How to make stilts, from the Dad's Book of Awesome Projects

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Those protruding bolts certainly look child friendly…

I’m all in favour of Dads making stuff for their kids. As the comment above mentions, they should be safe and well made if possible. I feel sure you shouldn’t have used the trademarked “Play Doh” in referring to a recipe for home made play dough. For anyone interested in finding ideas for doable projects, Pinterest is a great source.

Twice I’ve brushed bolts and left an actual strip of skin hanging off the end (shudder).

I use bolts and big screws for rough wood working, and I countersink everything by widening the hole with a cheap step drill bit or a spade bit. Also, you get to use shorter bolts, which saves trips to the hardware store.

I hate to say this, but, this is not a great design for stilts. This design is actually hard to walk on and leads to odd twisting motion at the ankle. Why? You have the load (the person) transferred at an angle to the ground. This is because the bottom of the stilt that hits the ground is NOT directly under the foot of the person. A better design is to make a riser that goes from the foot to the ground, and bolt the handle to the side of that. This design is much easier to walk on (really!!) but I suppose it does not have the “height adjustable” nature of traditional designs.

Quick diagram:

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