The Red team, having rejected their earlier name, have adopted a new name: Dorkfest. Gabe (visiting from the Bad Dogs team), Spencer, Leo, Jiro, Theo, and Maxine are working on the single most sophisticated vehicle in Tinkering School history - brakes, gas, rack-and-pinion steering, metal emblem, rear-mounted motor - it’s amazing.

Despite an incredible list of minor set-backs, the Bad Dogs get the chopper working - one of the more elegant and simple designs in Tinkering School history. The biggest problem is that the drive has to hang way off one side.

Evidence of the complexity of the build today is evident by the kinds of parts we are using.

Theo demonstrates the proper tubesledding form.

Leo catches the early morning rays (yesterday).

It’s time to discuss tomorrow’s build - motorized vehicles. Very exciting, but also many ambiguous design trade-offs to weigh.

Gever accidentally suggests and then has to sketch possible ways to build simple rack-and-pinion steering mechanisms. The sketch turns out so good, it convinces one of the teams to try it. He fervently hopes that this is not a repeat of the flap-drive proposal.

Down at the other end of the table, the Bad Dog team discusses the pros and cons of building a PVC tubing chopper.

Gever and Jiro take the tinkerers through the basics of internal combustion, clutches, transmissions, and differentials - of which, the latter two will not be found on our vehicles since we are using scavenged weed-whacker motors.

Jiro takes Isaac, Gabe, and Spencer through a tear-down, clean-up, and rebuild of a faulty fuel system on a two-stroke Craftsman weed-whacker motor.

Before we begin to build, the officials from the TSRL (Tinkering School Racing League) review the the requirements with the teams:
- Must have brakes.
- Must have steering.
- Must not have impalements.

Maxine and her team do some pre-visualization of their vehicle to make sure that it will fit every person on the team and all of the required elements.

Jacob and Gever refine the steering design for the Bad Dog chopper.

Leo and Theo (of the team that couldn’t pick a name so let’s just call them the Red team for now) work on the steering system for the Red team’s four wheel F1 derived car. Maxine is waiting for the drill-press so she can finish mounting the drive wheels.

Despite the amazing comforts of the scavenged Ikea steam-formed plywood seats, the Bad Dogs decide that they are just too heavy for their super-light chopper.

Gabe hangs on to the chopper’s drive wheel while Isaac checks the length of the chassis. There is a lot of discussion about the proper length - room for a seat, the steering, places to put your feet, a fender to protect the rider from the wheel - it’s a lot of stuff, plus there are concerns about the rigidity (or lack thereof) of the PVC.

Using a classic box-frame to pinch the wheel axles, Maxine gets the Red team’s cart up off the ground and into the it’s-a-little-bit-hard-to-work-on-now-that-it-rolls phase of construction.

The Bad Dogs have settled on a length and they are drilling screws to prevent any further discussion. Gever steadies it, Gabe centers the tubes vertically, Hanna keeps the nose of the chassis aligned, and Isaac drills guide holes and drives screws.

The Red team’s front-end has a half-dozen screw tips poking through that require the angle-grinder to remove. Gever loves his angle-grinder and is only too happy to make pretty sparks.

Gever loves sparks and he recommends opening this picture for a closer look. Just marvel at the mid-air explosions - it’s fantastic!

It appears that he just can’t get enough of these beautiful spark pictures.

The weed-whackers have an amazingly simple, but also very awkward way of connecting to the drive shaft - a spinning shaft that ends two-inches shy of the outside of the motor housing has a square hole in the center where the drive shaft is supposed to be held in by external forces, perhaps some kind of magic, or divine intervention.

In last night’s design session, the Red team arrived at the novel idea of mounting the motor on the front fork of the chopper to create a front-wheel drive motorcycle. This idea fell by the wayside as the logistical problems of mounting the motor became evident.

Isaac checks out the stability of his team’s chopper. They will have to stiffen the chassis tomorrow, but otherwise it’s looking, and feeling, bad (as in good).

