Thread: Kids Projects

G'Day Ben, Toy making is good for kids, just simple things from 4x2 pine and smaller so all you'd need is a couple of cheap Bunnings handsaws for the kids then maybe a circular saw you you to do the prep. I hope that's some help. Cheers, crowie

Have a look at this site. Might be something there you can handle with the gear you have.

Perhaps make a game like Nine Men's Morris. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Men%27s_Morris A drill press and a saw are very usefull. A bit of paint might be all the rest you need.
Sure you can use your milling machine and lathe as well, but see if you can get your kids to participate in the process.
Have fun.

Thanks for the replies. I had a look at some of the sites. Good achievable ideas but you had to pay for the plans. Gave me some ideas though.

Cheers Ben.

Most of the plans on the site I linked to were free.

First woodworking thing I ever made, I was about 7 , I was on my hands and knees on the floor of Dads workshop and I had the school project of nailing Tacks into a traced outline of the map of Australia . I think the teacher showed me the idea of nailing tacks in and I thought of the map of Australia.
Not just tacks around the boundary but totally full of tacks with the heads up against each other side by side about 6 x 5 inch. Taken off one of the little plastic templates we had at school back then. I still have it almost 50 years later . It was a safe simple thing that got finished in about an hour and I remember that was about the extreme length I could concentrate at that point in time for a job like that. I got a lot of praise for that from every one that saw it . That meant a lot . which is so important of course.

When I had Kids I did the same . I Just let them bang nails or tacks in, and they came back a lot of times asking me for "more Dad" and with friends . They loved it ! I never sat them down to complete a similar shaped something like I did and wish I did now. They were just having a great time hitting them in .
A simple bird shape or something that gets finished will last forever and I think they will never forget it .

Rob