Slide of the Month - Jack-O-Lantern (enhanced)

 

        October 2020

        Time to make: 2 hours

        Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

        

        Nov. 1994, page 58

        Original design: Don Gubler







So lets add more power to the Jack-O-Lantern slides!

So much fun to have a pulsing light to give a eerie feel to this slide. I started with carving the basic Jack-O-Lantern out of maple and painting it with hobby paints. A couple coats of Poly served to seal the paint and give it a harder finish.  The next step was to hollow the pack of the slide to so there will be space for the light.  For the electronics, I took apart a battery powered  "tea light" which is ideal for the way the light flickers. The useful parts I was able to harvest was the  LED light, switch, and battery.  I could not use the battery compartment so I used a button battery holder I had left over from another project.  I  soldered the circuit together and after testing, began to assemble the components to the slide. I used 5-minute epoxy to mount the LED just above the eye holes, switch to the side and the battery holder to the back of the loop. After the epoxy had hardened, I routed the wires as neatly as possible and used some more epoxy to keep them in place.

All and all, a great upgrade to an already good slide!

Slide of the Month Extra - Philmont Boot Tread

September 2020

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design:  Philmont / Bill Macfarlane

Days till Philmont 2022Countdown

 

Another in my Philmont concept series! While Philmont Scout Ranch is a number of things from training to special events, it is probably best known for the treks.  Strap on a backpack of all the things you'll need on the trail and head off into an adventure.  An essential for the journey, footwear in good condition and a backup pair just in case. Don't be that Scout that has to duct tape their boots back together on the trail. (Yes, I'm looking at you Mr. H)

Admittedly, this slide started out as a odd looking scrap of maple I had kicking (no pun attended) around and I was about to throw away. It looked kind of like the shape of a boot print in the mud so the idea of the boot tread slide was hatched. The tread design is loosely based on my boots with the Philmont name carved into the middle. The slide took a couple of tries to complete and there will be a follow up slide from one of the missteps. When it came to finishing, the natural look of the maple was appealing so I used a paint pen to highlight Philmont and finished the slide with a couple coats of poly.  

Slide of the Month Extra - Kit Carson Museum

September 2020

Time to make: 2 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design:  Philmont/Bill Macfarlane

Days till Philmont 2022Countdown

 

Well, back on the horse counting down the days till our council's next Philmont attempt and I guess I can go back to publishing Philmont slides on a irregular schedule instead of cramming them all into a few weeks. (I still think I have more Philmont slides than there are weeks till July of 2022!)

The Kit Carson Museum at Rayado is located seven mile south of Philmont Headquarters  and is an adobe structure built by the Boy Scouts of America to recount the history and exploits of Lucien Maxwell and his friend Kit Carson.

Another slide carved from basically a piece of wood from a broken pallet recycled into a neckerchief slide. Carved from southern pine it's a relatively simple design of layers and painted with hobby paints. Inkjet printed waterslide paper was used for the labels and a paint pen was used for the fine details. A couple of coats of Poly finish it off.

Slide of the Month - Monkey Fist

August 2020

Time to made: 1 hour ish


Design: Bill Macfarlane

I've been told many a story about the Monkey's Fist knot -  everything from weapon to weighted end on a throwing line .  Mostly I see them as key chain fobs, zipper pulls, or hanging off back packs but I got a thought. What about a slide?

Tied with some spare paracord and a wooden ball it is finished off with bowline for the loop...

Slide of the Month - Ladybug

August 2020

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

Apr. 1987, p. 63

Original design: Bill Fleming












Coccinellidae (better known as ladybug in the US or ladybirds in the UK) are the gardener's friend because they eat lots of pests like aphids. My grandparents also me it was a sign of luck when you found them around.


A quick and easy slide carved out of maple and painted with hobby paints. Finished with a couple of couple coats of Poly and has a wooden looped to the back.

Slide of the Month Extra - Philmont Council Contingent

July 2020

Time to make: 3 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design:  Bill Macfarlane

Days till Philmont 2022Countdown

Today is the day! (That was till Covid-19 reared it's ugly head) So, my pack is unpacked and I'm back in prep mode for Trek 7-11C in 2022. 

My design took the  2018 contingent (whose trip was cancelled because of the Ute fire) design and added the rising sun, in the form of the Zia,  to symbolize a new beginning and hope for the returning members to the 2020 crews. The only difference between this and our final logo was a gray background.

Carved from maple, it was great to bring this project from an idea in my head, to design on the computer, to offical crew logo, and finally a multi level slide. The top level is the Tooth of Time but what you can't see in the photo is the different levels within the mountain and hill in front of it.  The next level is the dome of the sun followed by the rays of the Zia. I used a Dremel tool with a saw bit to cut the spaces between the rays. The last level is the background

Painting this slide turned out to be the hardest part of the slide as I had to paint the Zia a few times to get it right and trying to interpret the vegetation on the Tooth. The paint is hobby paint and a couple coats of poly finish it off.

