Work in Progress 2013

[maryanimal]

Hey clocks! Let's see more pictures of your trailer! I'd like to see how it's coming along!

[trilobyte]

No pics today, and less progress than I would have liked. But as the saying goes, sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you…

I wasn't able to get my hands on more of the plastic nails I needed for the work I was doing today, but I did get my hands on the brass screws for a workaround. Man, talk about a massive pain in the ass! After redesigning the parts layout (and getting fewer parts out of the sheet of plywood) to accommodate, it wound up taking me nearly an hour to get all the holes drilled and screws in place. And I still wound up throwing parts. And by that I mean that the torque from the router was greater than what the tabs could hold down, and the machine spectacularly ripped the part free, tore it the fuck up, and threw it across the room LIKE A BOSS! It's an unsettling experience, to say the least. But with a few years and a couple hundred hours' experience on the tools, I was able to make adjustments and complete the sheet I was cutting. Lost 4 out of 20 parts on the board. I decided to wrap my session early - while I'm eager to get parts cut as soon as I can, I don't want to do it in a wasteful manner (it's already an expensive project). After getting the machine cleaned up I cleaned up the parts I did manage to cut on the table router and then loaded up the van and headed for home.

The day wasn't all a bag of suck. I was able to find a supplier and get an order placed for the plastic nails I need, and when I called them on the phone to beg them to process and ship same day (instead of the 1-2 business days their site said) they helped me out. And in talking with one of the staffers at my workshop, she was able to scrounge up some shorter plastic nails for me. Doesn't help what I need to do, but is perfect for something Pandorra wants to make this weekend (she recently got trained and certified on the machine). I also picked up a dead blow hammer which I'll need for setup and teardown. I have a few rubber mallets that would work, but don't like the scuff marks they leave on the wood. I also got a bunch of painting done - every little victory counts!

[clocksnmirrors]

Hey clocks! Let's see more pictures of your trailer! I'd like to see how it's coming along!

happy to oblige!
everything's just kinda crammed in there. i'll give an eye to organizing better when the rest is moved in

[maryanimal]

Sweet Clocks! I love your dresser and mirror! Perfect for making sure your attire fits perfectly! I still love that flower chapeau you wore last year! I want to make one, if you can remind me how you make it, I'd appreciate it!

[clocksnmirrors]

1. head to your local dollar tree to pick up the following:

• flowers - select four to five kinds
  floral wire
  electrical tape

you will also need

• scissors
  hot glue and gun

2. make a wire ring the size of the crown of your head:

• unspool the floral wire and wrap a length of it around your head at least twice
  if you want an extra strong wreath support then go three times.
  cut the wire
  use electrical tape to bind the wire all the way around

3. prepare the flowers by cutting them off their bunches

• you'll want the stems to be at least four to five inches. this gives you plenty to work with

4. start adding flowers

• i like to start working from the back side of the wreath
  use smaller flowers and leaves in the back and get larger toward the front
  select a flower and hold the end of the stem to the wreath loop
  use electrical tape to wrap the stem to the loop
  you don't need to use more than a couple of windings because you want to be able to reposition the flower if needed
  at the end you'll be giving the whole wreath a really good going over with tape to fix everything in place

5. once you start getting some flowers toward the front, try it on. this is the best way to ensure placement looks good

6. after all the flowers have been placed, bind them all in place with another layer of electrical tape

7. some dollar store flowers have a tendency to come off the stem. use a dab of hot glue on each flower bloom to make sure you don't moop

and there you have it! enjoy!!!

[trilobyte]

A day of minor victories… my raptor nail order arrived...



I got a few of the railing panels sanded…



And we agreed upon some additional design issues for related projects…



I also helped my girlfriend get her first project on the shopbot set up. She has some time booked on Sunday, and plans to make a piece of furniture for the camp kitchen. I've got some time booked on the laser cutter for the same day, and am still trying to decide which project I want to work on with the time. Tomorrow we'll go hit a couple lumber yards and pick up material for Sunday, and I imagine any other free time I have will be spent sanding or messing around with designs. I hope everyone has a great and productive weekend and gets to work on their fun projects

[trilobyte]

We've had a fun and busy weekend (and hope you have, too). Yesterday Pandorra and I were both spending long hours at our local workshop place working on projects. She had recently been trained and certified on the shopbot, and on Sunday she worked on her first project with the tool…



Not only did she come away with all her limbs, but everything was cut as expected, and when she assembled the pieces they fit together as she planned it (you'd be surprised how often that doesn't happen with new CNC designers)



