

Ask HN: Stuff for dads and sons to build together? - marcamillion

I have a 2.5 year old son, and one of my dreams has been to build things with him. Preferably things that he would like to be able to use after we build it.<p>Any suggestions?<p>A variety of complexity, cost and time commitment would be appreciated.<p>Every day, around-the-house material, would be best. However, I am not opposed to having to buy a few stuff.<p>Thanks.
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SwellJoe
Stuff my dad and I made:

Downhill racer painted to look like the General Lee. The go cart idea
famousactress suggested is great, but costly. A downhill racer costs maybe 50
bucks, or a trip to the dump or polling your friends and family for parts (old
lawn mower or bikes for wheels, for example).

Tree house in the woods behind our house.

A boat. Sort of. It wouldn't float, because my friend Steven and I put
thousands of nails in it...Some sort of decoration or something.

Wooden deck (this was for my mom, but it was a useful learning experience, and
kids don't mind doing work, if it's kept light-hearted and easy going and they
get to hang out with their dad while he's being awesome)

Numerous electronics projects using various kits from Radio Shack. Eventually
ended up with a 200-in-1 kit, that I saw on reddit a few weeks ago is still in
production. The radio transmitters were always the most exciting for me,
though extremely complex, especially if you want to be able to hear it all
over the neighborhood (you need an amp and an antenna to really break federal
law properly).

Numerous computer projects. Mostly repairing old ones that we'd bought at
garage sales and then reselling them.

Numerous car projects, including fixing and doing oil changes and such on my
own car when I got old enough to have one.

All of these things led to me having a pretty severe DIY attitude...maybe too
much so. I try to fix and build just about everything myself. This week, for
example, I specced out what it would cost to take a box truck and turn it into
the perfect motorhome ($29000, including a late model 17' medium duty diesel
box truck with attic, and mostly new interior parts; about $9k less if most of
the RV parts can be obtained through salvage sources, in case anyone is
wondering).

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famousactress
Go Cart!!! Sorry. Lost opportunity from my childhood. Still pretty
enthusiastic about turning a lawn mower into a race car, apparently.

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SwellJoe
You could make it an electric project these days, and teach environmental
friendliness from an early age.

All of the big problems with electric cars (range, battery weight/cost, lack
of charging stations, charging time, etc.) aren't present in a go-cart, so
solving the technical problems is much easier.