Slide of the Month - The Shield

July 2020

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

June 2000, page 59

Original design: Jeff Springer












Happy Independence Day (or Treason day if you are in England...lol)

 This is one of the slides that strike a note of summer days laying under a tree reading comic books. The first time I read Captain America, (I think it was a reprint of the origin story), the heater shield  was the type he carried  and was later change to a round shield by Jack Kirby.

Carved from maple, its an easy rounding to form the shield shape. Most of the design was done with hobby paints and the stars were done with paint pens. Finished with a couple coats of poly.

Slide of the Month Extra - Philmont 2020

May 2020

Time to make: 1 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane

            DAYS TO PHILMONT                                                 

 2020 Cancelled            

Tonight is the night before our crews learns about our 2020 fate. If the decision to cancel July treks, for safety sake, it will be a disappointment for some and we just have to wait for next time. For others, it's heartbreak as they were in the 2018 crew (treks cancelled because of the fires). The hours and minutes till the announcement will click away so slowly as await liberation.

 A very simple slide as I just couldn't devise a good way to carve this one so this is a water slide base with some painted background to match the decal.

Update June 4th, 2020: All treks to Philmont have been cancelled for the 2020 season. 

Slide of the Month Extra - Philmont Arrowhead Zia

May 2020

Time to make: 2.5 hours

Finishing: 1.5 hours

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane

Days till PhilmontCountdown

This is another one of my favorate designs combining several of the elements (Tooths of Time, Arrowhead, and Zita) found in Philmont logos. A layered slide withe the Tooth of Time on top, then the Arrowhead followed by the Zita.  Carved from southern yellow pine, the rays of the Zita were a challenge both in crafting and in painting. The slide was painted with hobby paints and finished off with a couple coats of Poly.

Slide of the Month Extra - Tooth of Time

April 2020

Time to make: 1.5 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane

Days till PhilmontCountdown

One of the most iconic symbols of Philmont, you can find the Tooth of Time as a part of quite a few of the patches and other items at Philmont. This represents not only an early patch but also the logo for the Tooth of Time Traders.

Carved from southern yellow pine, the mountain rises off the slide to give the patch a 3D effect. The slide was painted with hobby paints, lettered with water slide paper, and finished off with a couple coats of poly.

Slide of the Month Extra - National Scouting Museum

April 2020

Time to make: 1 hour

Finishing: 1 hour

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane

Days till PhilmontCountdown

So one of the things I'm looking for when I get to Philmont is getting a tour of the Scouting Museum and hope to see some of Whittlin' Jim's original works.

Carved from southern yellow pine, it is a fleur-de-lis on an arrowhead and the simplicity of the design is a clean modern look. Painted with hobby paints and waterslide lettering, the slide is finished off with a couple coats of poly.

Slide of the Month Extra - Philturn

April 2020

Time to make: 2.5 hours

Finishing: 2 hours

Original design: Philmont\Bill Macfarlane

Days till PhilmontCountdown

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I was really confused when I saw patches for Philturn Rockey Mountain Scout Camp. Was this some other councils summer camp? Perhaps another high adventure program? There must be an answer! (Yes, I Googled it eventually.) Philmont Scout Ranch, as we know it today, began in 1938 after Tulsa oilman Waite Phillips donated his summer home Villa Philmont , the UU ranch of 35,857 acres and livestock to the Boy Scouts of America.  The name Philturn come from a combination of the Phillipps last name and the Boy Scout slogan "Do a good turn daily". A great page to see some of the early days of Philturn Rockey Mountain Scout Camp can be found here.

Carved from pallet southern yellow pine, this is a multi-level slide (even though it doesn't look like it in the picture. The Philturn logo is the top-level followed by the Tooth of Time. The near foreground is next with the sky and lake rounding out the center. The lowest level is the circle on the outside and the three spikes extending to the base of the slide. Hobby paints and paint pens were used to decorate the slide with waterslide paper for the lettering. A couple of coats of poly finish the slide.

Slide of the Month Extra - Philturn brand

April 2020

 Time to make: 1 hour each

 Finishing: 1 hour

 Original design: Philmont / Bill Macfarlane

Days till PhilmontCountdown

One of the symbols you can see in almost every patch, slide or any Philmont item is the brands. Heck, you can even brand something you own like a hat, a belt, a piece of leather or a mug (as long as it will take the heat). Now I'd only had seen the cattle (bar P and backward S) and horse (/ and backward S) on most of the Philmont stuff but recently I saw a brandable plastic mug with the Philturn brand from one of our Philmont crew trainers. (Yes, a brandable mug! (It had really thick plastic walls.) After doing some research, I found out that the original name of Philmont Scout Ranch was Philturn Rocky Mountain Scout Camp and this brand (the combined T and P) was the original cattle brand.

So this was an easy set of slides to make! I started with an old weathered board from a broken pallet and cut them into a reasonable size allowing for the broken parts to remain on the slide. I traced out the brand onto the board and cut the brands into the wood. Once the cuts were made, I used a soldering iron to burn the cuts to look like brands. On some of the outside edges, I roughly rounded the wood and then charred them with a lighter. Finally, I finished them off with a couple of coats of Poly.


Bonus!! While looking up brands in New Mexico I discovered an additional Philmont brand at Raydo.