The Ciudad de los Angeles is an orphanage where we gave our handmade toys to the childern who lives there. We started this project by playing games and putting ourselves in the shoes of kids again, this helped us remember how we were as kids and what we would want. Next we made a prototype with a partner but the trick was that we were given only 2 hours to make a prototype. I teamed up with Alex who helped me make a small goal post made out of toilet roll, dowels and strings. We then got it critique by other classmates, afterwards we reflected upon it.
After that we choose the child that we are going to make them a gift for, I got Victor who is 10 years old. I thought of all the possible things to make him but I decided to stick to my original idea which was a Foosball table. I then decide to look for designs that I can copy, I found a few ideas that I liked and saw what I can do to make it like that one.
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After that we started writing letters to our child, we started with a simple draft and then we translated to Spanish and fix our mistakes in order to make a card and envelope for them. After all the hard info work we finally started to make our product, I started by finding a 11x8 in piece and got a big piece of wood that I can cut the to wide side and mark them down. Next I used a mechanical saw to cut the sides out, at first I didn't know how it worked but I got the hang of it. Before I glued those pieces to the sides I drilled holes on both of them at the same time so the handles would fit and be align, then I glued both of them to the side.
I really had a hard time on the goalie post because there wasn't any equipment that can make a hole without starting at the beginning of the wood, so I drilled 3 holes side by side and used a screwdriver to make a clear passage way for the saw. I then glued it to their sides as well I was almost done I just need to make the paddles and glue them to the handles. I also had a difficult time with the handles because I decide to make them trapezoids, this meant the saw wouldn't really work since it shook a lot. In order to defeat this challenge I decided to use a hand saw because it works a lot better and I can use scraps from the other cuts I did instead of using new cut pieces. After all that hard work I got 10 pieces so I then glued them to the handle using hot glue, I regret doing this because it gave me a harder time painting the flippers. Next I obviously painted the flippers, I painted them red and blue since there common competitive colors. I though I was finally finished but I forgot that the handles had pointed ends because they were originally used to see if a cakes baked or not, I used a clipper to cut them and then sanded it. I finally finished with my product a miniature Foosball table hand-made for Victor. I couldn't go to give him the gifted myself but I really do hope he liked it.