BE A BUG! It's all coming together!

Today was a beautiful day in the shop! The perfect weather, light, and tinkering chemistry for bringing this bug to life!!!

At the beginning of our session, we listed our building priorities and decided on small-group next steps: Big Bug Bus thorax segment was going to get its first comfy bench, the head of our bug was going to get a pair of chomping jaws, and finally, this crazy bug was going to get its last segment - an abdomen!

Team abdomen got straight to work, cutting wood with the chop saw so that we could build build build!

We had a lot of same-length segments to cut, so we decided to use a chop saw stop. 

And then we adjusted our clamp to get a firmer grip!

Due to a shortage of castor wheels in the shop, we decided to use a pre-existing cart frame to carry our segment. As we assembled our wood, we realized that we had mis-measured the first time around and would need to shave off a little length next week...

See?!

And now...BUG JAWS!

Team bug jaws (mandibles?!) had some work with the drill press to finish. Last week, they drafted a design that included moveable pvc-pipe jaws  and cardboard "teeth." The pvc-pipe jaws fit into perfected-sized holes. The whole apparatus can move on hinges! Check out our process below:

Finally, some news from the bug bus:

Team BUG BUS assembled the first bench today, complete with felt-padded butt and back rests. The hugely thick felt was fun and floppy to cut on the bandsaw and required lots of hands on deck to support it safely!

We were pretty pleased by our progress at the end of the day :)