Vilac Balloon Powered Wooden Boat

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I am a 33 year old wife, mother, beauty professional, blogger, amateur chef, craft maven and DIY’er, living in a small rural suburb outside of San Diego, California. We laminated the base of the boat from two layers of wood: a 3/4″ thick maple board and 1/2″ roasted maple board become the hull. After tracing out the cabin pattern on a piece of roasted maple, cut it out and sand its edges smooth. With a little thought and some observations, like the balloon deflating as the boat moves, they figured out it was air power!

Even if the only pool of water we have in our immediate surrounding is a puddle in the backyard, a wooden boat can turn it into an ocean with sharks, pirates and all the rest. Most of these require specific items to build them successfully, so you might have to work your way to attaining these items first. We used an inflatable pool, but a plastic baby pool, a bath tub, or even a long plastic bin would work.When we go on summer picnics, we seldom fail to make a barge out of freshly emptied sardine tins (don’t worry, it isn’t US leaving them behind!

While we had imagined how the boat would work in theory, it was a different matter to test it out and see for ourselves. This project isn’t about scaling down any propulsion system actually used in a boat, but rather a fun experiment with a particular mechanical system, in this case using compressed air. Budster, who doesn’t like balloons to pop or deflate, was a little concerned at first, but quickly grew excited to see the bubbles. If you’re interested in a comparison to a real boat though, the balloon-powered boat is functionally similar to a jet boat that pumps water to accelerate.Another fascinating thing about boats is that it is a longstanding mode of transportation, so over the course of history people have had time to invent quite a few uses for them and ways to power them.

Glue the pieces of wood together with the wood glue and let them dry while clamped tightly, then trace the hull pattern onto the wood and cut it out with a band saw.

About the Author Abby Smith is a super nerd and video game fanatic and grew up playing games on a variety of platforms. jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"

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