That's a shelving unit she's designed for our camp kitchen. It'll serve as the washing/cleaning station for our camp kitchen. Meanwhile, I finally got around to etching some labels on bottles for a big batch of limoncello I'd made in the last year…



With the result looking like this…



While working with the laser cutter, I also toyed with some tests on a sort of luggage tag design we've been tinkering with off and on over the last couple years…



It wouldn't be luggage so much as a general purpose tag you'd put on stuff (like your bike). The tags would be a little under 2 1/2 by 4 inches apiece, with art on the front (cuneiform man, ziggurat, and eridu society icon), and space to write where/who you burn with on the back. I'm not sure it'll be something we end up doing this year or not, we're still knocking the idea around and fooling around with design tests (it's been bubbling around since 2011). I also did a test on leather, but glitchiness in the driver led to it getting cut out in a different spot than I'd etched the design… d'oh! I still have more of the leather material to use for scratch tests, next time I'm on the laser I'll try to make (and take pics) of a couple good ones.

Today, I've been doing lots of sanding. I got a few more railing panels done, I have three left before I'll be ready to start painting them.

[Savannah]

(Hi Pandorra!)

Love the bottles and tags. And great choice of font.

[ygmir]

Super Trilo, really fantastic stuff, you and Pandorra, are so talented. Nice to see you, Pandorra!!

[tatonka]

nice laser cutting work

[trilobyte]

Thanks guys. I'm also happy to have finished the sanding on the last of the railing panels. The cuts were pretty clean for a traditional 'end mill' bit, but the veneer on each side had some rough spots to work out. Using a combination of specialty bits and cuts I could have reduced that pretty significantly, but the cost of the bits adds up pretty fast. I'll be able to start painting the railing panels tomorrow, hopefully. The project juggling gets crazy this time of year - aside from a few other things there are the bits for the ziggurat, the wall units, the camp infrastructure, curio art, miscellaneous arty bits (like luggage tags and bike lighting and t-shirt designs), the upcoming potluck picnic BBQ at golden gate park (we'll be bringing some stuff out for that, it should be fun), and I just got word this weekend that our application to build an exhibit for the Second Life 10th birthday celebration was approved. We'll have a virtual Eridu Society build showcasing how we use the virtual world (SL or Second Life) to work up designs for real-world (RL or real life) art projects, and preview some of what we're building for the playa… once I build it Man, June's gonna be one seriously busy month!

[lucky420]

Love the grin on her face...

[MikeGyver]

So... I've had a disassembled electric "pocket rocket" in the garage for about a year or so without thinking of a project for it to be incorporated into. Then a few weeks ago I had the idea to put it under a surfboard. After a few weeks of research I'm finally starting to put it together even though I'm missing an important part.

So the plan is to build a metal frame out of 1" square tubing that's been sitting around be about 4'x7" and bolt to the surfboard. Cut up a scrap computer box to use as a battery/motor housing and use the front trucks off of a downhill Mountain board (the missing part) for turning and stability. Kind of a backwards 3 wheeler.

I am pretty sure from what I can find the 250w motor fits in the category of not needing a mutant vehicle permit, Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Savannah]

Sweet idea! When it comes to fruition, get someone to take a picture of you on deep playa, waiting for the next wave.

[trilobyte]

You should probably shoot an email to [email protected] for clarification. In my head I would equate a surfboard with a skateboard (and motorized skateboards seem okay as per the info listed here), but what you're describing is essentially mutating a surfboard (which has no wheels or motor) and turning it into a motor vehicle (something that would definitely need registration and inspection). You might also want to connect with some folks from playa surfers, they've got a few motorized surfboards and may have some tips and tricks to share.

Onto my own stuff, the last few days it feels like I've been too busy. I wound up having to cancel the time I'd booked for the shopbot for tonight - too many things to juggle. With the Participation Picnic coming up on Saturday I wanted to power through and finish painting and clear-coatig one of the railing panels to take out to Golden Gate Park with us, and if I didn't cancel the time I'd booked for tonight then I wouldn't get the touchups and clear-coat started until late tomorrow afternoon, which would mean it wouldn't be ready in time. I finished up the painting, and then just finished getting on the first coat of sealer. Here's what it looks like:



Here's a close-up shot of the same panel, bathed in UV light:



