45 minute project for 10 year olds?

[Toller]

I need a project that will take 10 year olds between 30 and 45 minutes for their woodworking cub scout badge. They have already built a bird feeder from a kit, and a tool box from wood I cut in advance. But, I have run out of projects.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I can do a certain amount of work in advance. Obviously I can't have them on a table saw, or similar. Also bear in mind that half of them have ADHD, and that most of their parents don't know which end of a screwdriver to hold.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

How about a step stool? Top, two supports, center cross support. They can glue and screw it together.

Bird house? They could drill the hole, assemble, hinge on side for cleanout.

How about a shoe cleaner for getting the mud/sand, etc from shoes. Make a box and put a scrubbing brush inverted in the box. Ed [e-mail]

[Rob Stokes]

Boats are always a hit. Simple hull layout cut on a bandsaw with the table tilted.....

Rob

[Bob Summers]

I've had Cub Scouts (Webelos 1) build small catapults that threw ping pong balls. That was really popular. Trebuchets are also fairly easy. Most of my den is also from a local school that attracts kids with behavior problems. Not that they're bad kids, they just can't sit still and pay attention for more than about

20 seconds. My son's shool is much different.

This is quite a bit longer than 45 minutes but my den is in the process of making a key holder. They traced a fleur-de-lis pattern that I made from the one in the Webelos book. Then they drilled it for mini-shaker pegs and cut it out. They used my bandsaw to cut it out but if you have enough hand scroll saws for the den they could do it that way. My den still is going to make some milk paint and paint their keyholders. Then we'll be done!

Bob S

[Victor Radin]

We did a desktop-sized trebuchet, a remote control holder (aka mini-tool tote), and a pinewood derby car "trophy" stand.

The trophy stand went over best with the parents- simply a disk about

3/4 x 6" dia. Get a 12" turned table leg and cut in half at an angle. a scrap of 1.5 x 5 x 1/2 attached to the top to hold the car to. Assemble, paint, attach car to the top. You can fancy-it-up with gold or silver flake paints, name/year plates, etc.

There's also a variety of kits available at your council service center of thru the catalog. Get a copy of the "American Boy's Handy Book". Tons of stuff in there also.

Our final project, just before crossing over was a free-standing rope bridge. It's still in use, 7 years later, with only one repair when an adult decided to cross-over also.

Hope this helps, Vic

[D. J. Dorn]

I had my 10 year old boy make a trivet that my wife uses every day. I simply ripped a piece of scrap 3/4 mahogany for him so he had two pieces that were about 9" long , 1 1/2" tall. He drilled 3/8" holes about every inch on the centerline in both and cut dowels to fit between them. Glued and clamped them and got it done in about 45 minutes. Put a couple of coats of poly on later. Amazingly handy and he's proud that she uses it so much - that was two years ago.

Don

[Silvan]

Catapults. Marshmallow catapults. Reminds me, I need to get those finished. That's what we're doing.

I'm making mine out of a length of 1x3 ripped into thirds, but that's just because that's what I had on-hand. These are going to be a little uglier than the prototype I'm copying. I have no idea where the original idea came from.

Anyway, I can draw up a little sketch and send it to you if you'd like.

You too, huh?

[Han]

"D. J. Dorn" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Trivets are great. My children (under SWMBO's direction) made trivets from a square of thin plywood with a small mosaic of tiny tiles on top, grouted, and with self-stick veneer around it for edging. Kids made them when they were ~8-10. That was 20 years ago. The trivets are still in use!

[Phisherman]

Wooden toys, wood burning, trivet, house welcome or number signs, coasters, recipe holder, bat or butterfly house, book ends. 45 minutes is just not enough time for simple furniture. I often had a tough time presenting new projects to ADHD students, unless it was one-on-one.

[Toller]

I appreciate everyone's suggestions. SWMBO (the actual cubmaster) like the trivets, so I guess that's that.

I can't see what you clamped. The only thing glued is the dowels in the holes, and you can't clamp them.

[V.E. Dorn]

Probably didn't explain well enough. The dowels go into the holes with glue and then you clamp the two ends (which are the wooden ends) in against the dowels. If you would like, I'd be happy to take a quick digital picture so you can see the end result. Let me know.

Don

[Toller]

Maybe I understand... You drill half way through the ends, put the dowels in, and clamp the ends together? Is that it?

I assumed the holes would be through. I am not sure they are up to drilling half way through. I wanted to use a drill press, but my wife is insisting on each cub using a hand drill.

[Silvan]

If you have a benchtop DP, let them use that. My little Webelo is mildly freaked out by my hand drill, but he'll use my DP all day long. I had him boring holes with it (pulling down the quill anyway) when he was only four.

[V.E. Dorn]

Drilling part way through is the way he did it but if using a hand drill, you would either have them drill all the way through or put a piece of masking tape on the bit to determine the bit depth.

Don

[Top Spin]

Along the lines of the trivets, I had a bunch of kids make plant baskets to put potted plants in. Ours were made out of redwood. I precut the wood into strips about 1" x 1" x 3" or so.

The kids did the sanding then used them like little building blocks to make baskets of various shapes. Some were round, some square, one was a hexagon. Most were a kind of lattice work with each row alternating. They got to glue them and nail them using small brads. In the top row, we countersunk the brads and filled with putty. Then we stained the whole thing.

It was very popular with the mom's.

I had some empty pots around so they could get the diameters right.

[Philip Lewis]

Game boards come to mind. Chess, Go, Backgammon, Royal game of Goose, etc.

[Toller]

Did the trivets today. It worked out great, thanks. My son drilled most of the holes cockeyed and off center. I was lucky to be able to assemble it at all, but I sure didn't need any glue or clamps!

[Art Deco]

I would appreciate the plans for the marshmallow catapults if you could. I looked on the net and they are all based on mouse traps.

TIA

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