2. Paint Stick Stir Drum:
Level of Difficulty: anyone old enough to safely use a hand saw can
make this in approximately 30-45 minutes.
Materials: square piece of 2X4, large
rubber bands, 8 wooden paint stirrer sticks, wood glue, hand saw.
How to make it:
1. Cut the four corners off of the square piece of
2 X 4 so that you have an 8 sided piece of wood.
2. Take each of the 8 paint stirrers and leaving
one whole, cut each of the others one inch shorter than the previous
one. In other words if the paint stick is ten inches long, the next one
will be 9 inches the next one will be 8 inches etc..
3. Wrap a good sized rubber band ( I use a
rubber band from the broccoli I get at the store they also make good
tips for drum sticks) around 8 sided piece of 2X 4 and insert each stick
in order. I did my best to use the rounded bottom end up instead of the
cut end which had a pit of splinter potential. You can always sand the
ends.
4. Once you have your sticks arranged in a
descending order of length around the piece of 2X4, held in place by one
or more rubber bands it is time to get gluing!
5. To glue, simply push the end of the paint stick
so that it pushes out the rubber band, put a good sized dab of glue
underneath and gently release it back into it's place. Then do the next
and so on until each paint stirrer is glued to the 2X4. Add a few more
rubber bands if necessary and leave to dry.
To Play: Take an unsharpened pencil and
lightly stir while holding the Stir drum flat in one palm. Experiment
with using the eraser end of the pencil or the unsharpened wooden end.
Remember to hold the pencil somewhat loosely. too tight and it won't
ring correctly.
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