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Welcome to DI Tool Time with The Prince of Balsa

This site was created for the Destination ImagiNation Scholarship Commitee (DISC) Internet Scholarship challenge.  My goal is to provide basic information about tools that I think Destination ImagiNation teams should be comfortable using as well as providing some basic guidelines for their use.  The information on these pages is from my experience in using tools in constructing solutions to DI challenges.  This site is only an introduction to basic tools and how to use them.   It deals mainly with building with wood and tools used to work with wood.  For information on technical topics such as electrical and mechanical visit DI Tech DIcoded.  

Using this site

This site is appropriate for all Destination ImagiNation teams at all levels. Knowing what tools are available, which tools to use and how to use them can help you build props, backdrops and technical devices.  Even Improv teams may find themselves in a position of needing to know how to use certain tools.  The information provided on this site is intended to show teams some of the basics of how different tools can be used.  It is not a tutorial on how to build specific props or devices.   Teams will have to make their own decisions on how to use this information when they design and build props and other devices.  The instructions and examples are not a substitute for teams getting proper instruction from an adult on the correct way to use tools.  

One of the first things you should review is the Safety rules.  Click the link at the top of the page.  With younger teams it may be a good idea to review safety rules every time before using any power tools.

Those who are interested in learning how to do more than what these pages show should solicit experienced people (such as a carpenter, machinist or school shop teacher) to teach you how to use the tools you want to learn to use.  Having someone teach you how to use tools is not interference.  Having them show you how to do something specifically required for your challenge solution IS interference.

The major sections of this website are:

  • Safety - some basic safety rules.
  • My philosphy - comments on my basic approach to solving DI challenges.
  • Designing and Building - the steps that I believe a team should go through when solving a DI Challenge.
  • Introduction to Tools - types of tools that I have used (and some I haven't used) for solving DI challenges with some comments about how they might be used by DI teams.
  • Fasteners - different types of fasteners that teams might use to put together wood and metal props.
  • Working with Wood - Demonstrations on some basic wood working skills.
  • Using Corrugated - hints on how to work with corrugated.
  • Paints and Painting -ideas about paints to use and how to use them.
  • Examples - videos and pictures of DI props I have built.
  • Tool Time for Team Managers -notes for Team Managers
  • My Top Ten Hand Tools - The ten tools I would want if I could only have 10 (and this was harder than I thought)

 

Site Notes

  • Information on this site is general and is not specific to any Destination ImagiNation challenge.  Teams should make sure that they have throughly studied the Rules of the Road and the specific Destination ImagiNation challenge they have chosen to solve.
  • Links to other sites are included as a convenience and do not imply endorsement of the information contained on those sites.

DI Tool Time by Chris Compton is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.