Grandparents and Go Crates
Nanna and G-Daddy arrived Saturday afternoon and the very first thing Isaac did, and I mean the first thing, was to reach for his Nanna. It literally brought tears to her eyes. We have been having tons of fun with them today, going for a walk at Coolidge Park, and then going for a walk again after dinner. Mom made sauce and we had linguini and it was delicious.
Dad and G-Daddy were trying to find a way to help Isaac zoom around after he fell in love with being pushed in his Duplo container. The problem with the Duple container is that it only works on carpet, which we have very little of, and it has a high center of gravity making it tip prone. So we went down into the workshop and created the soon to be famous--go crate (a combination of milk crate and go kart). Here it is:
Here we are playing with the Duplo container:
And finally a good example of the maneuverability of the go crate:
Here is how to build a Go Crate:
To build one we took these casters and attached them to the bottom of a milk crate (supplied to Dad by Poppa Dom). You can skimp by getting casters without brakes if you want. Lowes and Home Depot do not regularly stock spindle casters, but if they do, you can get a light duty set, mine were left over from my old table saw. You can get a milk crate, um, from around...or here. The crate that works the best is one that has smaller holes in the bottom. To make sure the go crate is steady, put a washer on the spindle, then insert the spindle into the furthest corner hole, then put another washer on, and finally the nut. After that we cut a piece of cherry plywood and fit it into the bottom of the crate perfectly. In fact, it is so tight that Dad had to stand on it to force it into the bottom of the crate. After that you can add a pull string or just leave it as it is. Because the casters are all four-direction casters, the go crate tends to drift on a string. The casters are very, very heavy and as a result the go crate is very unlikely to tip over, even with Isaac Anthony in it.
Dad and G-Daddy were trying to find a way to help Isaac zoom around after he fell in love with being pushed in his Duplo container. The problem with the Duple container is that it only works on carpet, which we have very little of, and it has a high center of gravity making it tip prone. So we went down into the workshop and created the soon to be famous--go crate (a combination of milk crate and go kart). Here it is:
Here we are playing with the Duplo container:
And finally a good example of the maneuverability of the go crate:
Here is how to build a Go Crate:
To build one we took these casters and attached them to the bottom of a milk crate (supplied to Dad by Poppa Dom). You can skimp by getting casters without brakes if you want. Lowes and Home Depot do not regularly stock spindle casters, but if they do, you can get a light duty set, mine were left over from my old table saw. You can get a milk crate, um, from around...or here. The crate that works the best is one that has smaller holes in the bottom. To make sure the go crate is steady, put a washer on the spindle, then insert the spindle into the furthest corner hole, then put another washer on, and finally the nut. After that we cut a piece of cherry plywood and fit it into the bottom of the crate perfectly. In fact, it is so tight that Dad had to stand on it to force it into the bottom of the crate. After that you can add a pull string or just leave it as it is. Because the casters are all four-direction casters, the go crate tends to drift on a string. The casters are very, very heavy and as a result the go crate is very unlikely to tip over, even with Isaac Anthony in it.