The flying barrel

[Ungod]

          Meet Slotsh, the village idiot. Or genius. Whichever he is, the villagers describe him thus: "Oh, him... Yeah, that boy always runs around, collecting scraps and junk to make...things that nobody could care less about. Why doesn't he get a nice girl and settle somewhere? Although, I don't know who would marry such a good for nothing air-head."
    Slotsh has recently acquired a secret wish - to visit the Angien island. He has been told not to try to swim across, because many people lost their lives so. He can't use the boat, because he can't get at the magic of the Seekers, so he decided to take the matter into his own hands. So he built this:

The plan is to enter a barrel, catapult it into the lake and then swim with an oar until he reaches the island. But Slotsh wouldn't risk his life without a test -so he took a barrel from Maple Road at night and rolled it to the 'catapult'. Success! The barrel floats! Thinking that next night he will steal another barrel, Slotsh wanted to go get some sleep, when he discovered a red sock in the grass...

       Slotsh has an uncle, Ted. Ted is an alcoholic. Slotsh immediately understood what happened - his uncle must have entered the barrel to drink the bushie wine and fell asleep inside. Damn the darkness!

Can we help Slotsh get the barrel with his uncle back, somehow? Actually, Sloths will be doing the work, you only need to provide the idea. Magic is not his forte, so it needs to be a machine or something a villager with a knack for mechanics can build (but you must also show us a sketch of it, if it's a machine). There are rewards in stock - a WP for the best idea, a Nutcracker for the second best, and a Kids IQ test common item for third best.

#saveUncleTed

Final note: since I don't want to take people's chance at getting a WP, I will be judging it  (I'd rather not have complaints after, but whatever). I would be grateful if someone would assist me in judging, but know that you cannot participate if you decide to help me thus.

[Ungod]

I have received a "crossbow" solution, which should work nicely.
 

Quote

 

My device for retrieving Uncle Ted (first one is only with pencil, second one has a marker over+ one small enhancement).

 

How it works: The crossbow has a special "arrow". The top of the arrow is made of glass (we have plenty in MD) with small metallic insertions (again, now we have metal ore all over the place). Inside the glass there is a super glue made with...glue+sawdust+sticky goop.

At the end of the arrow there is a rope tied to it.

Then there is the pulling mechanism: a simple  wooden frame with a wheel.

 

How it works: you stretch your muscles, aim for the barrel and shoot. The small metallic insertions will cling to the barrel like small hooks (you don't want to pierce the barrel) while the glass breaks attaching the metallic rod to the barrel (thanks to the very sticky glue). You tie down the rope to the wooden frame and start pulling. Be careful not to balance the barrel too much. After a lot of effort and with some concentration, you can bring Uncle Ted back to the shores.

 

Good luck with the drunkard!

 

 

[(Zl-eye-f)-nea]

Build a battery:
Create cardboard from Tree bark
Cut cardboard into squares
Create bushy wine
Soak card in wine
Take tinfoil hat and cut into tinfoil squares
Layer coin, soaked card and tinfoil squares
Continue until sufficient charge applies.

Create Magnets:
Process rare metals until magnets are found

Attach magnets to battery. Dip battery in resin, leave two oak splinters at each end. Leave to set. Remove splinters.

Create metal rod:
Remove glass from pince naise shades and bend

Create propeller:
Carve branch into correct shape

Attach propeller to wire

Carve driftwood into T shape.
Glue battery to long end.

Create multiples of these.

When ready attach long cord to front of T-shape. Then attach wire propeller to battery. Propeller will spin.

Put many of these in the water and allow to move forward to barrel. Use rope to guide and then pull to turn T-shape to opposite side of barrel. Wait for T-Shapes to bring barrel to you.

Z

[Ungod]

This looks like hard work, but it might do. I wonder how long it would take to build this...

Edited June 7, 2016 by Ungod

[Ungod]

If anyone wants to participate, drop me a message. Otherwise, I will probably introduce a deadline of a week or so.

 

Edit: Quest active until next Monday, 20th

Edit: Thank you for participating, I will be reviewing the two entries and come with a decision in the next days.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Ungod

[Ungod]

Although there were only two entries, I must say I really liked them. Uncle Ted has been saved, woohoo! wait, maybe that wasn't worth such energy...