The weed-whacker motor housings are a little hostile to external mountings, so the teams will have to create wooden harnesses that accommodate the strange shapes.

Leo, Maxine, and Theo discuss steering wheel placement on the Red team car while Isaac tries not to think about the fact that their motor is 1cc larger than the Bad Dog motor.

Able to help out in many ways, leaves a very small carbon footprint, pretty good with a screwdriver and drill, it’s H the generic Hero. Who can this very useful, friendly, funny, smart, talented person be? The world will never know…

Oh wait, it’s Isaac!

After dinner everyone has made their way back down to the studio for some casual tinkering (Jacob and Spencer are making tiny amounts of hydrogen by electrolysis, the Red team is making a plan for the next day, the Bad Dogs and working on a new steering bearing) and Gever, Isaac, Theo, and Jiro head to the metalshop to finish up the drive shafts (pictures of those tomorrow).

Robyn (who will be quick to point out that it was actually Gever) has introduced Tinkering School to the game of Mexican Train and it’s become somewhat of an epidemic.

Maxine takes a turn at sewing. Our hope is that we can hold the seam closed with thread, but then weld it water-tight with wax.

Maxine claims that she really prefers repetitive tasks that allow her to get something cool done with out having to make a lot of hard decisions along the way. “You just like to space out,” counters Hanna.

Gabe is determined to get the foot-pedal steering system working, but his teammates are just a little too sleepy to concentrate on the problem.

Isaac takes a turn at the needle to sew tops onto the catamaran pontoons. There is some concern that the pontoons will sit too low in the water and have a tendency to fill up and sink if the tops are not closed.

There’s a little bit of a backup in the wax application process, so Maxine is waiting patiently (and probably spacing out a little too).

In an effort to get done before lunch, we put four brushes to work on the biggest boat. Maxine, Gever, Gabe, and Jacob are all old hands at this now, and the boat gets done in record time.

It happens to first-timers. They just don’t know how to pace themselves for the non-stop building frenzy that is Tinkering School. Leo has fallen asleep on the deck of the studio, wrapped in a piece of canvas and surrounded by half-built rudders and paddles.

Hanna gets the task of cutting out the deck plates for the catamaran.

The outrigger has been decorated with thornless blackberry leaves.

We move the hulls to the shade while we take a break for lunch. Left to right, outrigger main hull, outrigger, pontoon, pontoon (the latter being the basis for the catamaran).

The outrigger main hull also has it’s own decorative motif.

You never know when it’s going to sneak up on you. Leo seems particularly susceptible.

Fitting two twin-hull water craft and a kayak on the truck and trailer turns out to be a little complicated. Jacob takes a moment to adjust a paddle.

Theo’s father, Michael, stops by to watch the boats get put in the water - we enlist his help in getting all the parts down to the beach.

Until now, neither of the boats has been fully assembled. There turn out to be lots of little issues - like how one of the paddle wheels hits the connector bamboo that holds the outrigger at the right distance.

Leo and Jacob collaborate on the paddle wheel setup.

Hanna and Theo tie the new decks on for the first time while Maxine talks smack about their catamaran.

Maxine trims off the excess on one of the bamboo cross bars.

The blade on one of the paddles is spinning due to a naive lashing attempt. Gever demonstrates the proper technique for securely attaching a stick to a board with line.

Isaac and Spencer have been chosen to take the catamaran out for it’s first sea-test - mostly because they are the lightest and there are some real concerns about how low the pontoons will sit in the water.

Maxine and Jacob literally drive circles around the catamaran - which sits dangerously low in the water, and whose innovative flap-drive doesn’t seem to work at all.

(that title is a play on the lyric “monsoon rain” - does that make sense or is it just so late at night that it seems clever to me? -ed)

The pontoons only have an inch or two above the waterline, and one of the tops is letting in a lot of water. The team will address this problem back at the studio by possibly adding another layer of canvas to the top.

Despite the fact that the crank didn’t get fully glued, and one of the paddlewheels had to be severely trimmed, the paddlewheel outrigger is surprisingly quick in the water. The catamaran team has decided to junk their flap-drive and build a paddle wheel for their boat too.

