Thursday, December 14, 2017

December extra - Old Time Sled





December 2017

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"
Dec. 1992, page 65

 Original design: Jeff Springer





A fun little slide with a dual purpose. The directions called for 1/4 " pine to make this but I happened to have some extra thin plywood left over from another slide (yet to be published) and thought I would give it a try. I laid the design for parts out on the plywood and proceeded to cut them out using a pair of scissors. I did a quick look at how the parts would fit together and decided to add an additional support from the bed of the slide to the steering handlebar for strength. I then stained the parts using permanent markers. Next was the assembling the sled with some wood glue. I realized very soon after that I should have use the 1/4 inch wood instead of the 1/16 inch plywood because the plywood did not have the joint strength for the slide. Not to worry, I added some square wooden supports to the inside of the slide which gave me more surface to glue to and additional support.  The bed of the slide is decorated with a poinsettia design printed to white water slide paper and then cut just slightly smaller than the bed of the slide.  Sealed the slide with a couple of coats of poly.

What is the second purpose of this slide you might be wondering...



Friday, December 1, 2017

Slide of the Month - Vostok


 2017

Time to design: 2 hours
Time to print: 4 hours (your times may vary)
Finishing: 3 hour
Original designer: nemilya
Try it yourself: Vostok Spacecraft (Gagarin)






On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 became the first man to enter space and made one orbit around the earth. Gagarin made only one flight into space as he died in a plane crash in 1963. The Vostok (version 3KA) had 6 manned flights including the first woman in space, Vladimirovna Tereshkova.

I got to admit this one had me a bit frustrated because every time I tried to print this on the Ultimaker 2 the print never came out right. No matter how I tried adding supports or other repairs would allow me to print this model. Luckily for me, our library also has a SeeMeCNC Orion printer which printed the Vostok capsule perfectly. The slide was painted with some green spay paint in the center and top and bottom are painted with sliver metallic craft paint. One thing I considered but was the antennas but I thought they would get caught in everything. The capsule has no markings to show it was from Russia just like the original. The only markings were the red CCCP painted on Gagarin's helmet which were applied shortly before launch. One source mentioned that this was done to identify him as a Russian pilot and not an American like Gary Powers.