Hamster Haiku

Endlessly circling

I run toward my destiny

Dawn's glow is my guide

Apple Galette for Pi Day

March 14th, as every math student knows, was Pi Day, so to celebrate I made an apple galette. These pies without a pie pan are easily made at home or in a dutch oven when camping. I would recommend that you have some experience cooking in a dutch oven before making this, though.

Any recipe for a basic pie crust is acceptable for this recipe. for my crust I used:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
8 tablespoons (1/4 lb.) butter, chilled and cut into cubes
4-5 tablespoons apple jack (apple cider if you are a minor), chilled

Combine the flour, salt and sugar in large mixing bowl. Add the chilled butter and with a pastry cutter or your fingertips cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the apple jack or cider (you can also use cold water) one tablespoon at a time and stir the mixture until it just comes together as a dry but sicky dough. You may not need the fifth tablespoon of liquid. Form the dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for an hour to let the dough fully hydrate and the butter firm up again before rolling.

While the dough is resting, it's time to make the filling. I used the following:

2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and each cut into 12 slices
2 pink lady apples, peeled, cored and each cut into 12 slices
1/2 cup chopped and toasted walnuts
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible
2 tablespoons butter

Melt the butter in a 12 inch nonstick frying pan over medium heat. When the butter stops foaming, add the apples and cook, stirring often until softened and slightly browned at the edges, about 10-12 minutes. Add the brown suger and nutmeg and stir until the liquid is syrupy and bubbling, about 5 minutes. Stir in the walnuts and remove from the heat.(Fig. 1) Set this aside to cool until the dough is ready.

Figure 1 - Apple and Walnut Filling

After the dough has chilled for an hour, roll it out on a lightly floured work surface until you have a 16 inch round. Either line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease it well and carefully transfer the pie crust to the baking sheet. Pour the apple mixture onto the center of the crust, making a mound that is about 8 inches across and 2 inches high. Gently fold the edges of the dough over the apples, forming pleats as you go around and leaving a four inch wide opening at the top. Beat one egg in a bowl and brush this egg wash over the dough to create a nice brown crust. Bake in a 375 dgreee oven for 45 minutes. Use the parchment paper to help transfer the galette to a cooling rack. (Fig. 2) After 30-45 minutes transfer to a large plate for service.(Fig. 3) This dish can be served slightly warm or at room temperature and it goes great with homemade vanilla ice cream. Enjoy.

Figure 2 - Galette Cooling on Wire Rack

Figure 3 - Ready to Eat !

Five Minute Fun Foam Frame

This is a a project that comes in handy when you need to make some sort of display or an inexpensive keepsake for an event. I have used these frames many times for Cub Scout banquets as place cards and for the cast board at my son's plays. They are fast to make, easy for kids to do (an adult probably needs to do the knife work), very inexpensive and parents always love to take home pictures of their kids from events.

For each frame you will need two pieces of 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" fun foam. At the hobby store I go to you can usually find these bundled together in a package of 40-50 already cut to size and in various colors for around $5.00. You also need a set of markers made specially for drawing on fun foam, usually sold right next to the fun foam at the store. Also required is a good razor blade type craft knife, hot glue gun, pencil and a ruler. (Fig. 1)

Figure 1 - Materials Required

These frames are designed to hold a 4x6 picture. Start by drawing a rectangle whose edges are 1 3/8" in from the long direction of the foam and 7/8" in from the short dimension. This will leave an opening slightly smaller than the photograph. Use your craft knife to remove this rectangle intact. You will need it later. (Fig. 2)

Figure 2 - Remove Rectangle for Picture.