Anyway, I don't know how to rank those submissions(I like one of them a bit more, but not enough to have a clear winner here), so unfortunately I will have to work you two more . It's a Wp 

Having saved his uncle, Slotsh has turned his attention to a gadget in his house that he sees as a wonderful magic artifact, but perhaps a bit too compelling...We're talking here about the clock on his wall.

He feels getting up early because his mom uses the clock to wake him up is slowly destroying his creative abilities. So he wants to make something else out of the clock, something interesting. 

So, make something out of a normal clock, you two. No drawings needed, no pictures, just a short description. You can add whatever materials you want, but do look at a clock and try to use it to it's best. Best entry will determine who gets the WP and who gets the Nutcracker.

Say NO to early mornings!

 

(deadline: let's say sometime next week, but don't let 2 weekends pass, or else I'll know that clock got the best of you)

Edited June 28, 2016 by Ungod
deadline

[(Zl-eye-f)-nea]

Take clock apart.
Put any small nails or screws to one side.
Carve wood into a rectangular block and drill one rectangular slot all the way through the middle, and four small holes halfway through a bit away from the larger one.
Take metal rods out of the middle of the clock's cog sets. If you run out of metal rods at any point use the clock's hands, fused shorter rods or melt any spare metal parts and form rods.
Put one rod in each of the small holes. Ensure these are of equal height. File down if necessary or vary the drill depth of the small holes.
Take four cogs of equal size (as far as possible) and attach to the rods so they spin freely - do this with metal wire, bent paperclips or such.
Take another cog and machine the central hole into a square, file down a metal rod into a rectangle and feed it through the hole.
Fuse the middle of two rods of equal size, one onto each end of the squared rod and attach either end of these to the edges the four free-spinning cogs. You will end up with an H shaped frame with cogs at each end and one in the middle of the H.
Feed the clock's pendulum through the large hole in the block and attach it to the middle cog. When you swing the pendulum, the four spinning cogs should spin back and fourth in a controlled way.
Take all the small cogs, gears and bearings from the clock and glue them into 7 parts of a horse - a head, four legs (made of two parts), a body and a tail.
Attach the body to the block so that it seemingly floats above the middle cog. This can be achieved either by rodding it into place, or alternatively it can be hung from the ceiling or other surface above to hover there.
Attach the two parts of the legs together with small nails so they have movement.
Attach the head, tail and legs onto the body with small nails or screws. They must all allow each item to maintain movement.
Finally, attach rods to the edges of the cogs and to the bottom of each leg. A cord to the back of the head and one of the back cog's sides.
When you swing the pendulum, your horse should appear to nod it's head and trot.

Z

[dst]

Although I am an engineer, I must admit that I cannot describe the process of the clock transformation as well as Z did ( well..mainly because what I created is not functional object but rather an...esthetic one - as much as you can call "esthetic" the "thing" I have made) so I draw something to try to explain better what I wanted to make. 

My clock transformation is very simple and has turned a hated object (death to mornings and alarm clocks!!! and I really mean it!) into something that brings me joy and comfort and usually makes me switch to a better mood.

Please meet....*drums*  the  Christmas Ornament! (blame the heat wave for this idea!)

 

How to: you take a fancy table clock and remove the glass. Remove the limbs as well. Decorate with whatever Christmas motives you like. Attach a string to it and ta da!!. Now as an additional part, you can add at the back the small mechanisms that certain greeting cards have (or why not, even the clocks themselves) that sing Christmas Songs. And you can activate the mechanism by pushing one of the baubles or twist the nose of the snowman or whatever way you fancy. Can be used as a gift as well.

So from yucky, nasty, mornings wrecker to snow, Santa, presents and most important joy in a blink of an eye! (well...not really but it sounds better).

Hope you like it. I surely did and hmm...I'm not tempted to try and put in practice for real my idea.

 

 

Edited July 4, 2016 by dst

[Ungod]

Let's announce the winners, shall we?

Now, I personally like dst's submissions, but I  think Zleipheneir's are more in tune with how I see Slotsh - an somewhat crazy inventor. For this  reason, I will award the WP to Z and so the Nutcracker will go to dst. 

I've learned a lesson here - to not be a judge in such difficult quests. It's soo much easier to say 'well, the judges decided, sorry' and go about your day...I await appeals (if any).

Thank you for participating, I hope you enjoyed it.