Work in Progress 2013

[FIGJAM]

Hmmmmmmmm?

[Martiansky]

Looks great FJ! Is it playa wind worthy or will it become a hang glider?
Or if youre under it and the wind comes up you can close it down around you and make your own shelter?!

Cool that you and Triken had joint ops in the completion of the ChairyYacht!
*bows head*

[Patsh]

Nice, FIGJAM!!!

Does TinyMystic live nearby?
That chair is a work of Arrrrt!!!

[FIGJAM]

She said she would be here tomorrow for test driving and mesurements for more "options".

[FIGJAM]

Looks great FJ! Is it playa wind worthy or will it become a hang glider?
Or if youre under it and the wind comes up you can close it down around you and make your own shelter?!

Cool that you and Triken had joint ops in the completion of the ChairyYacht!
*bows head*

I hope nt.

Don't want to turn my niece into Marry Floppins!

[maryanimal]

It's coming along nicely Figjam. She'll love it!

[clocksnmirrors]

wow figgy! that looks downright fun! nice work!

[tinymystic]

Looks great FJ! Is it playa wind worthy or will it become a hang glider?
Or if youre under it and the wind comes up you can close it down around you and make your own shelter?!

Cool that you and Triken had joint ops in the completion of the ChairyYacht!
*bows head*

I hope nt.

Don't want to turn my niece into Marry Floppins!

LOL... (no, Although, maybe I should wear a tether just in case! You know, when the wind changes and all!) I LOVE THE UMBRELLA!!!
Can't wait to go for the 'test drive' tomorrow!

[tinymystic]

Thanks Triken for your awesomeness!

[Patsh]

Thanks Triken for your awesomeness!

You're welcome, Tinymystic! So glad I could help... I know you've been wanting to go to Black Rock City for a long time!

Actually, the thanks go to the awesome guys in the shop who jumped on the job right away. They did a beautiful job!

[theCryptofishist]

I hope that umbrella doesn't become a drag...

[trilobyte]

I made a few more revisions to my railing panel design, which in turn called for making a new part in C4D and then making a new set of renders of the camp. Having recently learned a bit more about camera placement helped make things easier, but it does take a while to chew through all the data to make render it all pretty-like. I started early, and just now finished, whew!

I'm off to go pick up some material for this week's work sessions, as well as a few other supplies. Then I'll spend some time in VCarve setting up the jobs for the week's work, hopefully that won't take too long.

[knowmad]

I made a few more revisions to my railing panel design, which in turn called for making a new part in C4D and then making a new set of renders of the camp. Having recently learned a bit more about camera placement helped make things easier, but it does take a while to chew through all the data to make render it all pretty-like. I started early, and just now finished, whew!

I'm off to go pick up some material for this week's work sessions, as well as a few other supplies. Then I'll spend some time in VCarve setting up the jobs for the week's work, hopefully that won't take too long.

Yeah, I belive I saw those concept images the other day (tumblr). I really liked them. I take it that the paint finish will be that oxblood color? Very cool!

[tinymystic]

Thanks Triken for your awesomeness!

You're welcome, Tinymystic! So glad I could help... I know you've been wanting to go to Black Rock City for a long time!

Actually, the thanks go to the awesome guys in the shop who jumped on the job right away. They did a beautiful job!

Thanks Awesome guys in the shop who jumped on the job right away! (gotta love when that happens!)

I did the first test drive today!!! Whoo hooo! More Awesomeness!!! A few little tweaks to iron out, but, damn, there will be NO STOPPING ME NOW!
Next time I'll get video! Love it Love it Love it!!!

[tinymystic]

FIGJAM YOU ROCK!!!
convinced you are truly a magician! Luv ya!

[trilobyte]

Thanks, though the color's not really very close to oxblood at all, though maybe it looked that way on your display. Different hue and saturation levels, oxblood's a darker color with some brown in the mix and I was looking for something that had a bit more punch.

I wound up getting all the material I needed for the week's CNC work, as well as the rest of the railing components. Kudos to my guy at the shop, who totally had my back. When I got there I panicked since I didn't see the plywood I'd chosen to use for the project. I gave him a buzz to ask what was up, and within ten minutes he'd texted and called me back, and then wound up coming into work more than an hour early to make sure his guys got me taken care of. He actually had a full pallet of the plywood stashed away for me, and his guys did a great job of pulling the sheets I needed as well as hooking me up with the other lumber I needed. He was excited about the project from our first meeting, and really liked the pics I'd shown him of the finished cart.

Getting all that wrangled took longer than I expected, and I wound up not getting as much sorted out in VCarve as I would have liked. That and I wanted to do a bunch more research on potential settings to use with the material and bits (there's no specific rule or single setting, it's as much art as it is science). I've got what I'll need for the next couple days, but still need to set up Wednesday's work. Then I topped it off by booking another dozen hours of time on the tool for next week.

[trilobyte]

A long and arduous day at the workshop. Today was day one of cutting the railing panels for the shade structure that will be at the top of the ziggurat.



Aside from the time spent working on the design and job setup, each one takes around an hour to cut. Then there's a little cleanup work to remove the voids and tabs. Here's the stack I made today…



In addition to cutting panels, I also cut all the boards I'll use for the railings and posts. I used a table router to cut a half-inch groove on each of my posts, so they can help keep the panels in place.

