Preparation for Saturday Nov 21, 2009 Workshop

This week the launchers were prepared from re-cycled packing crates. The rough boards were jointed on two sides, then planed to a usable thickness. Then a 5 degree slot using a special .087" kerf table saw blade was cut into the boards. Before cutting the individual launchers, two edges were round-over routed.

The basketball hoops were generated on a CNC machine by Jim and Dick of J&D Woodworking, Inc. in Black Hawk, SD. A quick sanding of the hoop edges on a 12"disc sander was required, followed by a 1/4 inch roundover bit on the router table. The only way to go!

Here are the launchers ready for pre-drilling to accept screws to hold them to the base.

String assemblies consist of a 17 inch long nylon string and a 1 inch wooden ball. The balls were pre-drilled at the previous Saturday toy workshop. The string assemblies were built on Tuesday evening by Bob and Kathie and Becky using a hot knife to cut the nylon string and Titebond glue to secure the string in the wooden ball.

So at the end of this week, we have completed launchers, hoops, string assemblies, bases, and backboards to build 120 basketball games all in place. This is just in time for the next Saturday workshop in which we will drill holes in the bases to accept the string assemblies and the launchers, and drill holes in the backboards and hoops to prepare the backboard/hoop assemblies.

If you want to help build and assemble toys for the Toy Program, we can always use an extra hand. If you have the skills for running a scroll saw, we can use your help as well. If you can help between now and Christmas, call Bob Buchanan at 348-2865 or check our website http://www.sdwoodworker.org/ for more information.

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