Simon

Mr. Inventor

December 9, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Mr. Inventor has been very busy living up to his nickname lately. Here are pictures of some of his projects just in the past week.

He built a forge out of an old 20-pound propane cylinder. He had watched a YouTube clip online, and and added his own ideas. He cut off the top of the cylinder and attached a pipe to the lower side to which he attached an air pump. Then, he lined the lower 2/3 or so of the tank with an inch or two of clay and let it dry for a day. He started a fire in it with wood, and then added coal to get a very hot fire. He was able to get it really hot by pumping air in.

After getting the bar of steel red hot, he beat it on a piece of railroad rail with his hammer to try to make a chisel. He later ended up melting this end of the steel, though, when he was experimenting to see how hot he could get it! When he pulled it out of the fire one time, part of the bar was missing.

He made this handle for a chisel with his wood lathe.

He also built this hand-crank bench grinder one day. He spent a lot of time on YouTube trying to find directions for building something like this, but couldn’t find any, so he made it up himself, if I understood right. He wanted to make another, and make a video of it to post on YouTube for other boys to watch who want to make the same thing! He used the bike pedal that was originally attached to the gear at first, then made this handle on his lathe. He likes the bike pedal better, though, because it’s easier to turn. Actually, now he’s saying to take off the pedal but leave the bolt it turns on.

He’s also using his lathe again to make wooden bowls. There has been a lot of creativity here in the past week!

After the bowl is shaped and sanded, he oils it for several days with olive oil. These bowls are beautiful!

Of course, the boys had to have fun with the forge, too! Besides melting aluminum and making odd shapes with it (Mr. Intellectual has now made a clay mold in which he wants to try casting an aluminum signet ring), this short video shows some of their other fun. And by the way, after only doing this trick four times, the bucket of water was hotter than dishwater!

Pottery Wheels

July 27, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We recently read the book A Single Shard aloud recently. It is a fascinating story of a village of potters in 12th century Korea. As soon as we finished it, Mr. Inventor wanted to know how to make a pottery wheel. I let him go on YouTube to find some ideas, and then he went out to the junk pile and found this wheel. He found bearings and bolted them together and added them to the wheel. He’s still experimenting; when he saw these pictures, he said, “First attempt, worst attempt!” Apparently, he has something better now. The second and third pictures are closer to what he has now; they’ve hooked a washing machine motor to the wooden disk, but are using a smaller wooden disk. I told him I need more pictures!

Here’s a brief video of the wheel in action:

Baptism

October 9, 2012 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

Our second son (third child) was baptized this past Sunday! What a joyous occasion. We went to a creek several miles north of Kaikoura for it, where there was a pool nearly under the railway bridge.

We arrived before several of the other car-loads of people, so enjoyed the sunny day beside the creek. The boy who was to be baptized acted true to his nature, and played in the cold water while we waited.Meanwhile, our oldest boy discovered a “cave” up under the train bridge, and his daddy helped him climb up into it.

We teased him about living under a bridge now!Suddenly, we heard a whistle–a freight train was going through!

Finally, everyone arrived and one of the brothers shared the passage from the book of Acts about Paul’s baptism.

Then, Gayle had the privilege of baptizing his son.

Just as we finished praying, another train whistle sounded in the distance–the passenger train was coming through!

A constant backdrop to the service was the surf, easily visible on the other side of the highway bridge.

Candle

August 16, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One thing I love about homeschooling is the creativity the children get the opportunity to exercise. For his birthday last week, Simon wanted candle wicks–his current interest (at least, one of his current interests!) is making candles. The wicks came today, and he wanted to try out an oil lamp, like people used in Bible times. I gave a tiny bit of direction–and permission–and he did the work. He used a large mussel shell, filled it with cooking oil, and submerged a wick in it. It works! I wasn’t sure what would happen when he lit it, so made him try it outside on a metal pan, and had a tub of baking soda close. No problem–it burned perfectly and safely.

Update: Several minutes after I posted this, someone went outside and noticed the cats lapping up the oil! So, if you try this, don’t leave it where your cats can reach it.