Ask HN: What is a good gift for a mechanically oriented 8 year old

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35507748

by edmundsauto • 3 years ago

28 37 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

My friend has a son on the spectrum who is fascinated by mechanical objects. He has an awesome marble race and train setup in his room.

He loves to disassemble things. His mom asked if I thought it would be ok to get an old vcr or something from Goodwill (snip the cord for safety) so he can just take things apart.

I was wondering if anyone here had a rec for a toy, or if old electronics like this are dangerous. Any and all thoughts welcome.

vgeek• 3 years ago

Hobby grade RC car? Lots of parts to upgrade, various mechanical/RF concepts involved.

DANmode• 3 years ago

Some of these RC cars can teach a youngster like this a lot!

https://traxxas.com/news/how-to-rebuild-ultra-shocks

Dave_Rosenthal• 3 years ago

Came to vote for this. I have bought both 1/18 scale bashers and mini rock crawlers (*) for both my kids and nieces/nephews in this age range and they've all loved them. They are fun to play with and then when you break them you get to take them apart, learn how they work, and fix them.

Just this week I went over to my nephew's house and we ended up spending time diagnosing a burnt out slipper clutch. We worked together to figure out a hack to fix it, and tried it but, alas, we needed a new part after all. A few days later he proudly informed me that he'd repeated all the work we had done by himself, fitted the new parts, and the car was up and ripping again.

* Traxxas Summit 1/18; Traxxas E-Revo 1/18; Traxxas TRX-4M

johndoe0815• 3 years ago

Maybe an old mechanical clock would also be a great thing to take apart (and perhaps put together again :))?

GianFabien• 3 years ago

I was rather like that as a kid. Meccano, Fisher Teknik are both good because you can build a wide range of rather complicated "creations". Old clocks are good because the pieces are rather large and ideally can be re-assembled and made to work again as well.

Around that age I was given a motorcycle battery and a variety of bulbs, relays and car parts. Unfortunately these days, electronics and miniaturization has reduced the scope of what can be educationally taken apart.

leobg• 3 years ago

Little known fact: Fisher Technik is actually a knockoff of an education focused toy set invented by the brother of Otto Lilienthal, who lay the groundwork for the Wright brothers.

owenpalmer• 3 years ago

lego technic, lego mindstorms, rubiks cube (with kid friendly instructions)

carabiner2• 3 years ago

Bicycle that he has to assemble and maintain himself.

eimrine• 3 years ago

Disassembled bicycle, a mountain of wrenches and a few flammable chemicals?

I started to maintain my bicycle maybe since 12 y.o. and a main source of that maintenance was poor quality of the bicycle.

carabiner2• 3 years ago

You are surrounded by flammable chemicals 24/7.

pubby• 3 years ago

Old electronics can be a little dangerous. Think nasty chemicals and capacitor shocks. Nothing a kid can't handle but I don't know what the autism is like.

Lego technics are excellent. I remember Zoids being neat too. For taking stuff apart, I think things with motors work well, e.g. blenders or old drills (metal casing ones best).

brundolf• 3 years ago

I don't know what they look like these days but I loved K'nex as a kid. They're similar to legos, but designed from the outset to be dynamic/mechanical (instead of having that awkwardly retrofitted on). You could even get motors (both electrical and wind-up) which you could then stick an arbitrary rod through and do whatever you wanted with the rotational motion

Edit: Looks like they're still alive and kicking! https://basicfun.com/knex/

schoolornot• 3 years ago

I wish Capsela was still around. I haven't come across anything similar for kids. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsela

anonomousename• 3 years ago

Lego has a Technic subfamily that is slightly more oriented for motion/movement as well. Its what came with the EV3/Mindstorms sets.

