Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas and welcome to Santa’s workshop at Expert Village. Today we are going to learn to make a few simple toys, beginning with this paddle boat which is very simple and easy to make but a lot of fun in the bathtub.
Start with a piece of Styrofoam, three quarters of an inch thick. Get yourself a Sharpie. Mark the shape of your boat on the Styrofoam. Now, for those of you who aren’t terribly artistically inclined, you could just get your mother’s flat iron and trace the outline, very similar. But you if you are a genius like Santa you can do it free hand. So trace your outline of your boat like this, then you want to trace a rectangular opening here for the paddle wheel. Straight edge, oh, and this is mostly a matter of eyeball except that it has to be wider than 2 inches because we are going to put a 2 inch paddle in it. So roughly maybe about there. You can get away with a lot on this one and maybe ooh about there and we will go make sure you leave enough tail here to hold it together. You don’t want this to be so thin that it breaks as soon as you cut it. Make a mark there and there.
Again, the idea is basically it needs to be centered in the boat and it needs to be at least 2 inches wide and at least say 2 inches or so this way to for room for your paddle wheel to turn. Take your Exact-o knife and cut her out. Just follow the lines you just made with the Sharpie. Being careful to only cut Styrofoam. These are very, very efficient at cutting flesh but it isn’t pleasant. Not pleasant at all. Just follow your lines of your cut. Stuff is really easy to cut. Maybe just a little patient, just a little careful and follow your lines all the way around. And voila, we have our boat cut out here and opening here for the paddle wheel.
Now out of the scrap from here you can cut another piece that you can use for your pilot house. You see I got a little fancier with this pilot house here and if you have extra Styrofoam you can get as fancy as you like. For this boat, we will just put just put this little block on here for the pilot house. Your next step is to make the paddle. You see the paddles are made out of two pieces of Balsa wood in a cross together form. So you take yourself a piece of quarter inch Balsa wood 3 inches wide. Mark 2 inches with a ruler and because we are going to be using a thin blade to cut it with, we will just go ahead and mark another 2 inches and forget about the curve. Use a square to make sure that your cut is going to be good straight across and just carry your mark across the Balsa wood like so, so that you have two nice perpendicular edges parallel each other lines on which you cut. One doesn’t ordinarily recommend a hacksaw for cutting wood but it is very good for Balsa wood. You can also actually use the Exact-o knife if you are a little bit strong and little bit careful just follow the lines that you have drawn and cut the pieces of Balsa wood. After we cut our two pieces of Balsa wood, you want to just lightly sand all the corners to round them off a bit just so that you won’t splinters breaking off and they will be smoother and easier to handle.
Once you’ve done that, you will need to notch the two pieces so they will come together here. Your notch wants to go right in the center of each piece and it should be a quarter inch wide. So if you are following this carefully at home you measure in your pieces 3 inches wide so you go to the 1 ½ marks and go 1/8 inch either side of it. Use your square here to make the lines and since your pieces 2 inches this way, your notch wants to be an 1 inch deep to accept half of the other piece. Next, you will need to notch your two pieces of wood so that they can fit together in the cruciform shape like this. So you start here. You want your notch to be right in the middle and since your wood is a ¼ inch wide, you want your notch to be ¼ wide.
The easy way to do that you know that this 3 inches wide wood, take yourself a mark an 1 1/2, then just go an 1/8 inch either side of that mark. That gives you a ¼ wide notch right in the middle of your paddle. Now the next step is you want these arches to be as straight as possible. So take your square again and from your marks just carry your line straight up more than halfway up the paddle like so. Your wood is 2 inches this way. You want half of that distance or 1 inch depth for your notch. So just take your ruler, mark 1 inch like so and there’s your notches marked out. I would cut this with an Exact-o knife even if you cut the pieces off with the hack saw because it is easier when it is smaller cut. Just take it right in and follow the lines you just drew. Just like that. So having cut the notches in both pieces we simply slip them together like so and now you have your paddle wheel. A little glue holds those up. Where’s my glue? Put a little glue on it right there. Hold them together. Nice and solid like so.
Now you’ve got your paddle wheel. The next step is to attach the paddle wheel. Take your rubber band, the center section between the knots, slip it over the paddle wheel like so. Take your poster nail and drop it through one of your loops of the end beyond the knot and press it into the Styrofoam right down to the head. Take your other nail and do the same thing on the other side like so. Now you have the basics of a working boat. We have only to glue on our pilot house and paint it to taste. Just spin back your paddle wheel like so, drop her in the water and let her rip.
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