Turn the piece of foam with the rectangle cut out over so that any pencil marks made during the previous step will be hidden. Now use the markers to create some sort of border pattern around the edge of the frame. For this one I did a sort of leaf and vine thing. You need to create a border such that there is a continuous line that runs around the outer edge touching the edge at several spots. Some examples of different frames are shown at the end of this post. Using the line you have drawn around the edge of the frame as a guide, use the craft knife to cut away everything beyond it. You will end up with a piece that looks like the one below. (Fig. 3)

Figure 3 - Design Drawn and Edges Removed

Hot glue the frame face to another piece of fun foam of a complimentary color. The picture can either be taped to back of the frame face before gluing it down or the frame can be flexed and the photo slid in afterward. ( Fig. 4)

Figure 4 - Frame Face Attached to Back

Now take the leftover rectangle cut from the frame face and cut it in half diagonally. Hot glue the two pieces together to make one right angle triangle. (Figs. 5,6)

Figure 5 - Cut Rectangle in Half

Figure 6 - Glue Halves Together

Measure over about 4 inches and up 1 inch from the lower left corner of the triangle as shown above and make a mark with the pencil. Draw a line through the lower left corner and that point and make a straight cut along it. (Fig. 7)

Figure 7 - First Cut of Frame Stand

Now mark a point about 2 1/2" from the lower corner and another about 2" from the top corner. Cut straight line through these points. (Fig. 8) This will give you the shape for the stand of the frame. Hot glue it to the middle of the back of the frame. The frame can be made to view either horizontally or vertically depending on your picture. (Fig. 9,10)

Figure 8 - Second Cut of Frame Stand

Figure 9  - Glue Stand in Place

Figure 10 - Finished Frame

Below are a couple of other designs I have done using this technique. The third picture is from a play my son Matthew was in last summer. After the last performance I attached the stands so that the parents could take them home.

Hamster Haiku

Give us all the seeds

Cheeks filling, never enough

You can keep the corn

Pinewood Derby - Building a Cool Car Stand

As a former Webelos Leader, I remember always looking for building projects that were cost effective, easy to complete at a patrol meeting and something that looked good and gave the boys something they could take pride in building.

 When my son was in Webelos, requirement 3 for the Craftsman Activity Pin was to build a display stand or box to display a model or award. I believe that requirement is still there today. There was a plan in the book for a simple stand for displaying a Pinewood Derby car, which consisted of three pieces of wood: a 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 1/2" square plywood base with a 5" long section of 2x2 wood to display the car on and a smaller 2" x 3" x 1/2" piece of plywood on which to place a nameplate. The design is OK, but very simple looking. With a very few modifications, the same 3 pieces of wood can be made into a much more dramatic design.

To start, I do not use any plywood in my design, only precut pieces of poplar, which can easily be found at the hardware store in the craft wood section. The wood usually comes in standard lengths of 2, 3 or 4 feet. I needed to make five stands, so I bought the following supplies, which was enough for my needs with some left over.(Fig. 1):

1/4" x 2" x 24" Poplar Board (enough wood for 7 stands)
1/2" x 4" x 24" Poplar Board (enough wood for 6 stands)
2" x 2" x 24" Poplar Board (enough wood for 5 stands)
Mod Podge Glue, Satin Finish (available at the Hobby Store)
Adhesive Backed Velcro Fasteners (available at Hobby or Hardware Stores)
9" x 12" Black Felt (available at Hobby Store)
8 1/2" x 11" Parchment Type Paper (available at Hobby Store)

Figure 1 - Required Materials

I made all of my wood cuts using a power miter saw, but it is also possible to do the cutting by hand using a miter box. It will take a lot longer, though. Since the ends of the pieces of wood are usually fairly rough and may not be exactly square, I first cut a small slice off the end of each piece. Then I cut a 3 1/2" long piece from the 1/2" x 4" x 24" board. Due to the way boards are dimensioned in this country, what is called a 4" wide piece of wood at the store is actually only 3 1/2" wide, so you end up with a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" square piece. Then I cut a 3" long piece from the 1/4" x 2" x 24" board (it's actually only 1 1 /2" wide). The last cut is the one that makes all the difference in this design. You must set your miter saw for a 15 degree miter cut in both the horizontal and vertical axis. This gives you a slanting cut across the wood that goes from one corner to the opposite diagonal corner. This is much easier to do on a power miter saw than by hand. Cut the double miter on one end of the 2" x 2" x 24" board (it's actually 1 1/2" x 1/12" across) and then measure 4" down from the tallest corner of the cut and make a straight cut through the wood.(Fig. 2)

Figure 2 - Wood Cuts

The miter cut makes all the difference in how this design works. With these three pieces it is now possble to create an infinite number of display stands which allow for the car to be displayed at a more dramatic angle.(Figs. 3-7) I made these with my patrol when they were Webelos II. I had twelve boys in my patrol and every stand came out different and every stand looked great.



Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

To finish the stand I first sanded the wood lightly to remove any splinters and saw marks and then pianted the base flat black and used a medium dark wood stain on the column and name plate. After staining, I finished with about three coats of spray on clear gloss varnish.(Fig. 8) Then I brushed an even coat of Mod Podge on the bottom of the base plate and glued a piece of felt to it. It is easier if you use a piece of felt that is slightly larger than the base and then cut off the excess with a sharp knife or scissors after the glue has dried than to attempt to pre cut the felt before glueing.(Fig. 9) I printed out the information for the name plate on the parchment paper and then used Mod Podge to first glue it down and then seal it to the name plate. Mod Podge is great stuff for glueing and sealing paper to wood. It can also be used to secure paper to things like neckerchief slides or picture frames.

Figure 8 - Wood Painted and Stained

Figure 9 - Adding Felt to the Base

Figure 9 - Mod Podge Paper to Name Plate (It Dries Clear)

After that, use some wood glue to create the stand design you wish and secure the car to the column using the adhesive backed velcro pads.(Fig. 10,11)

Figure 10 - Stand Glued together, Velcro Added

Figure 11 - Finished Car Stand

This project can easily be incorporated into one or two patrol meetings. It is also quite cost effective. The total cost for materials comes in around $3.00 per stand. It is a display that will look great for years to come.







Hamster Haiku

Twilight calls to us

Foolish humans sleep as we

tumble through our lives

Pinewood Derby - Building the Pinewood Punk - Part 4

Race day was yesterday, and as usual with me, I was working on the car up to the last minute. This was a good week for working on projects at home. An unusually severe cold snap has closed the schools for the week and brought much of the city to a halt.

As of the last post, I had finished painting the car and made and painted a lot of the car's accessories. Now it's time to put it all together as well as try to get the car up to the proper weight.

After weighing the car, wheels, axles and other additional pieces I was still about an ounce and a half light. I decided, therefore to add one ounce of weight to the driver. This would put a nice chunk of weight at a good spot on the car, low and just in front of the back wheels. I used the drill press and a 3/8" forstner bit to hollow him out and then sealed in a tungsten fishing weight with some super glue and wood putty.(Figs. 1,2) Tungsten weights work great on pinewood cars because they are very heavy for their size so you can fit a lot of weight into a small space. The drawback, however, is that they are a bit expensive, as much as three times more costly than the zinc weights available at hobby stores. But if you need to get a lot of weight into a small space on your car, the only answer is tungsten.

Figure 1 - Driver Hollowed Out for Tungsten Weight

Figure 2 - Weight Added (Then sealed in with Wood Putty)

At this time I also drilled a 3/8" hole in the underside of the car near the rear to hold another bit of weight at the end of construction. I also drilled pilot holes and countersinks for four #6 1/2" flat head screws.(fig. 3) These are the fine tuning weights for my car. Each one weighs about 0.05 ounces, so four of them make up about 0.2 ounces that can be easily removed on race day if my scale and the racetrack scale are not calibrated exactly the same. Always make sure to have easily removable weight so you don't have to do any drastic surgery to your car at the race.

Figure 3 - Fine Tuning Weights and Hole for Extra Weight

The next step was a rather delicate and time consuming one. This car is a tribute to my cousin, Norman Bryant (the Texas Giant), who used to belong to a Seattle based rock band called The Machine, so I wanted to put their name on the car. After printing out their logo, I put a strip of painter's tape on my cutting board and then scotch taped the logo on top of that. Then I very carefully cut out the logo with my craft knife and created a stencil in the painter's tape. Then I removed the tape from the cutting board and placed it on the car, along with the tiny little pieces of tape that are in the middle of the letters.(Fig. 4) After that I masked off the rest of the car with newspaper and very lightly painted the stencil with some flat white spray paint.(Fig. 5) I have found that on small projects like this, where the designs are small and the surface you are trying to paint is often irregular, using painter's tape to create a stencil is the only way to neatly paint an image. It's a bit of work and the stencil is a one time thing, but you get a very clean looking transfer. After the paint dried and I removed the tape, I spayed the hood with a few light coats of artist's fixative to better seal it to the car.

