Friday, April 22, 2016

Making cheap 3-dimensional gears for decorations

2016 Submerged VBS how to make cardboard gears

This year's VBS decorations calls for a bunch of large gears! The 2016 Life Way Vacation Bible School is "Submerged" Worship Rally decoration theme is the interior of the helm of a sub. LifeWay Vacation-Bible-School/Submerged   Here's a way to make the gears without spending a couple hundred dollars on Styrofoam. Cardboard is cheap, people are practically giving it away. In the evening the big club store, Sam's Club, I drive by tidies up their shelves; when I asked if I could take all the large flat pieces, they said, “Sure, take all you want.”  

So get you hands on some big pieces of cardboard, string and pencil or large compass, a hot glue gun, lots of glue sticks, big scissors or tin snips and sharp utility knife, a sturdy straight edge, cheap flat white primer spray paint and paint the colors of your choice.

Start by trimming of any edges so you have a flat piece of cardboard to work with.
 
Draw several circles on the cardboard. Use a string or compass or project the gears from clip art or free hand them. I wanted my gears to look a bit wonky so I didn't worry about getting them perfect. The space between outer circle and an inner circle will be the height of the gear's teeth. Draw two more inner circles to help guide you in making the interior cutouts.


Draw evenly space lines across the circles to help guide the placement of the teeth and cut outs. It worked best, for me, to imagine the circles are the face of a clock. Draw a line from 12 to 6, then from 3 to 9, twist the cardboard so the top of the first line is at 10:30 and repeat the 12 to 6 and the 3 to 9 lines. 
Now, draw lines to make the teeth, and the center cut outs.














Cut it all out, be careful.    


Plug the hot glue gun in about now.

Take another piece of cardboard and draw a several parallel lines. Make sure they are all the same width. It'll work out better in you draw the lines perpendicular to the corrugation in the cardboard, because the strips will be easier to bend around corners. Carefully cut those strips..



















Glue the strips alone the edges; the inner cutouts first, then along the outer edge.



















Glue any desired embellishments to the front.


2016 Submerged VBS how to make cardboard gears
 















Put on a light coat of white primer.


It's now ready for paint.

All content and information I present on this blog is intended for entertainment only and is presented “as is”, without claims or warranties of any kind, express or implied. I am not an expert of any kind; I just figure out how to make and create projects and I am willing to share that information. USE THIS INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN RISK! USE OF THIS INFORMATION CONSTITUTES AN AGREEMENT BY THE READER TO ASSUME ALL RISKS! The reader’s interpretation and application of this information shall be the reader’s sole responsibility. The reader agrees to hold harmless the author and publisher and therefore in no event shall the author or publisher be liable to the reader or any third party for any damages, claims, expenses or other costs; including, without limitation, legal fees arising from or in connection with the use of this information. The reader further agrees that their sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue use of this information. I hold the copy right to the content if this blog and it may be used only with my permission. Your personal or contact information will not be shared with anyone, by me. I am not responsible for what the publisher or any of its partners do with your information. I reserve the right to change, close, sell or change the terms of use for this blog at any time. I am not responsible for any of the behavior or products presented by advertisers or sponsors in connection with this blog. If you wish to ask a question you may email me, however, I check my email about four times a year so a comment may work better. Please understand that any comments or emails sent become my property to use as desired.

No comments:

Post a Comment