I made a wooden bamboo dragonfly toy in a junior high school handicraft class many years ago. This time I had a whim and wanted to see if I could use simple hand tools and a glue gun to make similar toys using foam board as the main material. Friends can also try it!~
Tools and Materials: Foam board, PVC pipe (1/2 inch diameter, about 8 inches long), two 1/4 inch nuts, hot glue gun, utility knife, plastic pipe cutting tool or saw, ruler.
Cut out a 2-inch square of foam board.
Place the PVC pipe vertically in the center of the foam board and draw a circle.
Cut off the part inside the circle.
Thread the PVC pipe through the hole in the foam board.
Apply hot glue and slide it up until it is flush with the end of the PVC pipe. Cut a small piece of foam board and glue it on top.
Apply hot glue to the bottom joint.
Add a 1/4-inch-wide strip of foam board to the top as shown.
Cut out two propeller blades, each 1.25 x 8 inches.
Hot glue the propeller blades with a tilt angle.
The tilt angle is specially designed so that it can provide upward force after rotation.
What it looks like from the top.
I found that foam board is so light that it has no inertia to keep it spinning. So I glued the 1/4 inch nut onto the end of the propeller blade. This seemed to help, but didn't completely solve the problem.
The final bamboo dragonfly.
Place the shaft between your palms and pull the hands in opposite directions to rotate the shaft and allow it to move.
It can indeed fly, but not as well as a wooden toy~
