The carts are starting to look more vehicle-like, although the Verde Team still doesn’t have any rear wheels. They do, however, have their drills mounted. Later this mounting system proves to be problematic (the risk of being the first to get something done).

In order to try to get all the teams back on track, the welding continued until about 10:30pm last night (past lights out for the Tinkerers). Fortunately much fewer welds were needed today.

Bryan has been enlisted to help the Slacker (nee Bleu) Team. One of his first contributions: a real To Do list.

The final drill mounting hasn’t been determined, and the first draft seat will be replaced with a complete deck, but the Slackers get all three wheels on early and start rolling around the barn.

The Red Team (also known as Jewels and Pearls) gets their wheels on now that the late-night welding delivered wheel mounts. Tywen and Robyn check the true of the right wheel (currently on the left side since the cart is upside down). Hanna installs the left wheel. Soon there is a lengthy discussion to ensure that the wheel gear is on the correct wheel on the correct side.

After the success of the indoor roll, the Slackers take their cart outside to test the brake. It’s not the most effective brake in the world, but it gives your hand something to do. The minimal seat does not invite sitting, but this leaves the rider in a great position to push off to get moving.

Many fewer games are played today, with so much work to do. Still, sometimes you need to race around and get tackled a few times. (Soccer tackle, not football tackle. Or football tackle, not american football tackle, for Jason and Tom.)

It’s been decided that the geared wheel needs to be moved to the other side. The chain is mounted and the system is tested. And the cart is all set to go! Backward. Serious overthinking (and an upside-down cart) have resulted in reversing what was previously correct.

Gever and Jiro have been watching the Robyn and Hanna show, and are completely entertained.

Everyone (meaning Robyn) is again convinced that the geared wheel needs to go on the left side (right side when you’re upside-down), with the gear on the inside (which is still inside when you’re upside down). Hanna is developing some serious chain installation skills. And luckily she already has a seriously developed sense of humor.

The film crew hears the laughter and rushes over to catch it on tape. But the moment has passed, so Robyn and Hanna repeat the test and try to relive the moment. At this stage every test reveals new information, so Gever and Jiro check it out as well.

Samir gets a lesson in using the grinder so that he can prepare the metal Jewels and Pearls logo. All parts of the original bike are being reused wherever possible. It’s part of what gives the Red Team’s cart its charm.

The ranch kitchen doesn’t lend itself to the Tinkering School traditional lunch item (quesadillas), so Robyn has brought her panini press to offer a hot sandwich option. Isaac describes the perfect press.

Today’s solutions for the carts use a lot more wood than yesterday’s (and the gliders had no wood at all). So the old familiar tools are finally brought out: hand saw, chop saw, drill press, and scroll saw.

It’s always been a Tinkering School tradition to name your vehicle, and then to decorate it accordingly (minimally with the name). I believe that this year is the first that the soldering iron has been used to create burned lettering. And no sharpies were anywhere to be found (probably because they’re all on the floor by the tables – pushed aside once the measuring was done).

Team Verde is officially rechristened Platinum.

Now that the front fork has been successfully (and permanently, due to the support struts) mounted to the chassis, the second tube is no longer needed. Theo amputates it with an inverted hacksaw. The piece removed was surprisingly heavy, so everyone was glad to be rid of it.

The Platinum throttle control is just as shiny as the cart itself. And rather ingenious. It remains to be seen if it actually works.

With large, noisy power tools required for the solution, Leo and Toby manage to keep on-task. For now.

Platinum is actually quite sleek, with its single level design. And the initial test of the throttle mechanism looks like it’s a success. We’re still not quite sure how they will be dealing with the whirling blades (gears) of death, though.

It’s official – the Red Team is now (at the very least) “Pearls”. The plan is to add “Jewels”, but let’s not rush into it.

The Pearls design is compact (seriously compact), and sometimes that makes working on things (much less seeing them) a little more challenging.

Gever has been given a heads-up about the whirling blades of death, and is off for a safety review with the team. While he’s there, they consult on the design of the seat mounting. The seat must both cover the drills themselves and also be fixed at an angle so that the rider isn’t so reclined that the just flip off the back. And you don’t want it permanently attached, or you can’t get at the drills to fix something if needed.

The Slackers have a cart that rolls quite nicely, but mounting the drills is proving to be quite troublesome. They try and abandon the u-bracket mount (used by the Pearls). They try a rigid 2×4 mount (seen here), but realize that it’s too hard to adjust (since the 2 drills move together). Now what?

The greatest challenge for the Pearls (other than second-guessing their calculations) has been their chain. Their 2-drills-1-wheel design has some benefits, but any design needs a smooth chain that fits well. And the original plan for tweaking drill position didn’t work. Samir checks to see if this chain has all good links while Hanna works out a derailleur/tension gear to allow easy (or at least easier, or maybe just possible) reinstallation of the chain.

The Platinum team definitely have the most exposed drive system. Which means they need some protection from it. Emma works on sides for the seat, so that the rider is protected from the spokes of the wheels themselves. Soon this will also protect the rider from the fender, which is added to protect them from the spinning wheels of death. Oh, and I think that’s her first time using the scroll saw!

The Pearl is overturned (or really up-righted, but it’s spent most of it’s life so far upside-down…) for a brake test. It looks like the method right now is to use the caliper brake as more of a wheel chock, but I’m sure it won’t stay that way.

