Introduction: How to Make a Popsicle Stick and Balsa Wood House
This tutorial will show you how to make a popsicle stick house. Now this is my first instructable so it may not be the best and I am only 12. Also this is a school project, so I thought it might be cool to make an instruct able on it. My house took me around two and a half months to fully complete. The link down below is what gave me the idea to make a house of popsicle sticks.
Step 1: Materials You Need
- 5,000 Popsicle Sticks
- Sheets Of Balsa Wood
- Hot Glue Sticks
- Hot Glue Gun
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Sand Paper
- Wood Filler
- Tree Cutters or Very Heavy Duty Scissors
- 12 LEDs or LED Strip (10 Through 25 Is Optional)
- Solder
- Soldering Iron
- Wire
- Motor
- Switches According To Amount Of Rooms
- Scissors or Sharp Blade
- A Drill And Drill Bit
- Plastic Box
- Insulated Wire
- Shrink Tube
- 9 Volt Battery
- 10 Pin Plug
- Crimper
- 10 Electrical Pins
- Wire Striper
Step 2: Planning Your House
First, on a piece of graph paper design your house and make it so that every square represents 1" on your house. After your done with the walls put in windows, doors, and the electrical into your house. Then make the layout for your roof if you want one.
Step 3: Building the Base and Putting Down the Floor
As soon as you know what your dimensions are, start cutting popsicle sticks to 4", so lets say the back of my house is 20", I would then cut five 4" possible sticks and hot glue them together to make one long popsicle stick for the back of my house. Keep doing this until you have your entire perimeter done. Then for every 90 degree angle cut a 1" popsicle stick and put in the 90 degree angle to make it more sturdy.
Once the base is completely done start cutting popsicle sticks to 4" and a couple of 2" pieces. Then glue down a 4" popsicle stick to the begging of the base and continue to put the pieces all the down the base. After that put a 2" piece next so there is 4", 2", 4", 2" pattern and then lay down the rest of the popsicle sticks onto the base.
Step 4: Building the Frames and Putting Up Walls
Once all of that is done, cut 7 4" popsicle sticks for every wall and maybe some at 1" to place for doors and windows. First, put down one popsicle stick and glue down two on the ends of the popsicle stick and then glue one on the top of the two popsicle sticks. mark on the popsicle stick every 1/2 of an inch so you can know where to put the other three popsicle sticks. On the outside of your house lay popsicle sticks and an the inside of your house cut out sheets of balsa wood and make sure you cut squares and holes for doors, lights, and windows. If your putting in lights then drill a hole in one of your inside walls and then drill another hole on the opposite side.
Step 5: A Little Bit of Electrical
First things first drill holes(1/8 of an inch) on your ceiling for your LEDs and wire. Put your LEDs on your ceiling and then solder on the + wire to the positive side and solder the - wire to the negative side. Once all of your soldering is done solder all of the negative wires to one negative wire, but keep the positives separate. When all of this is done thread your wires through the hole and out the other side. Then solder all of the wires to the pins on the plug. Next drill holes on your plastic or metal control box to the width of your switches and then place the switches in securing them with the nut it came with. Solder a wire to one side of the switch and then solder the other end to the next switch, continue doing this with all of the switches. Then solder a long wire to a each switch and put a pin at the end and crimp it with the crimper and then plug them into the plug.
Step 6: Finally a Good Looking Roof
The roof is the hardest part of the house to me. First cut a two sheets of balsa wood to 4" and glue them to the end of the ceiling and then glue the two ends together. To make it a bit sturdier glue a popsicle stick just like in the first photo. Continue this process all the way down to the end.
