A Bust of Sir Arminius Oliphant

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! I am
proud to present: a bust of the highly esteemed imaginary scholar, the accomplished Sir Oliphant!
Now that we've finished the pleasantries,
you may be asking yourself,"Who is this
Sir Oliphant?". Please do not trouble yourselves
with these questions. He is nothing but a figment
of my imagination.
Now that we have that cleared up, you may be wondering how I made the bust. That is what I
will tell you now.
to start, at the center of Sir Oliphant's head is a wooden rod about five inches long. Around that is
a rather thick layer of paper towel bound with
masking tape in the general shape of a human head.
After I accomplished this, I simply wrapped clay
around it in a way that it still looked like a head.
The first actual feature I formed was the nose.
Accordingly, the nose is a prominent feature in
Sir Oliphant's face. The rest was simple enough,
except for the hair, which, as hard as I tried,
would not be made in one piece.

Pop-pop Boat

I recently made a steam boat. The instructions, at http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/boat/makeBoat4_07.htm, called it a pop-pop boat, but it runs fundamentally on steam. First, I made a "boiler" from an aluminium soda can, cut and folded to the correct shape and size, with two straws sticking out. I then sealed the boiler with epoxy glue and silicone sealant. While the silicone dried, I made the hull of the boat with a milk carton, cut and folded. Once the silicone on the boiler dried, I stuck the straws that were poking out of the boiler through a hole that I had cut in the hull and bent them back under. I then glued the straws and boiler in place with a cool-melt hot glue gun. Now steam engines are external combustion engines, so for the "external combustion", I added a candleholder I had made to fit quarter birthday candles. On the day I finished it, I tried it out in the bathtub. On the first run, it worked, altough not very well, but the second try was amazing. The funny thing is, the day after I tried out my boat, a tin one came in the mail from my uncle and aunty in Australia!

Fixing The Smoke Chamber

When we first moved in to our house, the chimney didn't have a cap or a working damper, so the rain got in and rusted the smokebox. The damper was replaced and Stephen installed a cap, but the smokebox was still broken. This afternoon, Stephen started work on the smoke box.

First, he made a cardboard model of the piece he needed and stuck it up to see if it would fit. Then he traced the pattern on a sheet of galvanized steel (the pattern, steel, and tinsnips are shown below).
He then cut out the steel with the tinsnips and bent it in the appropriate places with angle iron in a vice, and a hammer. After he completed that piece, he took it inside and stuck it up the 5" by 16" hole into the smoke box and into the appropriate place. Once it's finished, we can look forward to cozy fires this winter.

Flying Monkeys Attack

This is a newspaper clipping I found on the sidewalk the other day.(he he) (I got the picture from the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)