Safety From the Ground Up

Today the Thursday crew moved on to constructing a new component for our group project. With the framing for both the ladder and slide completed we began our afternoon discussing how we would attach the two together. It was evident that we needed somewhere to sit before sliding down so we went to work on building a platform sturdy enough to be raised five feet above the ground.

Taking a seat to recap our progress, set some goals and design the platform.

Josie, Miel and Cecile take the lead on sheathing the platform. 

The group's keen sense for safety applied last week when choosing the thickness of the wood we would use to sheath the raised platform reappeared this afternoon when we designed a fence to line the platform. More framing, cutting and attaching called upon this group of tinker's greatest asset, teamwork! 

With one of the platform fences mounted we took a break to test it's stability to discover it wasn't very stable at all. When adding more screws didn't correct the fences wobble we decided we needed to extend the vertical supports to the bottom of the platforms frame. Thankfully we had built a frame for the fence so it wasn't much of a setback. Prepared with a solid understating of what to do next the group organically gave rise to three new teams: disassembly, cutting the new vertical's and reassembly.  

Ryder takes measurements for the new length of vertical supports for the platforms fence.  

Even with the redesign we finished the day with one side of the new fence mounted to platform before it was time to clean up!