Cranes of all sorts help construction workers perform tasks that they could never complete by themselves. The pontoon crane, a crane that is supported on pontoons, floats on water. Building a model of a pontoon crane is a craft that helps young minds understand the mechanics of large machinery and encourages their imaginations to understand perform feats of engineering.
Instructions
Making the Pontoon
1. Lay the 8-by-10-by-1/2-inch plywood on a flat work surface with the 8-inch width facing you.
Start at the near right corner and measure ½ inch to the left along the 8-inch side and mark with the pencil. Measure up 1 inch from this mark along the 10-inch length and mark. Insert an eye screw.
2. Measure up 3 inches from the eye screw, parallel to the 10-inch side. Insert an eye screw.
3. Repeat for the other corners of the 8-by-10-by-1/2-inch plywood.
4. Find the center of the board and mark.
5. Insert eye screws along the center-line between the points where you placed eye screws around the border.
6. Place a juice can on the board between the eye screws on the near right side. Turn the long side of the juice can parallel to the 10-inch side of the board.
7. Insert the end of the nylon thread through the eye screw at the bottom right corner. Loop the thread over the top of the can and through the eye screw that is perpendicular to this first eye screw; this is the bottom middle eye screw. Cut the thread, allowing enough length to tie the thread to the eye screw. Repeat to secure the other cans to the eye screws in the same manner to make the pontoon.
8. Turn over the pontoon.
9. Lay three of the 4-inch squares of wood on top of each other on a flat work surface. Match up the sides. Find the middle and mark. Set these on the plastic lid. Drill through the pieces.
10. Lay the 2-by-2-by-¼-inch wood on a flat surface. Find the middle and drill out the center.
11. Turn on the hot glue gun. Glue a 1-inch dowel to one corner of the 2-by-2-by-¼-inch wood to make a handle.
12. Set three 4-by-4-by-¼-inch pieces of wood on end to form a three-sided standing box. Two of these are the pieces with the holes; set these parallel to each other. Glue the three pieces together along the edges that touch to make the crane housing.
13. Insert the 6-inch wooden dowel through the wooden sides with the holes. Press the 2-by-2-by-¼-inch wood onto one end of the wooden dowel. Hot glue the dowel to the 2-by-2-by-¼-inch wood.
14. Drill a ¼-inch hole in the center top of the pontoon. Insert a 1-inch dowel and glue in place.
Making the Crane
15. Slide the plastic lid down over the dowel. Hot glue the top of the lid; then slide a 4-by-4-by ¼-inch piece of wood down over the dowel, which makes a lazy Susan on which the crane housing will pivot.
16. Hot glue the bottom edge of the crane housing and set on the lazy Susan with the sides aligned.
17.Lay the 2-by-6-by-1/2-inch piece of wood on a flat surface with the 2-inch width facing you. Cut a 45-degree corner from the near right corner using the miter box to form the bottom of the crane boom.
18. Measure up 1 inch on the edge opposite the 45-degree angle and insert an eye screw.
19. Lay the 2-by 6-by-1/2-inch piece of wood with the 45-degree corner on the 2-inch width facing away from you. Cut an 1/8-inch notch on the ½-inch edge that is on the opposite side of the 45-degree cut corner.
20. Find the center and measure up 1 inch from the end of the 2-by-6-by-1/2-inch piece of wood with the 45-degree corner on the 2-inch-wide side. Drill through.
21. Select two 2-by-2-inch pieces of modeling clay. Shape each into a mound. Set these in front of the open edge of the crane housing on the lazy Susan. Place the boom between them, with the 45-degree cut end down and facing away from the crane housing. The mounds act as side supports for the boom.
22. Push the 4-inch wooden dowel through one clay mound, through the hole in the crane boom and through the other clay mound. Remove the dowel and allow the clay to set.
23. Assemble the boom. Hold the boom between the two clay mounds with the 45-degree angle facing away from the crane housing. Place the 4-inch dowel through the first clay mound, through the hole in the crane boom and then through the other clay mound.
24. Thread the nylon thread through the eye screw on the crane boom. Hot glue an end of nylon thread onto the center of the dowel inside the crane housing. Cut off the end hanging from the top of the boom, allowing enough thread to tie on the magnet. Tie the magnet to the thread.
Tags: crane housing, 2-by-2-by- -inch, 2-by-2-by- -inch wood, 45-degree corner, clay mound, crane boom, -inch wood