I made a "Shoo Fly Don't Bother Me" whirligig for our local woodworking club's whirligig contest that was held at our Spring picnic. It was a beautiful day and the whirligig did a great job at keeping the flies away from my plate. Watch this video of the build and see it in action!
The propeller is made from fly swatters from the dollar store with the handles cut off. I made a red square hub out of wood and hot glued in the fly swatters.
I used leftover wire from a fly swatter handle, an eye bolt, and a piece of straight 1/8" steel rod to make the action mechanism. I cut these with large wire cutters and bent them into shape with pliers. This takes a little fiddling to get it to work smoothly.
I cut out the wooden parts, then drilled all of the holes prior to painting and assembly. I think outdoor whirligig projects look best with a mix of bright colors. I was really happy with the table cloth pattern I got by masking off stripes and spraying light coats. I attached a small wooden name badge on the whirligig.
Plus, the swinging hand keeps the flies away! If you've never tried to make a whirligig before, you should definitely try it. They are fun to make with a big payoff when the wind starts blowing. These are great projects for getting kids of all ages involved in woodworking. Have fun!
Shortly after I finished my Whac-A-Woodworker whirligig for this year's Whirligig Wars contest, my daughter asked if she could make one too. So we walked away from the computer, TV, video games, and phone for a while and made this Angel of Hope whirligig.
I explained to her how every contest entry would benefit Make-A-Wish, and that there were children who needed help making their wishes come true a little sooner than the rest of us. One of the prizes was for a whirligig that represented hope and inspiration, so we did some brainstorming and she came up with the idea to make a whirligig version of mom's Angel of Hope figurine.
So we drew up some outlines and cut it out, then we painted and assembled the whirligig together. During the project, she used the drill, drill press, scroll saw, sander, wire cutters, spray adhesive, and spray paint. She also learned how to record a video and edit it together, so we could submit it for the contest.
This is what I love about woodworking. I got to spend some quality time with my daughter. She got to learn some new skills. We got to help make a child's wish come true. And we created a whirligig that might inspire others to make one. That's what I call a Win Win Win Win! Thanks to Laney Shaughnessy, Steve Ramsey, and all of the sponsors who made this contest possible!
This is my entry for the 2014 Whirligig Wars contest hosted by Laney Shaughnessy and Steve Ramsey. Every entry in this year's contest helps to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Please consider submitting a whirligig for the contest so you can help too! This contest is not about winning a prize - It's about making a difference and helping to make kids' wishes come true. Let's do what we can to help.
Thanks to Steve and Laney for hosting the contest and supporting Make-A-Wish. Also thanks to the sponsors who have donated prizes to encourage everyone to participate in this awesome event. I wish everyone who enters good luck and remember that the kids already win when you enter a whirligig into the contest!
Here is the picture of the finished project. My favorite part of this project is the cool colors. I really recommend the new Rustoleum 2X paints. They spray on really nicely with great coverage. The green is called Key Lime.
The five propellers blow independently in the wind making the game play random. They are small at 8" wide in order to keep the whirligig small, but they do well at pushing up the players with a nice wind.
I attached the blue prop supports underneath with pocket holes so that there would be no screws showing on the top side. I used 3/16" steel rod for the propeller axles and coat hanger wire as a connector. The woodworkers remind me of pistons in an engine. I glued together three 3/4" pine boards and cut the circles out, then drilled holes to make them lighter. The black pipes are PVC couplings painted black.
To make the logo on the sides, I painted the board green and cut a paper stencil and sprayed the yellow starburst. Then I cut two more paper stencils to paint the red and blue lettering. I let the paint dry for about 30 minutes and when it was still a little tacky, I was able to stick my next stencil to it without ruining the paint...it would hold the stencil down for the next color. I painted the other side red for more color and painted the edges black like the Whac-A-Mole game.
I made the mallet using a dowel and a small section of a pool noodle. (Shh, don't tell my daughter her pool noodle is a few inches shorter now.) Selecting the five woodworkers was easy. I have learned so much from Laney, Steve, Matt, Marc, and Norm about woodworking and making videos. I grew up watching Norm, and the others were the first woodworkers I found when I started looking for woodworking inspiration a few years ago.
This was a very fun project for me. When I inherited my father's tools, it became my mission to find ways to help out others using his tools. If I can make something like this and enter a contest to help make a wish come true for a child, then I'm happy to do it. Please visit Make-A-Wish to find out how you can help too!
Last year's grand prize win was an awesome experience for me. I had been out of woodworking for a few years and decided to get back into it after inheriting my father's bigger and better tools. That's when I ran across the whirligig contest and thought that would be a great project to get me back into woodworking for fun. Around that same time, I joined my local Gwinnett Woodworker's Association and one of the first meetings was a seminar on whirligigs from craftsman Wayne Martin, just in time for the Whirligig Wars contest.
So, I built the KISS Whirligig within 3 days of the contest deadline and ended up winning the grand prize, a Laguna Tools Driftmaster Fence System. Below is my winning Kiss Whirligig contest entry video. Winning this contest was the inspiration for me to begin making woodworking videos for my own YouTube channel, The Carmichael Workshop. Thanks to Laney and Steve for hosting the contest, which turned out to be an unexpected life changing event for me last summer. Now, I have to come up with something to top KISS this year! Click here for more information on the Whirligig Wars 2013!
