Golf Ball Kerchief Slide July 7, 2009
Posted by thetrainerscorner in Uncategorized.Tags: Boy Scouts, Craft Helps, Cub Scouts, Kerchief Slides, Meeting Helps, Scout Leaders, Training, Webelos
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Hello fellow Scouters,
With July’s Cub Scout theme being “Be A Sport”, I thought I’d share a
golf ball slide we made once. This was simply half a golf ball glued to a section of PVC, but the boys really loved it. And since boys like to see inside things, the boys enjoyed making these.
When I made it, my boys were older, so I let them cut the golf balls in half. But no matter the age of your boys, be warned – it is not easy to cut a golf ball in half. If you doubt your boy’s skill level in any way, it probably would be better to pre-cut these before the meeting. When we did it in our den, us parents “risked our fingers” and held the balls while the boys cut (we wore gloves to offer some protection).
I always found that a dove-tail saw made a great saw for crafts, so we used these for this project. As a reminder, Cub Scouts are not allowed to use power tools, so any kind of power saw would be against BSA policy for this project (and would also be very dangerous to use on something so small). Also, don’t be tempted to use a hack saw for this type of project. Hack saws almost never cut a straight path in any material.
Since the golf ball is pretty heavy for a kerchief slide, I had the boys hang the PVC section fairly high on the ball, so most of the weight was supported at the top. And these required a little more glue from the glue gun to keep the ball attached.
As a side note, I always used 1/2″ PVC sprinkler risers when I made kerchief slides. They are a little thicker and didn’t slip on the kerchief as much as a section of white PVC pipe would. And if you don’t own one already, one of the best tools you can buy is a PVC pipe cutter. It’s a quick way to slice the PVC for your kerchief slides.
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Kerchief slides are a wonderful way to have a fun craft in a meeting. And they are a great way to bring in the monthly theme to your meeting. Since just about anything small can be attached to a section of PVC, the options for kerchief slides are nearly endless. And as I’ve blogged about previously, having a bunch of kerchief slides are a great way to deal with uniform burnout. Here is the link to that post:
Another Use For Kerchief Slides
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In Scouting,
- Scouter Jeff <><
If you have a ratchet style PVC cutter, which can be bought at any home improvement store or tool warehouse for under ten bucks, you can let the boys use it to cut a golf ball in half. They may still need help because they don’t have enough grip strength to cut the ball. The cutter works great for turning PVC pipe into little rings.
Interesting – I never thought to use a PVC cutter (which is an invaluable Scout leader tool). You would probably need a starter cut on the golf ball to keep the PVC cutter from slipping.
Thanks for sharing.
– Scouter Jeff