Cranberry Crusher - Thanksgiving Break Camp - Day 1

Every now and then the Thanksgiving cook runs out of time and is forced to buy cranberry sauce in a can. In a desperate attempt to make it seem more palatable, one can mush it up to make it look less like it came from a can.

At Tinkering School Thanksgiving Break Camp we decided to attempt the mushing of cranberry sauce within the constraints set forth by Rube Goldberg; maximum complexity, minimum output.

Before we can get to that, we have to do some safety training.

Then we planned our parts of the machine. Team 1 focused on the crusher. Team 2 on a plinko machine. Team 3 was all about speed and quantity, making 4 different simple machines.

Team 3 gets right down to their first project. A soccer ball track.

Team 1 discusses the essential steps towards their giant hammer.

Team 2 preps their plinko board

Right around mid-day we take a quick park and lunch break. Its a great moment to breath fresh air and stop thinking about the project for a second.

Team 3’s soccer ball track stands up.

The turkey leg takes shape on the bandsaw.

The smasher/hammer/crusher really begins to become ominous.

We also got to pull out the always exciting full size drill press.

By the end the individual pieces are all starting come together. A zip-line pumpkin pie will trigger a pendulum of turkey leg, which will knock a soccer-ball, which will start the dominoes, which will trigger the hammer which will smash the canned cranberry sauce. 

ou can watch our successful dry-run here!

Thanksgiving 2014Josh Rothhaas