DH Guest Post: Caution Tape Maze Revisited, Part II

The 2014 Maze

The 2014 Rehoboth Baptist Church Family Fun Fair was held on August 16. The theme was “Jonah”. Here is the actual maze for this fair:

And here is the setup plan, with grid coordinates and post locations:

I have more detail in my first post about designing a caution tape maze.

Maze Set-Up Crew

The first, and most important step, is to get a lot of help. Fortunately, My 16 year old son, Ben, has a lot of contacts through his homeschooling activities. We sent emails out, inviting friends and acquaintances to a “Maze Raising” party on Friday, August 15. The response was enthusiastic! Here is the awesome group of hard working kids that showed up to help:

The Maze Building Crew for the 2014 Caution Tape Maze — The 2014 Maze Builders

Just an aside: When Christine and I mention home school, we tend get a lot of comments about “lack of socialization”. If you are one of those people worried about homeschoolers being “isolated”, please look at the picture above, and set your mind at rest…

Setting the Maze Corners:

The first step is to hammer the four corner stakes into the ground. This maze has a long side of 90 feet, and a short side of 60 feet. When the corner stakes are squared up, the diagonal measurement is about 108 feet, 2″ .

To speed things up, I have 3 spools of wire, marked every 3 feet with zip ties. One spool is 60′ long. The other is 90′ long. The third, for the diagonal, is 108′ 2″. The spools are just cut out of a scrap piece of wood. I use wire instead of twine, because (a) I had some in the basement, and (b) it does not stretch when pulled taught.

Caution Tape Maze Setup Wire Spool - For Short Side — Maze Measuring Wire on Spool

To place the stakes, first lay out one long (90′) side. Hammer the posts into the ground to mark the first two corners of the maze.

Volunteers stretch out the 60' wire to place the maze corner post. — Laying out the Maze Corner

Now the third and fourth stakes need to be placed. Have one volunteer stretch out the 60′ wire from one stake. Have another volunteer stretch out the 108′ 2″ wire from the other stake. Now they need to both move back and forth, until they meet up. This is the place where the third stake should go.

The fourth stake is placed in a similar manner.

Placing Stakes

The map grid is set up so each line is on a 3′ interval. Mark each 3′ location along the long side of the maze with a chalk dot. Each set of dots on the top and bottom long line determines where a column is located.

Form teams to mark the stake placement. Each team has a captain, with a map of the maze stake placements. Two others hold a marked wire along a grid line of the maze. The fourth person uses powdered chalk to mark the location of each stake.

Marking the stake locations for each column. The first column is done.

When the stake locations have been marked, the stakes are pounded into the ground.

Ben places stakes into the ground — Ben Placing Stakes

M pounds a stake into the ground — M Pounds a stake into the ground

Volunteers are marking stake locations while others are pounding stakes into the ground — One team marks stake locations, while others pound stakes.

Stapling Caution Tape

When the stakes are in the ground, create multiple teams of 3 to staple caution tape. The team leader follows the map. The second team member holds the roll of tape, while the third staples the caution tape to the posts.