Ideas for welding projects for school kids?

[Bluesman]

Anyone have any ideas for a project for students to build? We have built a shooting house, a few trailors, made a few tools, yard art etc. but if there are any ideas we would be glad to try something new.

---------- Post added at 02:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 PM ----------

I have some students that are much further advanced than their classmates are so difficulty of fabrication wouldn't be that much of an issue cause the more advanced students would be doing the difficult welds and the easier welds would be delegated to the students that are still a little green.

[tking]

Don't know if this would be of interest to your situation, but I'd like to build one.

Tube_Bender

Give us your thoughts.

Toad

[KHK]

Looks like a fun project. I like the roll around feature.

[Sasquach]

more of suggestion than ideas.

get the word out to local farmers that you are wanting projects for students. build them custom implements for the cost of materials, win for the farmer and a win for the school.

if aluminum is part of the curriculum, custom aluminum boats have great value and recouping material expense will be easy. i've seen many trade school boats, large and small. maybe try a pirogue first, in aluminum they sell fast.

there are many individuals and companies that will support the school. just get the word out and you will have a waiting list for projects.

perhaps let the students be involved from design, material procurement to the final sale.

thank you for teaching
good luck

[Bluesman]

I wouldn't mind building one but we already have a floor mounted bender that will bend square or round tubing. We also have an attachment on it that will put "twists" in flat bar (not sure what the real name for that is but it is used for things like decorative gates and things)...

We used the bender to bend 3/8" keystock to make the tie down anchor points for the trailor we built as a class project.

---------- Post added at 02:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------

more of suggestion than ideas.

get the word out to local farmers that you are wanting projects for students. build them custom implements for the cost of materials, win for the farmer and a win for the school.

if aluminum is part of the curriculum, custom aluminum boats have great value and recouping material expense will be easy. i've seen many trade school boats, large and small. maybe try a pirogue first, in aluminum they sell fast.

there are many individuals and companies that will support the school. just get the word out and you will have a waiting list for projects.

perhaps let the students be involved from design, material procurement to the final sale.

thank you for teaching
good luck

We've done some repairs for local folks this year. I wish I had the equipment to put the bends/and rolls in the aluminum that we would need to build the boats... I would love to build myself a boat and I'm sure the kids would want to build them one too. Might give us an opportunity to try that tig out.


Where would you find the plans for the boats you are talking about?

[Sasquach]

plans mostly will be for wood construction but can easily be modified for aluminum construction.

this would be a good start, small with no complicated bends or forming
free plans for a canoe

free boat plans
Free boat plans from Bateau
Free boat plans, online boat plan sources, and free CAD boat drawing file downloads : the Boat Design and Boatbuilding Directory
FREE BOAT PLANS, Boat Plans at Svenson's

i'm going to save myself some time here. google with these key words and you will be overwhelmed with plans and ideas.
boat plans free
boat plans aluminum
boat plans stitch and glue
boat plans for sale
boat plans plywood

good luck

[bhardy501]

http://www.metalcrafttools.com/englishwheel.html These English wheel plans are really cool. i built this and added a planishing hammer. If you have access to any machining equipment then you can do the wheels for it to.

[bhardy501]

[Kiwimike]

I like that design. It may become one of my many projects, not that I need anymore and I hope my wife doesn't find out.

[bhardy501]

It was a lot of fun to build. The upper wheel is 10"x3" 4140 steel (I think, been a long time since I built it) as are the lower wheels. You need someone with a CNC to cut the appropriate radiuses on the lower wheels. I havent learned to do much on it but I did learn that it will pinch the %$^& out of you. You can roll your finger right up in it if not careful.