We went camping last weekend and the weekend before I was standing in the electrical section of my local Lowe's. My mind was wide open I had thought about a pioneering project but good poles for a pioneering flag pole are just too long, for modern transportation.
So with my open mind I picked up two 10 foot sticks of 1 inch conduit, 3 butt joints, a 3/4 inch knock out plug, four 3/16inch eyebolts, a pulley, two clipon links (not the 99 cent caribiners), and a 100ft of sisal rope. About $40 of stuff.
My junior Webelos son needed another project for Craftsman. I explained clearly my vision. We are going to take this pile of parts and build a 15 or 20 foot sectional flag pole. So you need to clamp the poles down to a table and saw through then at 5Ft. He still didn't see it, but he believed I had a plan. Our saw wasn't going to cut it in his mind so we packed up and moved our show to another webelos house close by. As me and the other father lee watched they sawzalled the 10 foot pieces into 5 foot pieces,drilled holes for the eyes in the second section of the pole. We told them how to open the eyebolt and attach the pulley. The last part was to watch their Oudoorsman skills at work. They used dad's arm span to measure out 20 feet of rope. ( quick measurement note here your arm span is the same as your height. ) The three boys each made loops in the rope and braided the tails into the standing end they also whipped the opposite end. We had them wrap the braided section in durable tape. just to be sure. The remaining 40 feet had it's ends whipped, before they learned how to throw in a mid line loop. A nice reef/square knot made it a loop.
We took an old wooden flag stand to camp. It helped steady the pole as the boys staked it out. with their three guy lines. It was very simple, yet very servicable.
I'll have to talk to my son about how that made his pack go.
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