TSO-A-Day 5: Fine Tuning

Well rested after a day at the beach, Tinkerers continued modifying and testing their mini golf course creations. Some added new elements to existing obstacles while others worked to fine tune their current structures.

For the Rube Goldberg team, Tinkerer, Kiana, and collaborator, Sage, added supports to Golf Course Bridge while Angelo and Miriam continued fine tuning the pulley system.

“Yeah, it’s going to be great,” Kiana says. “It’s going to be like the Golden Gate Bridge.”

“The bridge was always a part of the plan. Then we saw the Golden Gate Bridge on a can,” Sage adds. Now they just need some red paint.

Sage and Kiana work on adding suspension-like supports to Golf Course Bridge.

The Tinkerers revise their plans along the way.

Mt. Cheese became Mt. Certain Doom, likely due to its difficulty. However, that didn’t stop others from giving the obstacle a try.

Sebastion tests Mt. Certain Doom (formerly Mt. Cheese.)

The water wheel team added a platform to their golf course obstacle.

“It isn’t that stable. Would you stand on that?” asks collaborator, Frannie.

A center post or another piece of plywood on the bottom of the legs were suggested. In the end, the team added wood braces to the wobbly legs to safely secure their platform. Upon confirmation that the platform could hold Frannie safely, one Tinkerer asked if she can go on the swing, which Frannie agreed was okay.

“Yay,” the the whole team cheered, and they all decided it was a good time to take a swing break.

Frannie tries the platform first to ensure that it can operate safely while the water wheel team observes the result.

Meanwhile, the windmill team decided to re-cut their windmill crank out of metal conduit to better support the weight of the hub and blades. Evelyn, who built the previous PVC crank, undertook making the replacement crank with the help of collaborator, Jack.

“Do you want help this time or do you want to try it on your own,” Jack asked after helping Evelyn make the first cut with an angle grinder.

“I want to try it on my own,” she said, emulating the spirit of a Tinkerer’s mindset.

Evelyn uses the angle grinder under the supervision of Jack, a collaborator.

“Hey, Ev! You really make sparks fly,” Kyler says.

With the day winding down, junior and senior Tinkerers knocked off a little early to enjoy a tour of the UC Elkus Ranch farm. With all the Tinkerers’ hard work, it was good to pet a few rams, ewes, goat kids, a llama and some chickens.

Lev and Sebastian pet a goat at UC Elkus Ranch.