Jack's Blog - Hands On Books

NEW! BUILDER BOARDS, 3rd Edition

Contains a new chapter on taking the “World’s Largest Set” out to community events.

Children’s Museums with Builder Boards

If you would like to see a set of Builder Boards before you build the following children’s museums have sets.

My First Woodworking Class with Young Children

It was the most meaningful, fun, and interesting woodworking I’d ever done.

Summer Woodworking with Kids Class

This post has pictures of the shop and description of how I organized a class of 10 kids. In the morning it was 6-8 year olds and in the afternoon it was 8-12 year olds.

Five Projects to Help Kids Learn the Craft of Nailing

Looking back at the first year I taught woodworking two mistakes were making projects too difficult and assuming kids could use tools. Wrong. Most kids had never picked up a tool, and the ones who had really didn’t know how to use them. Nailing is a perfect example.

BUILDER BOARDS Hit the Road

The last 3 summers my mega set of Builder Boards went to farmers markets, fundraisers for preschools and a Children’s museum, a Royal Family Kids Camp, a Children’s Art Festival, a neighborhood party, the Boys and Girls club, Camp Side-by-Side,

Recycled Kitchen Cabinets.

We call it the "One Piece at a Time" remodel after the old Johnny Cash song. My wife wanted new kitchen cabinets, I don’t know why. Possibly because we had the same cabinets for 40 years and they had been used for years before we bought the house. Over the years she...

Woodshop Safety

…… experience taught me that even very young children can be trusted to use real tools. Fifteen years of woodworking with kids has confirmed this initial experience.

It’s not much, but it’s a NUF!

When my cousin Carl's daughter was little he designed a 30 pound boat built from one sheet of 10 foot plywood and two 10 foot fir 1 X 4s. It was a clever design meant to get kids out on the water under their own power. I built two of these boats, one for each son. If...

A Two Year Old Plays with Builder Boards

When my grandson Lucas, was two years old he wanted to go out to my shop. It seemed to me like there wasn't much for him to do out there but I took him anyway. The last time I'd been in the shop I had been working on a set of Builder Boards so there was a stack of...

More Hand carved Skateboards

More skateboards carved by my brother. Here is a mockingbird. They are cruisers not boards for tricks. The wings fold in for riding. This is back side of a guitar skateboard. The Wheels in the center unclamp and the guitar plays. Doug says it's a bit...

Kids at Work, three short videos

Kids at work

Woodworking: Lowly Key Fob Unlocks Big Rewards

As you can see the simple key fob is not so simple from a 4 or 5 year old perspective.

Builder Boards as an Eagle Scout Project

Boards ready for notching. The pattern for 10 notch, 6 notch, and 4 notch boards are on top of the proper length boards.

Some Other Things I Built

I had never built a log building before, let alone with eighth graders, but my supervisor said, no problem. He had a design and we worked out details each morning before the kids got there. No one was more surprised than I it worked so well.

Chemistry 236, A College Turning Point

The Prof would go over each problem as many times as necessary, without making you feel like an idiot.

Builder Boards, a short history

…. children taught me Builder Boards could be more than a playhouse. The idea of building a playhouse gave way to the idea of building from a child’s imagination.

Kids: Take It Apart

This is an electricity board made from parts taken from a VCR and a tape deck. It is powered by and electric train transformer. It got a lot of kids interested in electricity.

Builder Board Update: New Roof System

The new way to hold the roof boards on requires no hook and loop fastener….and keeps the kids from knocking them off from the inside of the house.

Juan and the Check Engine Light

I say, “so the check engine light on the last car I has was always on, and nothing was wrong. With this car the check engine light is off, and something is actually wrong.” Juan nods his head and says, “yup”.

The Electricity Board

Electricity is a slippery subject. Its hard to wrap your mind around something you can’t see.

A Dollhouse from a Recycled Drawer

My wife got the idea to build a doll house for our grandkids and got a big drawer from the restore.

Builder Boards……24 Years Later

Recently a teacher friend completed a set with her class of sixth graders and told me an amusing story about teaching practical math. She divided the class into groups, gave each group a board and the plans, and told them to draw the position of the notches on the board. Of course, each group had the notches in a different position so….. they had to figure out which plan was right.

Hand Carved Skateboards

My brother carves skateboards in the shape of birds or marine creatures.

Free Plans: The Rope Machine

“Dad made a rope machine for me when I was a kid. He used coat hangers for the hooks.”. The following instructions detail how to build this rope machine patterned after the 1950s model built by my father for his son, in the spirit of the times, from materials around the house.

BUILDER BOARDS, a playhouse kids build themselves

This is a video of the neighborhood kids using Builder Boards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKvfMxHUtS0 Builder Boards, a short history

Builder Boards Update 2: Cutting the Notches

Eventually, someone suggested a shaper and that worked best of all.

Pictures of the “World’s Largest Set” of Builder Boards at the Park.

Builder Boards goes to the park: More pictures: A good time was had by all.

Builder Boards, a Cedar Set

Ford Pranther set me these two wonderful Bulder Board videos of a cedar set he built. The first set I built was using cedar boards, too. It's cheaper and you don't have to worry about finishing, which is a big job. He shows another way to cut the notches: with a...

Free plans: The Mirror Steeror

Children can steer themselves from short and fat to tall and skinny.

Solar Energy with Kids

Solar cooked hot dogs really do taste better

Woodshop for Kids: Table of Contents

Below is the Table of contents from Woodshop for Kids

Lucas Discovers Builder Boards

I was surprised a two year old would stick with it for so long

Sailing Through High School, a nauticaul alternative

“What do we want, a kid who is actively engaged in learning something new everyday or a bored, disaffected teenager, who is reluctantly putting in his time at school?”

A Rube Goldberg Machine from a Treadle sewing Machine

when it quit working I’d say, “can you figure out what’s wrong?”

Recycled Builder Boards

Here is a small house made from recycled plywood

Four Speeds in Reverse

To save money, and as an antidote to book work, my college buddy Joe and I used to work on our VW’s together. VW Repair for the Complete Idiot was our bible and if it failed us Joe, who didn’t like big business capitalists, would consult VW of America and do the opposite of what they recommended.