One of Jonathan's Cub Scouts requirements was called "Baloo the Builder" where he was required to build and paint or stain a wooden project of his choice. I asked Jonathan what he wanted to build and he said a toy gun. We only had a week to complete it so we got started right away.
I searched Google for toy wooden guns and Jonathan found a nice rubber band gun he liked. With an idea in mind, we got to work. I told Jonathan he was going to do most of the work and I was there to supervise and ensure he was being safe. The first step was to use a square and mark the L shape of the gun on the wood. With it marked, Jonathan went to work making his first cut.
He made the first cut all by himself and had to take several breaks since his arms were sore. We started on the second cut before deciding to move on to power tools to speed things up.
We grabbed the miter saw and prepared to make our next cut. Before we got started, we made sure eye and ear protection were in place and covered a few safety rules. Once ready, I held the wood while Jonathan carefully operated the saw.
Cutting was done, time to sand it.
Jonathan wanted to stain the handle a brown color and the barrel a silver color. We taped it off to help keep it clean and separate
The design called for a clothes pin to be used as part of the trigger mechanism. We pre-drilled holes through the clothes pin to ensure the nail didn't split it as we hammered it in (lesson learned after the first one). J did an excellent job hammering the nail without damaging anything around it.
Time to stain the barrel nice gray color.
Here's the final product after J added several personal touches. Fortnite is a popular video game so he wanted to have the name on the side. You can see the rubber band and trigger and how it works.
J hammered a few nails in for the sights and added a serial number.
Well done, little buddy!!!
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