Slide of the month Extra - Ship in a Bottle

December 2018

Time to make: 3 hours

Original design: Mike Ward 

Find it here

Going only on a picture and knowing it was built in a small hand sanitizer bottle, I sought out as many instructional videos I could find on YouTube and How to sites. The journey was a fascinating odyssey as I learned how to make a ship in a bottle. The ship you see here is a variation of a fishing boat in the early 1900's before many converted to powered sailing.

The ship was carved from a piece of scrape maple and painted using craft paints. The mast is a wooden skewer and the hinge is a bent pin.  I used some standard methods of hinging the mast, pulling the mast and sails up using long threads coming out the mouth of the bottle. The water is tinted EasyCast epoxy that I very carefully poured into the bottle first and let setup a bit before putting in the ship. Once the epoxy was hard, I pulled up the mast and sails and while holding them tight, I added a drop of super glue to areas holding the thread. One of the most challenging aspects of this project was cutting the unnecessary threads. To do this, I took apart a multi blade razor blade head and taped it to a skewer. (If you do this wear gloves during the disassemble of the razor blade head and attachment to the skewer.) Very carefully I reached in and cut away the excess thread using my cutting tool. Next, to hide the screw top, I tied a woogle and placed it on the neck of the bottle then added the cork to seal the bottle. Finally I glued a wooden loop to the back of the bottle.

EDIT 10/31/2020:Thanks to John Alexy for reminding me where I saw this slide so I could give proper credit!

Slide of the Month - Snowman

December 2018

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

December 1993, page 67

Original design: Jeff Springer






The calendar said fall but Mother Nature say "Hold my coffee". Holy cow, was there even a fall this year as snow came before the leaves were raked (or even off the tree).

A fun little chip slide made of maple and it's lightly sanded so the texture would still be there when I painted it with hobby paint. The nose is a dowel that was sanded into a cone shape to look like a carrot. Its finished up with a wooden loop and a couple of coats of poly.

Slide of the Month Extra - Stratos

 November 2018

Time to print: 4 hours

Modifications: 1.5 hours

Finishing: 2 hours

Boy's Life -

Design:





"Mission to the edge of Space" was what was claimed by Red Bull when the Stratos capsule carried Felix Baumgartner  to a height of 38.9694 kilometres (24.2145 mi). In a televised event, Baumgartner set a records for the highest altitude free fall and the fastest vertical speed (breaking the sound barrier). This was 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1.  His record for highest altitude free fall was broken by Alan Eustace  two years later.

One thing to note, the scientific community considers the Karman line (100 kilometres or 62 miles)  to be the edge of space.

I found this model out there on the Internet but I wont post the link to the file because I had to make so many modifications, I don't think it is worth all the time I spent getting this model prepared for painting. The model was spray painted black originally and the outside was hand painted silver. The decals  extensive and were done with water slide paper.  

Slide of the Month - Camp Saw

November 2018

Time to make: 1 hour

Original design: Bill Andrews

Source : Boys Life Slide of the Month Sept. 1988 page 62












A neat little slide in between other projects. The handle of the saw is a piece of aluminum hanger wire or fence wire that I bend to shape and cut a slot into the ends of the wire. The blade is from a broken scroll saw blade I broke on an earlier project and it was glued in place with some super glue. The tensioning handle is made out of a piece of aluminum flashing and is painted black. The log is a stick from the backyard with a 3/4 " hole drilled through it for the neckerchief. I slot is cut into the front for the saw and it is glued into place with super glue. A couple of coats of Poly finishes it off.

Slide of the Month extra Bowie knife

October 2018

Time to make: 3 hours

Original design: Bobby Duke Arts 


Modified version: Bill Macfarlane











I happened on to Bobby Duke Arts You Tube channel and how he made a small knife from a stainless steel bolt. Hmmm...I think I could do that.

First a word of warning, stainless steel has chromium, molybdenum or both in it and if you want to try this slide, do it outside were the fumes are dissipated. Please do not do the forging in a closed area.

Following the video, I used a 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch stainless steel bolt and ground off the head of the bolt.  Using a propane torch and vice grips to hole the bolt, I heated the bolt to a cherry red color.  Using a hand sledge and a small anvil I began to pound the the bolt flat. Once I got it to a 1/8 inch thickness I smoothed the surfaces to remove the hammer marks. Next I found a picture of the legionaries Bowie knife and printed it out. Using an xacto knife, I carefully cutout the knife for a pattern. After the pattern was glued to the bolt, I used a permanent marker to trace around the pattern and when the marker was dry, I removed the pattern. Instead of using an  angle grinder to cut the shape, I used a dremel tool with a cutting wheel. Lots of time sanding with the dremel and file work to get the shape and bevels right. I chose black walnut for the handle, epoxied the wood to the knife and drilled the holes for the brass pins - also glued in place. More sanding to shape the handle then finally to a polishing wheel to finish the knife. The sheath is made some scrap leather and I added a leg loop so I could add a lower loop for the neckerchief.

It came out really well and turns heads when others see it. To answer the question I often get, yes it is sharp ... really really sharp.

Slide of the Month - Dutch Oven Diner

 October 2018

Time to carve: 2 hours

Finishing: 1.5 hour

Boy's Life - November 1983

Design: Kenneth Koob








There is nothing as good as a Dutch oven meal at Scout camp! My first time having anything from a Dutch oven was a peach cobbler at JLITC training at Camp Rotary. (Remember how much it rained that week Mike Ryan?) When it was done, there was a hole in the middle and a round stone next to it. One of the adults thought the stone had been placed in the center of the cobbler when it was being cooked. (It turns out that the center had been cut out when it was done to cool it down.)

Some good Dutch oven recipes

Beef Stew

Pizza

and a Troop 8 favorite

Black Forest Dump Cake

I made the Dutch oven from Oak because the grain gives the oven a cast iron look. The beef is a piece of maple, the onions are carved from matchsticks, the potatoes are wooden skewers, and the carrots are the ends of toothpicks. The lid and pot handle is a piece of beading wire, and the feet of the oven are also toothpicks. Everything is painted with hobby paint and finished off with a couple coats of poly.

Slide of the Month Extra - SpaceShipOne

September  2018

Time to print: 4 hours

Finishing: 2 hours

Thingiverse July 13, 2011

Design: 7777773

Try it yourself


 

On December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Wight Brothers first manned flight, SpaceShipOne became the first private craft to achieve supersonic flight. September 29, 2004, Mike Melvill  piloted the craft into a sub orbital space flight. The second flight into space, for the X PRIZE requirements, was on October 4, 2004, the 47th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch,  by Brian Binnie.

I had the pleasure of seeing this craft right next to the Spirit of St Louis and the Bell X1 at the Smithsonian and it was amazing!

This was a challenging project to print because printing off the Ultimaker 2 made the wings to thin to use but the Orion print was more usable with the help of UV glue and some sandpaper. I spray painted with white primer and the black and red are done with paint pens. The stars, as well as the other lettering, were done on water slide paper. The tricky part was overlaying the stars on top of each other to give it the right look. I finished it off with a coat hanger loop and a couple of coats of poly