[clocksnmirrors]

tis a thing of beauty!

[tinymystic]

I was up early and got a head start on the railing panel designs. It's one of those things that may not have seemed like much, but took a whole lot of reworking to get it right. As I'd brought them in for the 'first draft' the design was skinnier than the panels, and spacing in some of the pieces just wasn't ideal from a structural integrity standpoint. I'd be able to cut them, but they'd be weak and potentially breakable (which I'd like to avoid). Simply stretching things out wouldn't work, it would end up making the Eridu Society logo look bad. But I really love the piece, and wanted to incorporate that design somehow. So I basically had to make it all over again. That let me get something that fit the size and shape of the panel, as well as be wide enough in all the right spots and all that nonsense. It took a number of revisions, but finally I think I got it with v5…



Here's a closeup shot of the panel…



And then I went ahead and rendered another wide shot of the camp for the FB page cover photo.



Hooray, no more of my plastic blue FPO pieces! All the structural elements have now been more or less designed, though I may need to rework some plans for the wall units, my campmate who's curating the art going into those wall unit displays on either side of the ziggurat tells me he's working on a piece that may end up proving to be 10-15 feet wide. That'll be a fun challenge...

trilobyte, truly is a remarkable structure! One question... You gonna have a ramp to the top platform? Looks like I'm going to have the wheels to climb it!

[theCryptofishist]

You and I can sit outside and be really snide, tinymystic.

[tinymystic]

You and I can sit outside and be really snide, tinymystic.

I have only one thing to say about that... Super Soaker!

[trilobyte]

No ramp to the top, but the majority of the art will be at ground level, in the wall displays and on the curio carts.

[Turtleburp]

You and I can sit outside and be really snide, tinymystic.

If you can upgrade snide to blatantly rude, obnoxious and probably drunk I'm in

[Savannah]

Looks great FJ! Is it playa wind worthy or will it become a hang glider?
Or if youre under it and the wind comes up you can close it down around you and make your own shelter?!

Cool that you and Triken had joint ops in the completion of the ChairyYacht!
*bows head*

I hope nt.

Don't want to turn my niece into Marry Floppins!

LOL... (no, Although, maybe I should wear a tether just in case! You know, when the wind changes and all!) I LOVE THE UMBRELLA!!!
Can't wait to go for the 'test drive' tomorrow!

As long as the umbrella has a quick release and a latch . . .

I carry a parasol out there on the playa for a sun shield. It does fine, 'cause I just take it down when the wind gets bad.

[ygmir]

You and I can sit outside and be really snide, tinymystic.

If you can upgrade snide to blatantly rude, obnoxious and probably drunk I'm in

I'm not so good at that, but, I'd "cheer lead" for you all.

[FIGJAM]

Found an easy way to mount the shade to the ChairyYatch!

By the way, these big umberellas are $10 at Big Lots.

[clocksnmirrors]

I carry a parasol out there on the playa for a sun shield. It does fine, 'cause I just take it down when the wind gets bad.

portable shade at its best!

[trilobyte]

Woohoo for portable shade!

Another long and busy day. I worked late on parts and laying out stuff for the jobs I had today, and then before heading over I managed to tweak my model a bit to show the centerpiece…



It's a piece we designed a while back, and I've dubbed Cuneiform Man, since it kind of has the look of something that would have been made on a clay tablet with a reed. Compared with all the detail work of the Eridu Society symbols and flame panels, it was a fairly quick cut…



After finishing up the half dozen panels I needed to cut, I had time to run one more sheet so I busted out my fancy new compression bit to cut the parts for the altar..



It's a learning experience, getting things sorted with a new bit. The stuff that drives you crazy with CNC work, but in a weird way I kind of enjoy, is that it's a lot like chaos theory. Absolutely everything is a variable that potentially requires changes to a number of different settings (spindle speed, plunge rate, feed rate, etc). I think I did a fairly decent job testing and getting acclimated to the new bit. I threw a few parts, but part of that had more to do with the workholding than anything else. I miss the vacuum table we used to have on the thing - put my material in place and then turn on the table and bam, held firmly in place by crazy amounts of suction. Now they've got me using composite brad nails which has its own set of pros and cons, and for me there's been a learning curve. Then of course, Murphy's Law, just as I'm starting to get that figured out it turns out they're out of the damned things and it's not looking like they're readily available locally. The only place I've found that has them online only does phone orders, so I'll ring them in the morning to get a bunch. For tomorrow I'll go back to the old way of holding stuff down, brass screws (brass is a soft-enough metal that if I miscalculate and the router hits one on the table, it won't break the bit.

All that geekery aside, once I got home and had everything unloaded I hopped up on top of the van and marked the post-holes I'll need for the railings. Then I broke out the power drill and popped in the magic 1 1/2 inch drill bit and cut holes in my railing boards…



I clamp the top and bottom boards together to ensure that the railings line up nicely.

[trilobyte]

One last one. After writing the last post, I was talking Pandorra through the pieces I'd finished today. Gandalf (the cat) woke from his nap on the curio cart and insisted I show her how the railing panels would lay out…

[clocksnmirrors]

One last one. After writing the last post, I was talking Pandorra through the pieces I'd finished today. Gandalf (the cat) woke from his nap on the curio cart and insisted I show her how the railing panels would lay out…

hee hee you look like the cat that ate the canary!

nice work there