Beyond that, I also finished working up a design for a 4 foot by 2 foot poster that I printed on the large format beastie at my workshop joint. Knowing that the printer could print up to 600dpi, I rendered an uber-high resolution shot of the camp to use for the poster and even on my beast of a computer it took 4 1/2 hours to render the still frame. It looks great though, I'm really happy with the result and it'll give people who stop by at the picnic an idea of what we're building this year. While wearing the design hat I also put together a one-pager progress report for the placement team, to fill in more of the details on what we're planning this year (when the questionnaire was completed a lot of the designs were still in the early stages). And after some great conversations about the shirt and tag designs, my girlfriend revised them both and landed on something I'm extremely happy with. I also got a great progress report from one of my campmates, an incredible artist who's taking on the task of curating what will be going into the wall units and onto the curio carts. The dragon skeleton artifacts are unbelievably awesome, I can't wait to see what he and my other campmates have in store. I can't wait to start working on my own pieces for that too, but that comes after I finish everything else. And then finally I was able to go to the commercial kitchen where a friend of mine preps for his food truck and get a container of bacon jam to serve up at the picnic on Saturday.

[ygmir]

sounds cool Potatomoto!!! I'd really consider flotation for tires. Getting that weight spread over lots of square inches, may be very helpful when cruising along semi hard playa and hitting a playa snake or soft dust pit. Does it have, or would it need, brakes?


Wow Trilo!!! what art!!
gotta be so great to work with those fancy machines and such to make things like that..very nice!!

[trilobyte]

Thanks, Yggy. It's been one hell of a challenge, but I'm enjoying the process.

[MikeGyver]

sounds cool Potatomoto!!! I'd really consider flotation for tires. Getting that weight spread over lots of square inches, may be very helpful when cruising along semi hard playa and hitting a playa snake or soft dust pit. Does it have, or would it need, brakes?

As long as it goes to plan it will have 3 pneumatic tires (two in the front about 15" apart and one in the back) and it will have a brake. Thanks Trillo, I will send them a message.

[Asquared]

..."pocket rocket"...

ha! this means something entirely different where i'm from and i nearly spit out my water!

[ygmir]

..."pocket rocket"...

ha! this means something entirely different where i'm from and i nearly spit out my water!

*leaves straight line, kicks dirt and shuffles down the path*

[MikeGyver]

..."pocket rocket"...

ha! this means something entirely different where i'm from and i nearly spit out my water!

I knew it would only take a few responses before someone took it that way.

[theCryptofishist]

..."pocket rocket"...

ha! this means something entirely different where i'm from and i nearly spit out my water!

I knew it would only take a few responses before someone took it that way.

You'd be surprised at how many eplayans grew up in the vibrator store.

[ygmir]

..."pocket rocket"...

ha! this means something entirely different where i'm from and i nearly spit out my water!

I knew it would only take a few responses before someone took it that way.

You'd be surprised at how many eplayans grew up in the vibrator store.

or how many are here because it was closed.

[MikeGyver]

Whelp.... DMV thinks it wouldn't be considered a motorized skateboard and would need a Permit. So there goes that Idea...

Back to the Drawing board!

[Turtleburp]

There was a playa surfboard near us last year (wheelchair motor & remote control) don't think it had a pemit but that conversation ocurred during a hazy moment.

Mike, did I ever send or show you your fizz ball pics?

[MyDearFriend]

There was a playa surfboard near us last year (wheelchair motor & remote control) don't think it had a pemit but that conversation ocurred during a hazy moment.

Mike, did I ever send or show you your fizz ball pics?

Cough them up, dude, geez whadda you waiting for...

[Elorrum]

not sure this will happen, but I want to make an offroad popcorn popper push toy. big kid size, pneumatic tires. It's a simple mechanism I think... might just canabilize a small one, lexan salad bowl. Come back childhood.

[MikeGyver]

There was a playa surfboard near us last year (wheelchair motor & remote control) don't think it had a pemit but that conversation ocurred during a hazy moment.

Mike, did I ever send or show you your fizz ball pics?

No, I don't think you did I think I have you on Facebook, if not you can find me on Mels (Mike Smith)

And I have a feeling it falls under "its better to ask forgiveness than permission" for this one. I just wanted to check while I could still resell parts than after they were all mutated.

Whelp.... DMV thinks it wouldn't be considered a motorized skateboard and would need a Permit. So there goes that Idea...

Back to the Drawing board!

put some fake pedals on it. Now it's a motorized bicycle.

I think, if I mounted a removable seat and handlebars it would fit under a 3 wheeled scooter.

Half of me is tempted to make it and try my luck, but Id rather not have to drive back to fernley...

[Turtleburp]

High res ones here - best one below it was the tights photo Misa posted that made me think of these...

[MikeGyver]

High res ones here - best one below it was the tights photo Misa posted that made me think of these...

Good pictures, I'm still kinda surprised I was able to hit it one handed.