The Slackers are still trying to work out a drill mount system that will work for their cart. They finally decide to remove the 2×4 and use the handle mount to bolt the drill to the car (as is done in Platinum). But they’ve heard that bungies don’t work well for securing the drill, so they’ll use wire instead.

Bryan makes sure the To Do list is updated to correspond to the new drill mount design. Jason and Tom are eyeing the action, trying to decide if they’re took late and will have to make Bryan write it again.

Theo has hand-curved metal fenders to cover (at least on top) the whirling blades of death. Currently they are free at the back, to keep the weight down. After the seat is installed an additional safety inspection will need to be done.

Toby and Leo escape the goat pen and make their way up onto the hill above. Maxine takes this opportunity to RoShamBo for who will drive first. Surprise! She wins :-)

If you linger by the gate too long, all the animals think you’ve got food and come running.

As hard as it is to believe, Hanna actually thinks this thing might work. Or at least the drills will spin.

Abandoned by essentially all of the Slackers (one of whom is making the most fabulous salmon dinner for all of us), Maxine soldiers on alone. Gever makes sure she has someone to hold the cart for her.

The Platinum cart is taken outside for a test drive. It rides quite nicely, but driving seems to be another matter entirely. At least it has an appropriate name plate (replete with sharpie coloring!).

It looks like the Platinum team went with the hinged seat design, but had to put the hinge at the back. It meant a little more wood, but they’re probably happy to have the easy access right now.

With the light fading (and the salmon cooling), it’s been decided to have an unpowered, downhill race so that the tv folks can get their footage before catching an early flight out tomorrow morning. Pearls was SO close to running, that rather than remove the drill power, all efforts were applied to getting it road-ready. Including the safety shield and a quick fix for the drill-mount-anti-torsion bolts (marring the perfect deck surface). Because they are functional foot supports, no one has really taken note of the giant fork-lift-like box beams that lead the way.

In their haste to get the brake wired up, some of the cables weren’t properly stowed. Plus only one throttle mechanism is installed, and it’s hard to tell which power cable goes to the finished drill system. Hanna gets things squared away.

As the only team member wearing long pants and long sleeves (two of the safety requirements), Samir is elected the test rider. First, the brake is tested. Check! Then, the throttle is tested. Lots of power, no horses. It appears that either the weld has broken on the gear attachment to the mount bolt, or the mount bolt is spinning since the chuck can’t be sufficiently tightened around the round threaded rod (a Platinum team discovery). Then the brake breaks.

Slackers and Platinum have been deemed road-worthy for the downhill run. The crew films interviews and team-intros before the race.

Pearls wasn’t built for unpowered, careening downhill rolling, so will sit this one out. The team still needs an intro, but then is “disqualified” for safety violation. We’ll see who’s in the finals tomorrow – at the real race!

As was likely not apparent from the other photos, the tv crew wanted a serious-team-staring-at-the-lens shot for the intro. For each team. It “only” took about 30 minutes to get four momentary shots. Tinkering School is just not that serious!

Before they can race, Gever must do an intro. And then pretend to do an intro. Then just waste some time before something happens. Maxine is starting to lose the ability to pretend this is serious.

Bryan appears with a muslin shawl, which turns out to be a curtain. He previously had on a scarf, so initially we imagine he’s making another fashion statement. He _claims_ he’s just protecting the camera. But that doesn’t really explain why he’s got it completely wrapped around himself….

Both carts require interesting body positioning (although Maxine points out their cart doesn’t have the final platform yet). The first start had Maxine well ahead, but she pushed off to start. Theo cried foul (since he can’t push in his seated position), so for the second leg (after cameras had been repositioned), she wasn’t allowed to push off. Then Theo cut her off to get ahead.

Theo crosses the finish line first, although both rides were sufficiently exciting that it really didn’t matter. Of course since this was the TV race, there is plenty of tv interviewing and footage to be done. No one needs to act this time – everyone is psyched about the race and the carts.

Gever is finally off-camera and allowed to do what he lives for: savor the successes and enthusiasm of the Tinkerers.

Apparently it was too much work to map out the spacing of the letters, so the Slackers are now the SLKRS. But they’re also the trash-talkers: Maxine calls Platinum a “wheelchair” on camera. The gloves are off (metaphorically speaking, since they are a safety item) – there will be many more races ahead.

Jason and Tom are thrilled with the amount of content this race is yielding. They hadn’t really seen the kids in action up to this point – it was virtually all work.

Hanna tests out the new brake (it works!) and the rewired throttle. Still doesn’t get the power to the bike chain. It will have to wait until morning, when all the carts will be tuned up and the real racing will begin.

Since we can, we build a campfire to make a scenic, camp-y wrap-up for the day. No need for interviews, the kids are just encouraged to talk about the day and the action and just be themselves. And they probably wouldn’t have noticed the camera, except that they all had to sit clumped together. And too close to the fire for comfort. And they really wanted more food. And are they done yet? They are.

Celebration of the working anti-wheelie-flip-training wheels (and Robyn’s unexpected testing of them with Hanna on the cart).

First successful power-up.

Platinum does some distance by drill power.

Success for Pearls (and gratuitous clip for julie; also explaining the large gap in photo taking late in the day).

The carts see their first action.