Cub Scouts and Woodworking

This year I was fortunate enough to lead my son’s Bear Den during the month that we built toolboxes using only hand tools.  This is a great beginner woodworking project for kids.  The boys were all about 8 years old.

This was definitely an interesting and rewarding experience.  All of the kids did a great job and had a lot of fun with this project.  It took us 2 den meetings for the boys to complete their toolboxes.  There were five scouts present and three adults, including myself, the first night we started working on the toolbox. The two other dads and myself kept very busy hopping from one scout to the next, helping or guiding them through each step.

A couple of days before the den meeting, I pre-cut all of the pieces of the toolbox to the final length.  Each end of the toolbox was to have two 45 degree angles cut on them.  I was leaving them for the kids to saw.  I also pre-drilled holes for all of the nails and screws we were going to use.

I wanted the boys to get a taste for as many different tools as was practical on this project.  They were going to use a hand saw, a brace & bit (hand drill), a hammer, and a philips screwdriver.  They would also have to glue the handle on.

The one thing I was really worried about ahead of time, was how long it would take for the boys to work through each step, especially the sawing the pieces by hand.  Most of the boys finished about 2/3 of the toolbox within the 45 minutes we had to work on them.  They were all able to finish them up the next week within a short amount of time.

Each toolbox can be made out of one piece of 1″ x 6″ x 6′ long piece of pine, and an 18″ long piece of 3/4 diameter dowel made of poplar.  I recommend using pine for the main part of the toolbox because it is a softer wood for the kids to work on.saw2

I had intended for the boys to use a miter box in order to cut the 45 degree angles on the ends, but most miter boxes will not accommodate a 5-1/2″ wide piece of wood.  Most of them are only about 4″ wide. Because of this, the kids had to learn to cut with a handsaw freehand.  This is fine because it is a good skill to learn as well.

At the den meeting, we started the project by having the kids cut the 45 degree angles on the ends.  I used a couple of quick grip clamps to hold the board down to a desk.  The wood needs to be clamped down well so it wouldn’t move around while the boys are sawing.  Either one of the other dads or myself would get the cut started and then the scout would take over and finish the cut.

Each boy had to make 4 cuts and they were tired of sawing when they were done.  At this point, I was glad that I had pre-cut the rest of the pieces to length.  Even though the kids hands and arms were tired at this point they all stuck with it and continued working without wanting to give up.

The next step was using the Brace and Bit (hand drill) to drill the holes in the ends of the toolbox for the handles.  The brace and bit is a fun tool to use at any age and the kids loved using it.  You want to make sure that you have a piece of scrap wood underneath the piece you are drilling into because you will drill through the end piece and into the scrap.  Also, make sure both pieces are securely clamped down.  The Brace and Bit is a very aggressive tool.  It does not take long, even for the kids, to drill through both pieces.

After drilling the holes, you can either nail the sides onto the ends, or screw the ends onto the bottom.  I would suggest screwing the ends onto the bottom first only because if your bottoms are not cut correctly they may not fit correctly after nailing the sides on.  I hadn’t thought about this before, and so I had the kids nail their sides on first.

An adult would stand the side pieces up on one side and then lay a side piece across them flushing up the ends and the sides.  The boys would then use a 6d finish nail and start them in the pre-drilled holes.  We would hold the pieces in place until they had 1 nail completely in each end.  Then we would let them finish pounding in the rest of the nails on their own.  I would suggest that the kids use smaller sized hammers for this project.  It can be a real struggle for kids to use a full sized hammer at this age.

After all of the nails were in they were able insert the bottoms.  They had to do this from the top of the toolbox as it was a tight fit.  Once they did this I had them set the toolbox on end and start inserting the screws.  This was one of the hardest parts for them.  I had pre-drilled the screws in the end pieces but not the bottom.  We putting a little soap on the screw to help the boys screw them in a little easier.  Not all the kids had the strength to get the screws completely in so I decided that in the future, I would pre-drill the bottom as well.

Once the bottoms were in place, I had the kids insert the handles into the holes.  It was a  tight fit, so we had to take some sand paper to the holes and dowels so the dowels would slide all the way in. On a couple of them we even used a file on so the holes would line up better.  We then added a little glue to hold the dowels in.

After the handles were on, I gave the boys a small block to wrap some sandpaper around so they could easily sand their toolboxes.

This finished up the toolbox.  The boys were very proud of their projects.  They had a real sense of accomplishment.  Throughout the project the kids really wanted to do it all themselves.  Their eagerness to build something was amazing.  Not only did they have a lot of fun, but they were introduced to many new skills which they will need in life.