Our station was the Erector Set. The purpose of this station was to learn the basics of building objects like automobiles and other things made out of metal, using nuts and bolts, and different tools. We were able to pick a kit and then choose something from that kit to build. The object we chose to build was a totally wicked car. It kind of reminds us of the Batmobile!

At our station, we had to screw a lot screws, and twist them into nuts. This holds the pieces of metal together. We had to do this many times to finish the project. Sometimes we would use the wrench, and some times we would use the small Allen wrench

One thing we thought was cool was that many of the metal pieces were flexible, so they could bend to your liking. We mostly did what the instruction booklet said, but sometimes we had to modify it to really make it work. The bending of the metal really helped make it look like the real thing.

In order to make the wheels turn, we, of course, had to use some kind of power, and gears. There was a little battery powered thingymajig that had a little metal pole that came out of it, and attached to gears. The gears were then positioned to make the wheels turn.

Before getting to the part in the instructions with the motor, I didn’t think that it was really going to move. I thought it would just be one that you rolled. Well, when I found out I was pretty excited. Then when we finished, we realized that the front wheels were stuck and couldn’t move. So, with our genius, we fixed it do it worked.

Many of the screws came loose while we were building. Some would fall completely off and others just made the car really loose. The front wheels couldn’t move because the screws were pushing down and stopping the wheel. Most of the screws we just had to keep screwing back on tighter, but some of them we couldn’t get because they we were too far ahead. We fixed this by raising the outer strips of metal up so the screws did not touch the wheel.

We didn’t like that we only had time to do one project. The screwing and putting together of the parts took so long that we only had time to barely finish one project. We also didn’t like that the screws kept coming loose. We liked that we were able to pick our own kit, and the specific project that we liked from the kit. We also liked that we had a good time and our project came out looking mighty fine.

If you want to do this project, make sure it is really something that you like to do because it is harder and more time consuming then you think. Its much more complicated than just connects and legos. It is almost like building an actual object.

If you want to go into building and mechanics, this is the station for you. You can learn the basics of building with metal equipment using screws and tools to put things together. This station allows you to build things that actually move with and engine.