Work In Progress 2015/2016

[bigbluedoggy]

Vortex Update! Getting closer to completion. The skin is about ready and will be getting painted in the next few weeks. Most of the lighting is completed as of today. Here's a couple of shots showing some progress. Enjoy!

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[southern crone]

Wow, having had a near death (out of body) experience, this stirs a feeling of deja vu.

[Jovankat]

Ha! I can't think of a better endorsement for a piece of art.

[Just_Joe]

10 minutes after nine.
Where has the day gone !!!

[bigbluedoggy]

10 minutes after nine.
Where has the day gone !!!

So did you rig it to run CCW as well? Very cool clock!

[torrey.smith]

Sextant made a trip out to Juplaya to do ground anchor testing.

With our Zip-Line loads ever increasing, we're looking for the best solutions for ground anchoring. These "Penetrator" style anchors seem to represent the next generation over the older "Helix" style.

We welded up a test rig Wednesday night, borrowed a 10,000 lb load cell from DUSTFISH, attached one of our 9,500 lb winches from the Tesla Coil and headed out!

It was humbling and informative. We are now putting together the ability to drill a 46" deep pilot hole, and we're setting up a compressed air impact wrench system for more oomph.

[media]

The PE26 did quite well. The Playa gets really dense about 6-12" down, which helps explain why it tested between Soil Class 1 and Soil Class 2. I think the lower layer corresponds to Soil Class 1. That clay is dense.

[media]

The PE26 installed very nicely with the electric Makita TW1000.

[media]

The PE46-Guy was much more difficult to install. We knew it would be slow based on this video from AEA, but the Playa proved to be a bit denser. Once we fully stalled out we stopped trying, because Aluminum has no fatigue limit and these things will break after enough cycles. I'm trying to avoid having to heavy equipment, because it complicates our logistics, and it also has the potential to auger out the soil instead of screwing in.

[media]

After snapping our 10,000 lb rope twice, we doubled the rope to reduce stress concentrations and pulled out the PE46-Guy which was only installed about 2/3 of the way (this meant we didn't have room for the load cell). I estimate that we were in the vicinity of 7,500 lbs load at fail due to the winch being nearly maxed out. Not bad for a partially installed anchor!

[trilobyte]

That's awesome.... and well, yeah, humbling. You're damned right that ground gets dense. Back when we were using 18" hurricane stakes that were pounded in and pulled out by hand it was downright soul-sucking to try and get those stakes out at the end of the event. Sound like you guys got a lot of great info, hopefully you had a great trip out there.

[trilobyte]

For those who've been following along on the progress of my art theme poster project over the better part of the last year, I've posted the finished pieces in my camp's thread here.

[Patsh]

For those who've been following along on the progress of my art theme poster project over the better part of the last year, I've posted the finished pieces in my camp's thread here.

Can't wait, Trilo!! Looks amazing! .
(I checked out the FB posts earlier, too... The pictures are so cool, but I know from past experience that they certainly don't do the real thing justice.)

[bigbluedoggy]

Wow! Your posters are amazing! Can't wait to se them in person!

[trilobyte]

Thanks, guys! We were both a little surprised at how much more effort it was to work at those resolutions. In previous lives we'd designed giant banners and billboards and bus wraps before, this was much crazier.

[melodiousdirge]

Mobile PA Trike Trailer all painted up and nearingly complete:



Just need to work in some kind of nominal theft deterrent so nobody runs off with any of my components.

[mudpuppy000]

More canvas tarps for the bar.

[trilobyte]

Nice job on those tarps! Very cool!

[torrey.smith]

Tesla Coil update: We're rebuilding our Resonators for higher "Q", or Resonant Gain. This was a major contributor to our puny sparks last year.



The new design will suspend the wire in space via polycarbonate "Combs" that feature finger-like geometry for the wire. We're also doing a fancy multi-diameter helix for greater effective wire spacing in the same gross volume. This should cut AC resistance substantially. More on that later...









Over 12 hours of CNC routing at TechShop, all after midnight (gotta book the machine while it's available!).



These should weigh about 225 lbs all-up, vs. 425 lbs last year. Bonus points for hyper-elliptical cutouts?

And tonight we epoxy...

[digital]

Copied my LED scooter sketch onto a backpack. Came out pretty good. Runs on USB power. Programmable on the fly. Joy!

[trilobyte]

Wow, Torrey, that's fucking amazing! I'm gearing up to go play with the shopbot for my own projects, but nothing quite so slick in the works.

And really cool work on the LED's, digital

[Elderberry]

That truly boggles my mind. Not just the end result, but that anyone could actually make those cuts in wood like that. This is another reason I love Burning Man.

[torrey.smith]

Wow, Torrey, that's fucking amazing! I'm gearing up to go play with the shopbot for my own projects, but nothing quite so slick in the works.

And really cool work on the LED's, digital

Thanks, trilobyte!

This is very satisfying. We will waterjet the wire combs and wind this baby soon!



At 47.5" max diameter and 96" length, one of these bad boys will even fit in my van. Imagine that for a change! (the last ones were just over what could fit in the van, we had to use the trailer for everything)

[torrey.smith]

Here's our progress on the chain ladder to ascend our 52 ft tower.

Our 2013 solution was this product, a nylon webbing based home escape ladder, which snapped the webbing (!) with a person on it (no injuries):



Our 2014 rope/wood rung solution, which broke a rung with a person on it (no injuries):



Our 2015 chain/steel rung solution:









Now we're gonna see what Alan at Precision Powder Coat has to say about this

[torrey.smith]

We're using 1/4" high-test chain (typically rated at 2,600 lbs working limit), and 1.125" OD by 0.065" wall structural steel tubing (probably 4130).

The chain strength is probably ~50% of nominal due to the welding).

[tatonka]

Bringing my Harley , so im building a trailer , it will carry the cooler and 2 -3 gal water jugs and a tarp. Will post some pics when its ready to go.

[vargaso]

These post are really informative and inspiring, particularly the ones from torrey.smith. Such mechanical ingenuity, something I lack. I was pretty damn pleased just to slap together a PVC monkey hut. At any rate, keep 'em coming!

[torrey.smith]

Ready to powder coat!

James Erd on the right is our expert machinist in camp who has been welding nearly all of our steel.

We practice a learn-by-doing approach at Sextant, where we deliberately take on projects that will challenge us.

James apparently isn't satisfied with just removing material. He likes adding it, too!

[robbidobbs]

I installed a gate latch for my trailer and found a key for the camper. Repaired the final piece to my monkey hit. That all done. I also kicked up my daily walkies: one hour. Gotta break in these damn new shoes.

[ygmir]

making some tables for a burner friend.........
raw material from my mill:


making a surface plate for top and leg orientation :


leg brackets:





work space:

[lucky420]

Nice wood!

[digital]

Jeez, and here I am with my little backpack.

Nice work guys!

[Patsh]

WOW, Ygmir... those are Beautiful!!
They look so SOLID! You could have a party on top of them.

(I bet you already thought of that, and planned the build accordingly... )

[lucky420]

Oh yeah, the tables. Those are nice too