Fan Boat #2: The Blue Bomber

Fan Boat #1: Purple Fury

RC adventure at SeaParc

 Check out the home-made trophy!!!!

Decision Tree for fixing an RC car-- by HOBB

Decision tree for fixing an RC car...

HOBB visiting the Provincial Legislature with some friends.

Walks with Jeni and Finn

Anti-rain shield

Here is a drawing that HOBB drew one rainy morning when clearly he was trying to imagine a better world when rain would not prevent him from driving RCs. Apparently a suit that that the operator wears pushes out air creating an air bubble that repels rain so that the controller does not get wet. 

Welcome to Graham St Sign

Working on the commission HOBB got from the recent Biz- Kids fair...

Making my RC Traxxis Slash car drift-- with home-made PVC wheel covers

 PVC piping worked great to make my RC car suddenly have drift steering!

Steerable LEGO RC car

 Check out this innovative steering mechanism. As many of you who have tired to make a steering mechanism for your cars have noted, this is not as easy as you would think. By using a rubberband, your car's steering returns to centre, and allows for more sane control.

Balloon Animal 50 Sec challenge

A new balloon animal kit resulted in this video showing a 50 second balloon animal:

HOBB Putt-putt boat

HOBB found some videos on YouTube and was inspired to make his own putt-putt boat. Here he explains how!

FLL 2013: The Unique Techniquers

 The FLL Unique Techniquers did their first "official" presentation (about their Joint Generator) to the kids in Fenna's class-- an easy audience if there ever was one. The boys were like rock stars because they made and moved robots-- the younger kids wanted their autographs! Hilarious. 

BizKids Fair

Hamish priced his aromatic cedar blocks at $3 each and sold out by the end of the fair. Not bad! He has already bought more wood for potential Christmas presents, and also some cedar for a house sign someone commissioned at the fair.

Wood Burning project

 In preparation for the upcoming BizKids fair, Hamish decided to make some aromatic cedar blocks to put into drawers to scent  clothes and deter moths.

He cut up the aromatic cedar with a chop-saw (his first experience with this tool) and then sanded each block individually. He enlisted Fenna and I to draw designs, then he used the new wood-burning tool to burn the designs into wood. He also made his own signs for his shop and (I think it's) for his room.

 The only thing he is not sure of is what to charge for these creations...

New RC Shell for Traxxas Rustler

 It was time to replace the decrepit shell on the Traxxas (see last pic), and this week the new shell arrived in the mail. A trip to the hardware store ended up in this flourescent green paint coming home and soon thereafter being applied to the clear shell. Six coats later, add some decals and some personalization with Sharpie Paint pens and Voila! The latest green machine of speed and daring.

HOBB Hallowe'en costume 2013

 Yesterday marked the end of 3 weeks of researching, designing, fabric purchasing, pattern-making and cutting, hand-sewing, machine sewing, riveting, aluminum bending, pleather-work, grommet setting, stud-punching,  metal cutting, and hot-glue-gunning. Hugely time consuming and massively fun to be CREATING!

HOBB did a lot of work researching their respective costumes and he (largely) made this own cloak. In addition, Hamish worked long and hard figuring out the best design for his quiver. He made a prototype with a PVC pipe that he spray-painted black, but it was too noisy, so he ended up helping Murray make one with pleather complete with aluminium braces on the inside.

In case you cannot tell, Hamish is dressed as Halt, from John Flannagan's excellent Rangers Apprentice Series (historic fantasy set in old-time Europe-like location). When we went out to buy a new bow-string, we were told that his old bow (at least 3 years old), was warped, so we bought a new one (H: "Way better as the old one was orange and I was going to have to spray-paint it black."). The gal at the store gave Hamish an timely impromptu lesson on "intuitive shooting" (H: "Just like Halt and Will do in The Ranger's Apprentice series") in the back store-room. A shout out to Shannon at Island Outfitters for that. Ever since, Hamish has been spending about an hour a day practicing shooting at a target we have out on our driveway.

Working on Hallowe'en Costumes...

 Stay tuned for the product of these labours!