Backstory:

My 7 year-old son had been on my case for a while about building him a “contraption” (his words). With the vagueness only a youngster can muster as my guiding force I lay about scratching my head for the better part of the winter. Then one evening I was taking apart our vacuum cleaner to keep it limping along for the umpteenth time when I chanced upon a startling discovery. Namely, that by smashing the vacuum to bits against the floor I could rid myself of that hunk of crap, feel better, and have raw contraption materials. A plan was born…
Materials:

All of the materials I list have a certain amount of latitude in exact choices. For example, if you use a vacuum like mine as inspiration, namely a Fantom POS2k, stop reading now, drive directly to the nearest thrift store and try again. What a pile of turd that thing was.

Anyhow, the list:

  • vacuum/blower
  • plywood or other sheet goods, about 3ft2 and 3/8″ thick
  • plastic sheeting
  • scrap wood
  • staple gun
  • various fasteners and hand tools
  • ~8″ diameter disc of thick but flexible plastic

The Build:
The boy on finished 'craft, about 3-4ft off of the ground

 It was a fairly straightforward project. At left is the aforementioned, anti-climactic (to the boy, I thought it was awesome), finished product. We’ll then go step-by-step with the construction.

Continue reading DIY Hovercraft – Part 1