It is determined that the distances between the struts are too far for the strength of the canvas, so Spencer and Theo build styrofoam bulkheads to act as non-structural canvas supports.

Gabe is working on a foot-pedal steering mechanism for the outside team’s boat. It’s complicated because there is no floor in the boat yet.

As part of an ongoing theme, Jiro and Leo collaborate on this daily picture of “The Drill Master”.

The outdoor team has decided to use a beautiful pea-green for their outrigger. Turns out Maxine has a knack for applying wax.

To allow for changes to the rudder mounts on the catamaran, Theo must build plywood bulkheads to attach the canvas skin to (instead of the rudder mounts). It’s a tough drilling operation because round notches to accommodate the PVC tubes must be drilled out of each corner of a triangle, so he’s using clamps liberally. Leo is just hanging around the drill press to look cool.

Among the debris of boat construction, a beautiful wildflower has blossomed.

Spencer is striving for a perfect, wrinkle-free, wrapping of the last pontoon of the catamaran.

Theo hammers the new plywood bulkheads into place.

You know it’s a busy building day when all the major power-tools are on the deck before lunch. Maxine at the chop-saw, Theo at the drill-press, and Hanna on the jigsaw - Spencer waiting his turn.

Everyone agrees that Theo and Hanna manage to lay down the best wax job ever.

The sun comes out while Maxine and Gabe develop a hanging seat in the big outrigger. As you might imagine, it’s a bit tricky to put a seat in a boat with canvas sides.

The teams have mutually agreed that they all need paddles in case their propulsion systems fail. Maxine and Leo make a couple of paddle blades before going in search of suitable handles.

Spencer and Isaac take one of the waxed catamaran pods back to the studio for rudder work.

Note the piece of blue high-pressure gas pipe on the ground.

Everyone needs a break from boat building so we all go outside to see what fun can be had during the break in the fog. We spy the blue gas-pipe and note how well it slides on the pine needles…

Spencer grabs nine feet of it to make a stand-up sled.

Leo and Isaac discuss the relative merits of wood and pipe. Like skiers and snowboarders, they fail to understand each other.

Isaac shows us how it’s done west-bay style.

Maxine sprints down the hill with a wide-eyed Theo in tow. Hanna is more dignified than all that.

No handles, no brakes, no steering, and just too much fun. Theo zooms past as Maxine pours on the speed.

It’s the only thing anyone yells beside “whoa!” or “aaaahhhh!” on the downhill sled ride. Theo is not pulling as hard as Maxine did, so Leo is yelling “Faster, faster!”

Maxine, exhausted from pulling the sled, takes a little nap on the porch, nestled among the pliers, paddle wheels, lashing twine.

Spencer has invented a new toy which tickles your hand. Sure enough it elicits giggles from Maxine as well as everyone else daring enough to try it.

After his first prototype failed to pass inspection, Gabe digs in and starts work on a new design that is larger, simpler, and has more throw. Jacob helps him hold the stapler down.

The big outrigger requires a new technique for stretching the canvas skin tight, since passengers must be able to sit down inside the boat. A strong-line is run from bow to stern down both sides, then the pink canvas tensioning lines are tied to it, which creates some nice spiderwebby patterns inside the boat.

Tonight it’s chicken enchiladas, salad, and chips with guacamole - and of course, as much fruit as you can eat.

It’s already almost 9 and we’re still doodling about boats. Will it be eight tinkerers in one boat, four boats with two each, two boats with four, two boats with two, or maybe one? The kids seem to enjoy the fact that nothing is decided until we start building.

Robyn has brought fresh PVC - the essential ingredient in PVC boat building. We’re not using any glue, so 95% of this tubing will show up in next years projects (we wanted to use bamboo, but we didn’t get good structural pieces in the load that we got).

Jacob, Leo, Maxine, and Gabe make up the outdoor team. They begin by playing with some ten foot lengths of PVC to see what kind of boat shapes they can make.

