TSO-F Day 3: Second Build Day

Tinkerers continued building their ride mechanisms Tuesday, moving themselves closer to the fair designs they had brainstormed the day before. Some teams even had time to begin decorations for their creations.

“I’m getting these [ink stamps] off because it’s going to be showing, and we want it to look nice,” junior Tinkerer, Sergio, said of his teams zip line cart as he used the orbital sander to remove the markings. His team also worked on the trolley mechanism.

Junior Tinkerer, Sergio, lays back on the cart seat he cushioned with a pool noodle.

The roller coaster-slide team had similar ideas.

“Can someone screw this in? I just feel like it needs to happen,” junior Tinkerer, Trevor, said as he positioned a steering wheel on the roller coaster-slide ride and began painting the seating blue.

The cart gliding mechanisms still needs some modifications, but the team created a crash test dummy to aid in their testing.

Junior Tinkerers, Jake and Trevor, let “D.D.” take a test run on a section of their roller coaster-slide ride.

Meanwhile the hanging merry-go-round team continued building their ride framing and scouted a hanging location best suited for their ride installation.

Senior Tinkerers began laying the final stretch of track with many hands to help. However, the cart equipped with wheels presented other mechanism challenges to mitigate less friction on the rail.

Senior Tinkerers, Samuel, Alex, and Oliver work with camp engineer, Loren, to troubleshoot their cart wheel blocks.

“I want to tinker with the design of the wheels,” senior Tinkerer, Oliver, said when he realized the wheel blocks needed adjustment to run more smoothly.

Finally, the ticket booth team added walls to their framing, a door for entry, and paint to decorate all sides of the booth.

Check out the photo slideshow of Tinkerers during their second build day.