Figure 4- Painter's Tape Stencil

Figure 5 - Finished Transfer

Now it was time to start adding accessories to the car. First I painted the grill area of the car flat black and cut a few notches to accept 3 small e clips creating a sort of grill in the front.(Fig. 6) I trimmed off part of the clips to make them a half round shape. I also glued a slightly larger trimmed e clip behind the cockpit as the grill of an air intake and I superglued the headlight in place.



Figure 6 - Front Grill and Headlight

Then it was time to attach the wheel covers. I predrilled two holes in the flat parts of the wheel covers on the drill press to make sure the holes were perpendicular to the covers and then superglued in some decorative picture hanging nails I found that had heads that looked like little gears.(Fig. 7) Then at each tire position. I temporarily put on a wheel so that I could position the wheel cover next to it, making sure it did not touch, and then marking with a pencil the positions on the car body to drill holes to accept the nails. After everything was in the right place, I superglued the nails to the car body.(Fig. 8)

Figure 7 - Adding Nails to Wheel Covers

Figure 8 - Wheel Cover Glued to Car

The next step was to add the parts to the engine openings on each side and the accessories to each side of the car body. I went to the hardware store and picked up an assortment of small gear like washers, brass washers, e clips, and picture hanging nails.(Fig. 9) I used these to free form a set of engine works on each side of the car. I also added other components, such as an exhaust pipe, barrel, various gauges and a gear box.(fig. 10,11) I just arranged them in a way I thought looked best. 

Figure 9 - Small Engine Pieces

Figure 10 - Right Side of Car

Figure 11 - Left Side of Car

Next, the spare tire was glued in and a picture hanging nail was used as a decorative tie down.(Fig. 12)



Figure 12 - Spare Tire

The next project was to complete the driver. Previously, I had painted on his suit, vest, tie and pocket watch.(Fig. 13) Next I made a small aviators jacket out of a scrap of faux leather.(Fig. 14) Finally, a blue scarf, aviator's leather helmet and a set of goggles made out of fun foam are added and the driver is complete.(Fig. 15) The driver was added to the car along with a steering wheel, another gauge on the dashboard and the back part of the air intake behind the driver.(Fig. 16)



Figure 13 - Driver's Suit Painted On

Figure 14 - Jacket and Scarf Added

Figure 15 - Aviator Helmut and Goggles

Figure 16 - Driver and Cockpit Complete

The final step was to add the wheels. I used the wheel gap attachment on my plastic alignment tool I bought from the BSA to make sure the gap between the car and the wheels was the same for all four tires. If you do not have an alignment tool, a credit card works just fine. After weighing the car I was still 0.3 ounces short of the 5 ounces allowed by the rules, so I added that amount of weight to the hole I had predrilled earlier.(Fig. 17) This time I used one of the round barlike weights you can find at the hobby stores that is easily cut into smaller pieces with a hacksaw. The car is complete !!! (Fig, 18)

Figure 17 - Wheels On and Final Weight Added

Figure 18 - The Car is Done !!!

This car was a lot of fun to make, and although it may be a more complex design than many people would build, the basic techniques I've tried to illustrate can be used on any car. Please leave me a message if you have any observations of your car building experiences that may help or questions about car building in general. I must admit that while this car looks good, it is not the best design for a super fast racer. Although I did win two out of four heats at the races, ultimately my overall time was only good enough for a twelfth place finish out of eighteen. Next time I'll build a car for speed as well. Good luck to everyone at the races ! 

Check back soon for a design on how to build a very simple yet elegant car display stand.