Session H: Day 3 - Push and Pull
Tuesdays at Tinkering School are always a little tougher than other days. There's still so much time left, but not many projects have enough form to feel like anything has been accomplished. So, Tuesdays end up being a little more of a slog sometimes. Thankfully, this group has great chemistry and there was a good balance of work and play throughout the day to keep them striving for the Tuesday night goal of having a "version 1" of their carts to test on a small section of the road.
We start the morning with breakfast, hot tea and cocoa, and some Harry Potter trivia. Lucy leads with the most intense questions.
Then it's time to get down to business. Jack works on the Piki cart, using a caster wheel for the front.
Panda's steering design, led by Merritt, is complex and requires a lot of attention to detail. She's measured everything at least twice before she goes to cut, or drill press as the case may be.
Bryce and Izzy have continued their cart experiments, pulling each other up the hill on the wagon and testing various braking methods. The helmets finally went on after a particularly sudden stop.
Portrait of a Tinkerer: Gretchen being her lovely self.
Thalia has to cut a big piece of plywood for the Panda cart, so she gets out the circular saw.
Max is beasting through the 2x4s, two at a time.
Multitasking is nothing to a tinkerer such as Lilah.
After all these weeks, we discover who the Sky Bench was destined for. Ari is the perfect size.
Izzy and Bryce team up again to put some wheels on the Sqiki cart.
And Lilah realizes she's put the two wheels on uneven, but decides to leave them as is. "Whoopsi-daisy."
Collaborator Jack and Caspar talk through the pros and cons of a grappling hook braking system.
Ari and Milo are two peas in a pod. Their groups soon call them back to action.
Paint is brought out. G helps create a pallet.
Milo, Braden, and Sophia line up the Kablooi cart for their steering column.
Izzy gets serious with a hand saw while Vivek stands by to be tapped in if necessary.
The two buddies are back at it again. Their friendship makes us smile.
The Sqiki cart is all wheeled up! Lilah flips it over, which is a perfect opportunity for Vivek to have a lie-down.
Team Nooi had a setback after a miscommunication about a threaded rod and if it should be cut or not, which caused some strife. With a bit of guidance, they form Nooi v.2: now with more teamwork. A functional group dynamic is one of many things we try to build at camp.
Gever guides Panda through an engineering issue.
As the afternoon turns into early evening, the teams start to worry. Many of them don't have their carts ready to roll for the after-dinner test, and so they work frantically to assemble the vision they have. The Panda cart is trying to line up their wheels: Max with the rear, and Merritt with the front steering. Collaborator Kevin helps Max, who is determined to have the rear wheels attached by dinner, though it is not to be.
Merritt finally assembles the tricky steering mechanism, but it's almost dinner time. Her idea is nearly fully realized, and she is nearly fully bummed that she'll have to wait until the next build session to finish.
After dinner, we all bring our carts up to the Ranch House for the testing.
But, it turns out only one team has a cart ready to be tested. Lilah and Bryce hop on the Sqiki cart, with its brake-steering. The brakes don't pan out exactly as they had envisioned, but that's what this test is all about. Sqiki can now take the feedback from their cart and work with it.
Today was a big day for everyone. We hang out for a bit before tucking into bed for the night, dreaming of what to do with our carts next.
Blog by Caroline, who apologizes for the delay!