inventions

Mr. Inventor built himself another forge this week. He cut apart a propane cylinder and used the top for the place for a fire. He welded it to a pipe and used the bottom of the cylinder for a stand. The pipe coming out the side is to attach a blower to (he uses an old vacuum cleaner) for air for the fire. He welded a metal grate inside to hold the coal fire up off the air hole.

Here is the forge in action. It worked great—it was so hot they could hardly get close enough to work with the fire! However, it melted the grate. I’m not sure what he’s doing next!

Mr. Inventor has been very busy living up to his name lately. He designed and built two bike trailers, after finding a picture online; the welder was used a lot over the past two weeks! He also figured out how to carve a wooden spoon. That was after the wooden knife carving contest between three boys; I didn’t get a picture of those creations, but they were very good.

A few Sundays ago, we were filling the van up with diesel in Kaikoura before heading home, and there was a couple there with a tandem bicycle. Apparently, Mr. Inventor studied it closely while we were there, because the next day he started building one of his own! He cut apart two or three junk bicycles and started putting the pieces together. He’s stalled right now, waiting for his daddy to do some welding for him. We’ll see if it goes any further, but I was enjoying the initiative and inventiveness–and he’s learned a lot about fixing bikes from this!