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How to fold an origami cement mixer

Pleat a rim into an orange drum and cut it into a tapered barrel. Reverse-fold a blue strip into a truck with a cab, bend a grey chute and add two wheels.

You need: Orange paper 20 × 17 cm, blue paper 30 × 16 cm, a grey strip 7 × 1.6 cm, two 8.5 cm black squares, scissors, glue and a white pen. Hard, 21 steps, about 35 minutes.

Steps

  1. Drum: fold in half. Start with the orange paper, white side up. Fold the bottom edge up to the top edge, so it is orange on both sides.
  2. Drum: pleat. Fold the left end over to the right on an upright crease 5 cm from it.
  3. Drum: pleat back. Fold it back out on a crease 8 mm nearer the end. The pleat makes a ridge round the drum.
  4. Drum: shape it. Cut the left end narrower with a slant from the top and from the bottom, for the drum's mouth. Round the two right corners with small snips.
  5. Truck: new sheet. Set the drum aside. Take the long blue strip, white side up.
  6. Truck: edges in. Fold the top and bottom edges in to meet along the middle.
  7. Truck: in half. Mountain-fold it in half along the middle, so the top half goes behind. Now it is a thick strip, blue inside and out.
  8. Truck: cab. Outside-reverse-fold the right end straight up, on a 45° crease from the bottom edge, wrapping it round the strip. It stands up as the cab.
  9. Truck: windscreen. Cut the cab's top front corner off on a slant, for a sloping windscreen.
  10. Chute: new sheet. Set the truck aside. Take the grey strip, white side up.
  11. Chute: in half. Fold it in half the long way, so it is grey on both sides.
  12. Chute: bend it. Halfway along, fold the end over on a slant so it points down and back, like a slide.
  13. Back wheel: new sheet. Set the chute aside. Take a black square, white side up.
  14. Back wheel: corners in. Fold all four corners in to meet in the middle.
  15. Back wheel: middle. Fold each point back out a little, so a small white square shows in the middle. That's the hub.
  16. Back wheel: round it. Fold the four points of the square a little way behind, so the wheel looks round.
  17. Front wheel: new sheet. Set the back wheel aside and take the other black square, white side up.
  18. Front wheel: corners in. Fold all four corners in to the middle.
  19. Front wheel: middle. Fold each point back out a little for the hub.
  20. Front wheel: round it. Fold the four points behind to round it off.
  21. Build the mixer. Glue the drum on the truck behind the cab, tipped up at the back. Glue the chute under the drum's mouth and the wheels on, half showing below.

Mix it up!

Draw three white stripes curling round the drum, a cab window, a bumper and a black stand under the back of the drum. Round and round it goes!

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