Advice and Help with Playa Art for 2009

[wolff]

Hello fellow burners,

I am currently designing a large piece of interactive playa art focused on the topic of evolution. I'm not going to go into the details here, but the central structure of this piece of art will involve a circular platform that is 40-45 ft in diamter and stands about 5-6 feet above the playa floor. My intent is to use scafolding, i-beams, and planks, but how to I take square scafolding to make a circular platform??? If anyone has any epxerience designing platforms, or knows someone who does, please let me know! All help is greatly appreciated.

All the best,

Wolff

[Toolmaker]

I usually just use string and a marker to do my outline. Tie the string thats half of what you want the circle to be to a nail in the center. Attach marker to other end of the string. Pull marker taut and draw your circle. Place wood on top of scaffolding. Done.

[DVD Burner]

I knew Tool could help Wolf out.

[wolff]

I guess my main concern is understanding how to use square scaffolding to underlie a circular platform...

[wedeliver]

I guess my main concern is understanding how to use square scaffolding to underlie a circular platform...

If the scaffolding is under the "deck" the "deck" will project out over the edge of the scaffolding to make a circle. Or take your "square" scaffolding and build each section seperate, set the sections in a circle letting the inner most point of each section connect with the next. I supposed to picture this think of bricks set on the ground in a circle. Ok, you will need to guy wire the heck of of the sections since they are only attached at one point.

so, you can make a circle deck on top of a square or rectangle scaffolds that are attached and used in the normal manner where the frames are shared. I havent done the math to see how 10' or 8' sections would make a circle and how big it would be.

[DVD Burner]

This would be easier to figure out in CAD.

[wolff]

Thanks. I'd thought about it, and I can see how the planks could overhang and be made circular in one direction, but I don't see how to make this happen in the perpendicular direction. I'm assuming all plancks will be oriented the same way. Would you recomend to set the plants radially, as in pizza slices?

[Toolmaker]

Would you recomend to set the plants radially, as in pizza slices?

Plants are not allowed on the playa. Pizza however is very tasty even though many prefer bacon.

[wolff]

haha! I meant planks

[Toolmaker]

haha! I meant planks

I know..

Any reason why you have to use planks?

If you must use planks they could be placed radially I guess.

I would use a couple sheets of decent quality plywood. You could have it in quarters for transport and reinforce underneath with planks after assembly.

[Ugly Dougly]

Build as much of it as you can at home.

[Dork]

Build as much of it as you can at home.

Yes! Or... design it using as much standard dimension lumber as you can to be screwed or bolted together and have HD deliver it to the playa in a big bundle. Burn or donate to Habitat at the end. Might be easier to just use lumber for the supports than to mess with the scaffolding.

[bigbluedoggy]

OK so I am feeling helpful today and I'm bored. I also enjoy playing in CAD so here is a drawing illustrating a basic design for what you are after using stock scaffold frames and standard sizes of lumber and plywood. This is a 45' diameter platform which uses 14 x 54" x 7' scaffold sections and 5 x 54" x 10' scaffold sections. Those are readily available rental scaffold sizes. Each frameset would need screwjacks and foot pads of 2x12 to prevent sinking unevenly into the playa. On top of each set of frames, you would place two 4 x 6 beams in either 8' or 11' (could be 12') lengths. The red lines represent 2 x 6 stringers on 4' centers with no span reaching in excess of 8' between a structural member. Between those you would use standard framing joist hangers to install 2x6 spreaders on 2' centers (not shown). Those could all be precut before you leave for the playa as they would all be the same size. You will need to do some custom framing around the edges due to the curve but the bulk of this design is easily predone using lumber in lengths you can buy off the shelf. Assuming you would likely end up with a large crowd on top of this huge stage, you need to build it like a house.

The rectangles represent 4' x 8' sheets of 3/4" ply. You could double surface it if you wish in which case you would run the second surface at 90 degrees to the first. My recommendation would be to build the platform in place and use full sheets of ply and let them hang over the edge, then take a heavy duty router on a long bar with a center pivot and scribe the circle out on the playa. You could precut the circle, but getting all that plywood to line up again a second time would be a pain. You may need an extra leg or two around the outer edges depending on your use and what sort of fascia you have in mind. The fascia could provide all the secondary edge support you need.

When you are done with the project, except for the odd cut pieces around the edges, you will be left with a whole lot of uncut lumber in very reusable lengths and sizes. Or burn it... up to you.

Have no doubt, this is a shitload of materials and will take a 6 - 8 man crew about two days to construct before you even think about putting something on top of it. Enjoy and good luck!

[bigbluedoggy]

BTW, If you're thinking of this as a raised dance floor, double up everything!

[mdmf007]

Dance floors are one of those odd engineered projects, the impulse energy of 2-300 people all bouncing to a timed beat in a song can create quite a bit of energy. Way easier to overbuild than to underbuild, and try to explain what happened.

[bigbluedoggy]

Dance floors are one of those odd engineered projects, the impulse energy of 2-300 people all bouncing to a timed beat in a song can create quite a bit of energy. Way easier to overbuild than to underbuild, and try to explain what happened.

Yes, when I say double up everything, I literally mean double the amount of scaffold and steel and making all of the beams twice as thick and doubling the number of them: 4x6 becomes 4x12, 2x6 becomes 2x12, etc. I wouldn't recommend trying to create a raised dance platform like this on the playa unless you're ready to commit to some serious engineering!

[Ugly Dougly]

Will people be walking on this platform or is it just for looking at?

[bigbluedoggy]

Been keeping an eye on this thread and wolff was apparently doing a tactical strike and hasn't been back since. No idea what it was really for.