Slide of the Month Extra - New Shepard

 May 2019

Time to carve: 1 hour

Finishing: .5 hour

Thingiverse June 16, 2017

Design: chemteacher628

Try it yourself  (I only printed the capsule)




The New Shepard capsule is a 6 person craft being built by Blue Origin (owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos and businessman Rob Meyerson). It is named for the first American in space Alan Shepard. If all goes well, the first manned mission of New Shepard will be in 2019.

Another easy print and the body was spray painted with white primer. The painted details were done with a paint pen and the lettering with water slide paint.

Slide of the month - Wood Canteen

April 2019

Time to carve: 2 hours

Finishing:  1.5 hour

Boy's Life - August 1975

Design: Wayne Mason

I do apologize that I don't have great pictures of this slide so here is one with and without a flash.

Coming off making the wooden bucket slide, I knew I wanted to use Oak so the grain would make the canteen look weathered. Lots of v-cuts in this slide! The spout is made from an un-crimped pop rivet and some UV glue (to keep the chain in place). The chain is from a cheep jewelry necklace and it is anchored on the other side with a wire loop. Two additional loops are in place for the leather strap.  The wire bands (not shown) are beading wire. The wood is stained with dark walnut and the metal pieces are painted with a black paint pen. The only metal not painted black was the chain since it was an antique brass already. U.S was also painted on the canteen with the black paint pen. Poly seals the canteen. The shoulder strap is made from a scrap golf glove of really thin leather.

Slide of the Month Extra - Circuit board slide

April 2019

Time to make: 1 hours

Original design: Bill Macfarlane













Something a little different. I was cleaning out some old electronics I came across a circuit board the was interesting so why not make it into a slide.  I carefully cut around the area I wanted to use, sanded the edges and then glued the board to a piece of 3/4 inch plastic pipe. Maybe next time I'll make a working circuit board with a crystal radio or randomly blinking light or something else. Where's my soldering iron....

Slide of the month - Acorn

 April 2019

Time to carve: 2 hours

Finishing:  1.5 hour

Boy's Life - January 1987

Design: Bill Fleming








It's funny to me how many of these bloody things I rake up in the fall only to find more in the spring. Did the squirrels remember where they buried these things?

 I seem to remember eating a survival stew made of acorns and some meat in Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. I know the acorn were boiled several times to remove the tannins (which will make you sick). I've heard that once the tannins are remove, the acorns can also be roasted and eaten or ground into a flour to make a kind of bread but I have never tried that.

Carved from maple and painted with craft paints. Its finished off with a couple of coats of poly.

Slide of the Month - Dragon 2

 March 2019

Time to make: 4 hours

Finishing: 2 hours

Thingiverse

Design:Zastro

Try it yourself






The Dragon 2 space capsule is designed and built by Space X (owned by Elon Musk). It carries a possible crew of seven and originally was planned for a vertical "propulsive landing". In July 2017, it was announced the "propulsive landing" project had been halted and the capsule would use traditional parachutes for the landings. If you follow the news, this week  (March  2nd - 8th, 2019)  mission SpX-DM1was a huge success for the Dragon 2 as it launched into space carrying "Ripley", docked with the international space station, and successfully splashed down.  If all goes as planned, the first manned mission will be in July 2019 marking the first time astronauts have gone into space in an American built spacecraft since the retirement of the Space Shuttle.


I really like the details of this model and it was a quick print on the Ultimaker 2. I used white spray primer on the slide and paint pens for the rest of the details. The lettering was done using water slide paper.

Slide of the Month - Checkerboard slide

 March 2018

Time to carve: 1 hour

Finishing: .5 hour

Boy's Life -November 1980, page 66

Design: Not named






Interesting fact there is a difference between a checkers or draughts around the world. In America we play checkers on a 8 x 8 square board with 12 pieces per side. The Canadian checkers are played on a 12x12 board with 30 pieces per side while the Thai and Slovak draughts are on a 8x8 board but only have 8 pieces per side.

An easy slide to make (in theory) as it is a checker board pattern glued to a piece of 1/8 in plywood board with checkers made from a small dowel. The checkers are painted with craft paints and glued onto the board with super glue. A wooden loop is glued to the back. The hard part of this slide is keeping the pieces stuck to the board because the checkers popped off very easily. (I should have used wood glue!) To finish off the slide I put a lot of heavy coats of Poly on the slide to help keep the checkers in place.

Slide of the Month - Rainbow Loom slide

February 2018

Time to make: 15 minutes

Original design: A. C.













This design was created by one of my Scouts (who's name I can't use because he is under 18). Back story, it was memorial day and we were gathering before the parade. A.C. came to the parade wearing a slide like this one. Being a slide guy, I was fascinated by the slide and had given him several compliments about it. He admitted to me he had built it about 10 minutes before having to leave for the parade. I asked how he made it and he told me about his sisters Rainbow Loom. A few years latter, after the fad had died down, I was able to find a few deals on a loom and supplies.

This literally took about 15 minutes to learn and I had a slide ready to go. Made from dark grey, dark green and white bands, I made the strip and then tied the ends together. Quick and easy! With so many colors out there, this could be a great Cub Scout project.