The Express(o) Train - Weeks 1 and 2
Spring has sprung and it’s the start of a new Tinkering session!
With some new faces and some familiar ones, our Spring 2019 After School Tinkerers are ready to roll….on the EXPRESS(O) TRAIN!
This session’s project is TRAINS and our tinkerers have decided collectively that the group theme is coffee/cocoa! Coffee/hot cocoa trains with cafe stands, a crane for lifting bags of coffee/cocoa and placing them into the coffee/cocoa cars-all on the Expresso track. (For the non-coffee drinkers, our train will also have hot chocolate!)
After bringing together everyone’s design ideas and coming up with a building plan, we all got to it and made some great progress. Check out what we’ve built so far!
Elliot works on attaching the final screws for the first train car’s frame.
Week One:
After meeting one another, going over group agreements, and completing tool training, our teams ended their first day with a design session.
Chopsaw Training: Asher
Bear on the Chopsaw.
Elliot, Clay, and Niam take turns sharing ideas in the train car group’s design session.
Bear and Willa draw out possible designs for the train accessory group.
The Track team’s ideas come together.
A decision is made…this train needs a coffee crane!
Week Two:
Building begins and ideas start to take shape! The tinkerers split up into three groups for the different elements of the Express(o) Train- the cars, the track, and the coffee/cocoa crane. Along with the new coffee/cocoa theme, our good friend “Blobby Dog” has made a re-appearance as a mascot for the Express(o) Train.
The wheel challenge!
Willa and Sophie
One of the biggest engineering challenges this team will encounter is how to keep the train wheels on the track! We looked at all sorts of wheels and talked about which ones would work best. What size wheels do we want? Do we build tracks that have a groove for the wheels to run down? Or do the wheels have sides that keep it on the track? So many options to consider. The team settled on using the metal rims without the tires because they have sides that will keep them on the track. We’ll hopefully get to test the wheels out next week!
Sophie joins the group and jumps right into building tracks!
Elliot and Keira square up the corners to build their frame.
We are on track! By the end of our second week together everyone was buzzing with excitement.
Lily cuts 2x3” for the frame of her group’s first train car.
How many people can we fit?? Lily is astonished- it’s 3 x more than we thought!
This Tinkering crew is rolling! We’re jazzed to see what they’ll accomplish and create next week. Will we be able to start test riding the track? Check back soon to find out!
To see more fun photos from our Tinkering sessions, be sure to visit our Express(o) Flickr album!