboo.) Frustrated, I ended up soaking a piece in wood hardener for a couple of days. The good news was the bamboo was not as fragile but it also made it harder to carve.

A bit of sanding and the slide was finished