Compound Cutting with Youngsters

[hotshot]

My youngest 8 year old walked up and informed me that school craft projects deadlines were soon approaching and he had the "Making Wooden Toys" issue in hand. He proceeded to open the mag to the checker project. My heart skipped a beat as I quickly grabbed the magazine and went looking for something a little more 8 yr oldish. He had already done the simple puzzles and was ready to go on to something more substantial, so we looked. He found several projects he liked, but either I didn't have the right materials or the projects required tools I also don't have. I finally conceded to let him try the compound cutting project.

Then, the wife informed me that 40% of the project had to be original design. Hmmmm, this keeps getting better and better. I wasn't going to cheat and do the design for him, so we started out sketching some ideas, and then thought about doing checker pieces with cat heads (and dogs which are still on the drawing board). Definately met the 40% requirement, but there was no we he was going to sketch cat profiles. So, off to google to find front and side profiles for cats. We kept with the dimension in the article, but that is about all. I'm not the most patient for teaching photoshop, but teaching to an 8yr old about killed me. I got the pictures in and aligned and he cleaned them and finished drawing out missing parts of the outlines.

I saw in the checker article that the author did not use the compound cutting jig, but used tape to hold everything together. I thought this might be easier so we tried that approach. He did pretty good on the cutting (first attempt on pine, second on oak). Good thing about cutting thick wood, you have time to think . . . . .












-------Randy

[Hawaiilad]

Randy I can only see one picture...with your son at the computer

[Crabbyboater]

I see four pics. Maybe a problem has been corrected already? I've got 8 year old twin grands and can't imagine the patience it would take to have them do this project. Congrats to you for that. I'm sure he appreciates it.

[wood-n-things]

He is quite the nice looking young man and very proud of his work. Nicely done both of you.

Just a tip...

Here is the preferred way to post photos. This method will apply a thumbnail so that messages load faster, keeping those who are still on dial up in mind.

If it is a new thread scroll down below the message box to additional options and look for manage attachments,Click on Manage Attachments, click Browse, find your file name on your computer, click it, then click Upload. It may take a few seconds to load.
Once you see the file name under current attachments you can close the window.
If you want you can Preview Post (a wise choice) then if all is well, click on Submit reply.

If you are uploading a picture to an existing thread (conversation)
Click on the Go Advanced button under the reply box, Click on Manage Attachments, click Browse, find your file name on your computer, click it, then click Upload. It may take a few seconds to load.
Once you see the file name under current attachments you can close the window.
If you want you can Preview Post (a wise choice) then if all is well, click on Submit reply.
Good luck

[sawdustus]

Fantastic Randy. Isn't it wonderful that we can pass our love of our craft (art) and our skills on to another generation. My almost 9 granddaughter loves to do scrolling with me (whenever she is with us for more than a few hours that's not on a school day), but is definitely not at your son's level yet.

george

[Wood Dog]

The beautiful smile says it all.........good work both of you.

[handibunny]

Randy, I agree with WD. That smile is the payoff for all the work you put into making this project happen. And if he's doing this well at 8, imagine what he'll be doing at 10! Tell him that we're all proud of him, and that he did a lot better than many grown-ups.

[wjbclocks1]

I like the determend look on his face while cutting at the saw. And also the smile when he finished.

[Dragon]

So beautiful. Nice work and he is so proud of it and he should be.
Diane