My first experiences programming and building were with the original Mindstorms/NXT, and they were great. It looks like the Mindstorms platform was discontinued in 2022 (still probably a very solid choice) and it’s closest competitor would now be Vex IQ. Mindstorms might be better for younger kids though.

barbe• 3 years ago

There a wonderful book that might spark his imagination--The Story of Inventions by Anna Claybourne---how almost anything you can think of was invented---an inexpensive copy can usually be found on abebooks.com

steve_adams_86• 3 years ago

The DIY quadcopter scene is very technical and there are kits for new learners which let you pop the motors on, assemble the frame, the sort of stuff. Many are no-solder, and if he enjoyed it, he could eventually learn and do very custom builds.

My youngest (5) was able to put together a plug-n-play kit and was extremely happy with the result, though he has crashed it to death since and I'm waiting on replacement parts.

I can't find the one we went with, but this is similar: https://ca.robotshop.com/products/airbit-2-programmable-dron...

This one is arguably under-featured and over-priced, but gets the idea across!

qup• 3 years ago

This thread reads like a laundry list of gifts, hobbies, and items I've received, played with, and been fascinated by.

To avoid recommendations I've already seen, I'll recommend balsa wood planes, a paper airplane kit, and perhaps some kind of kit to build a propeller-powered item. I forget what these are called. Whirlygig?

RecycledEle• 3 years ago

I'm also an aspie.

I'm not sure how mature he is, but here are my guesses. He may need to grow into some of these:

Golden books (in electronic format on a tablet)

Lego Mindstorms - get plenty of spare parts Get him on a First Lego League team

RC Car (that he can assemble and modify) - get plenty of spare parts

Estes Model Rockets

Slot Cars are still around - get plenty of spare parts

Computer Programming with Scratch or MIT App Inventor

Talk to ChatGPT

Arduino-based or Raspberry-Pi-Based robot - get plenty of spare parts

I recently enjoyed taking apart and modifying pens from Dollar Tree. I took a bunch that I liked the look of in various colors, but that all had black inks. I changed out the inks for inks from inks in vibrant colors that I did not like the look of.

Cutting fretwork on a scroll saw - scroll saw and drill press required.

If he's too young for any of this, try showing him how to do it. Be patient and show him 3 or 4 times before giving up on one hobby / special interest.

IIAOPSW• 3 years ago

lockpicks. naturally.

boatsie• 3 years ago

I was/am like this too. I’d say one of the most fun/challenging things to do was to take something broken and try to repair it. Requires you to understand how to disassemble carefully, understand how it works, understand what is going wrong, and then either replacing or coming up with a better solution, and finally reassembly. And of course if it doesn’t work then, try again—just like debugging. Taught me basically how to be a programmer because coding is exactly the same thing. Get an unknown code base, trace through, find and isolate the problem, then try to fix.

drpixie• 3 years ago

I think you can still buy "Meccano" ... like Lego but potentially more capable. Eight might be a little young, but got to start sometime :)

reiichiroh• 3 years ago

There was just an article about how the last Meccano factory was being shut down

syntheweave• 3 years ago

Anything that can develop hand-eye coordination skills and muscle memory should work. The point of being hands-on is in that kind of sensory experience where you see and feel the object, make things tighter or looser, observe the layouts etc.

This is the kind of thing you can make projects with just with cardboard and various fastening elements, in fact - tape and rubber bands and glue. It's not necessarily about "real electronics" at this stage, it's just that electronic objects have a combination of intricate design and visible access. Art often crosses over with this stuff in that you can also "take apart" things by transferring their visual appearance into hand motions through blind contour drawing. Graph paper and a color multipen can be a huge hit for this kind of kid, if they're shown how to use it to this end.

Biologist123• 3 years ago

A subscription to KiwiCo.

https://www.kiwico.com/

I’ve no connection to the company.

jeffdubin• 3 years ago

If there's someone with at least a little tech/mech inclination available to supervise, perhaps a 3D printer might be considered? There are sub US$200 printers available (e.g. Creality Ender 3) which are a good starting point (though you can spend more to get something more plug-and-play) and it presents so many avenues of exploration. There's the mechanical aspect of the printer itself, but also designing things to print (e.g. tinkercad.com) and then getting to hold them is a blast. Even finding pre-designed objects online to download and print is rewarding (see printables.com for inspiration).

