Does He Have "The Knack?"

Little dude loves his cars, motorcycles and trains.  He takes the wheels off of everything, too.  Recently he has become more creative with his legos.  Tonight he proudly showed me his newest creation.  He told me it was a truck, but it reminded me of "Big Bud."

This is "Big Bud."  Wouldn't you just love to take this bad boy for a spin?

Of course, my real concern is for his future.  As I watch him grow and develop, I see certain tendencies emerge.  Could it be that the following conversation is in our future?

Help!

How To Build a Balance Beam

As Kate's gymnastics prowess has increased, she has begun asking for a balance beam.  Since this was a long weekend, I decided to take this project on along with some help from my lovely assistant (aka my wife).

The first requirement of building a beam is to find a friend with a a LOT of wood clamps.  Thankfully, I have a friend like that.

Next buy a LOT of wood glue, 6 - 10 foot 1x6's and 4 - 10 foot 2x4's.

Cut the 1x6's to a uniform 10' length

Before beginning the lamination project, I did a mockup first.  I used the 2x4's to help transfer the "squeeze" of the clamps more uniformly.

Satisfied, I glued together my first two boards.  I had no idea how quickly the glue sets - yikes!  There is very little time to adjust the boards the way you like!

TIP:  find a friend with a table saw, and cut all 1x6's to a uniform length before laminating them, this will make the whole process a bit easier with a better end product. 

Here is the outcome after four  boards are glued together

 Here are all six

Since I had not sawed the boards for width, I took a hand plane to the beam to create a nice flat surface

Then I hit it with a sander

And voila!

Next we wrapped the beam in some 1/2"   1" foam. 
(This gives the beam a bit more cushion.  You may choose to use a bit less)

Finally, we wrapped it in "marine vinyl"

We trimmed off the excess and admired the finished product!

and turned our gymnast loose!