Isaac, Theo, Hanna, and Spencer of the indoor team are considering some very long, thin pontoons arranged as a catamaran.

The outdoor team has decided on an outrigger design with a fairly deep keel, but are currently experimenting with bow and stern designs.

Back with the indoor team, Theo, Spencer, and Isaac are enjoying putting one of the bow braces together.

Leo is mastering the jigsaw, cutting out bow and stern braces.

Maxine, Jacob, and Gabe are shaping and tinkering with their hull design before committing it to canvas.

Theo and team have a factory going which produces bow and stern braces. The keel pipe has to be slightly compressed to make it push the upper deck and make it flat.

Leo is ready to cut any thing you need.

Theo and Isaac are getting some pointers from Gever about how best to clamp and brace a complicated shape in the chop-saw. They almost needed to temporarily screw it to a larger piece of wood, but then figured out a way to turn the piece and change the angle of the cut that allowed the clamps to hold it securely.

Maxine and Leo have moved up to the big drill and shown them selves capable of drilling one their own.

Jiro and Gabe discuss alternatives for mounting cross braces to attach the outrigger to.

For better or worse, Gever has convinced one of the teams to try building a “flap-drive” - hinged panels on a centerboard push water in one direction but lay down flat when moved forward.

To ensure that the sizes are right, some displacements are calculated for the complicated hull shapes. Looks like the current boat implementations will be able to carry two passengers.

To illustrate that the catamaran hulls are not displacing much more water than a person, Gever gets Spencer to try one on for size.

Maxine does not really care for doing knots, but she’s gotten much better at it since last year.

Spencer is 98% water, and it’s clear that the hull is sufficiently larger than he is.

Leo’s team has refined their boat shapes for the last time and settled on a bow-plate design somewhat similar to the other teams’, but with out the keel complications. The teams often riff off of each others approaches.

Still a ways to go, but Jacob, Gabe, and Maxine are justifiably proud of their outrigger implementation so far.

Isaac and Theo crank out another perfect bow assembly.

Using a 2×4, Jacob, Gabe, and Maxine, start to get a handle on some of the complexities of joining two differently sized boats together.

Gabe has an idea for the outdoor teams propulsion system, but he needs some space to draw it out for his team.

As you can see in Gabe’s illustration, two people sit face to face in the boat, each holding the offset handles of driveshaft which turns two paddle wheels. Note the rudder at the rear of the boat - it will be operated by a set of foot pedals.

A beautiful snake is spotted making it’s way to the bushes. Gever and Spencer appreciate it’s elegant design and intriguing physical abilities.

Jacob and Gabe are tasked with implementing Gabe’s drive mechanism.

Every 50,000 miles, you should bring your catamaran into the shop where Theo, Spencer, Isaac, and Hanna can ensure that the boats are perfectly aligned, the keels are straight, and the decks are flat.

This is the episode where Jiro explains basic hydrodynamics to Maxine using a wooden bone to illustrate the idea of parasitic drag.

You can never tell when someone’s nickname is going to appear, but today when Gabe said “Hey, uh, Man Dude, can you hand me that drill?” we all knew that Jacob’s name had been found.

Hanna and Issac the the blades of the flap-drive mounted on to the centerboard. Different length blades will hopefully deliver logarithmic power to the stroke - or at least that’s the idea.

Despite the fact that Maxine is teasing his team, Spencer continues working on his backup propeller drive system just in case the much-vaunted flap-drive should fail.

Maxine and her team finally get to the stage where canvas is applied to the hulls.

Isaac gets the last cut of the evening in as he prepares a crucial piece of the rudder system that he and Theo have been working on.

It’s all hands on board to get the canvas centered, folded and stretched onto the outrigger.

Gabe explains to Robyn how to build a ball-joint out of PVC tubing and fittings.

We started at 9am, we finish the first skin at 9:30pm - and instead of being exhausted, everyone is feeling an kind of post-concert euphoria. It’s been a long days tink.