Admittedly 8yo is a little young to start. There are challenges, and patience is a must. But the family can find a local makerspace (or library, or school) to get a better idea of what's involved.

sweetgiorni• 3 years ago

Spintronics! I haven't tried it but it looks like tons of fun. Unfortunately in some countries it's out of stock until August.

https://upperstory.com/spintronics/

japhyr• 3 years ago

Turing Tumble is fantastic: https://upperstory.com/turingtumble/

Also echo another comment that some electronics are more dangerous to disassemble than others. For example cameras with flashes can have capacitors that hold a charge for a long time.

b20000• 3 years ago

lego technics

starbase• 3 years ago

Lot of comments suggesting children's toys, but I don't think that's the best way to go here.

An old VCR is safe enough. He might cut a finger on a sharp edge but that's ok. Sounds like he's already curious, so let him have at whatever you can scrouge from a junk sale for $5. Cheapest education he'll ever get.

Some other ideas that cost next to nothing and let him explore the open world we live in:

USB Microscope - he'll be able to see the mechanics of texture in silk vs cotton and salt vs sugar vs flour, as well as the 100s of creatures in a drop of puddle water.

Infrared thermometer - highly useful and informative from now into adulthood. "Hey mom the oven temperature is wrong, it says 400 but my thermometer says 380," and "Little sister has a fever, it's 100.5 inside her ear," and "it's 935 degrees in the fireplace, and the windowsill is 41." Wholesome stuff.

A kitchen scale. High quality magnets. Samples of different materials. One of those green plastic sheets that make magnetic field lines visible.

And real tools - whatever he's ready for. In my generation, boys got their first pocketknife at age 6-8. I'm sure he'd appreciate a quality multitool.

If you love the kid, the next time you have to fix something like a lawnmower or a car, do it at his house and both of you will have a fun afternoon in the garage. Bring lemonade to keep the bloodsugar up. He will remember that day fondly for the rest of his life.

tl;dr: skip the toys. show him the real shit.

f1refly• 3 years ago

Am alternative to lego technics: Fischertechnik (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik). Depending on where you are it might not be available, but in my opinion its a far better system for kids who like to tinker with machines.

zkirill• 3 years ago

I took apart too many mechanical watches to count. My reward were the coveted rubies inside the jewel bearings. I learned how far I could take the disassembly before it would be too difficult to reassemble it back into a working watch.

bosky101• 3 years ago

A Diy ukulele

simon_acca• 3 years ago

Wooden automata assembling kits: https://www.timberkits.com/shop/16-All-Products

ThatGeoGuy• 3 years ago

Someone else has already mentioned a bicycle, but my vote would be for a bicycle with an e-bike upgrade kit.

Do the hard work upfront to find something compatible, in particular around batteries (so they don't e.g. start a fire). From there, upgrading a regular bike to an e-bike and routing all the cables / logic circuits / etc. is a project unto itself. At the end this kid gets a fun and efficient means of transportation, as well as the satisfaction of knowing how their bike is put together both mechanically and electronically.

smackeyacky• 3 years ago

Like others here, technical lego although I will make a specific recommendation. They used to make "test car" sets with gearboxes that work, simulated piston engines, articulated suspension and working steering.

The pinnacle, before they got too realistic body work was lego test car 8865. Once built its robust enough to play with. The engine is a little tricky and the gearbox might be puzzling to an 8 year old but its a great set for learning how a car works without being aimed completely at the grown ups market

https://www.toysperiod.com/lego-set-reference/technic/model/...

Gustomaximus• 3 years ago

My daughter got a robotic arm kit at arpund that age and loved it.

Great blend of mechanics and software.

Side point, if they like this check if there are robo Lego leauges in you area. Great extracurricular activity for kids.

ericzawo• 3 years ago

LEGO Anything.

Ask HN: What is a good gift for a mechanically oriented 8 year old

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