Threaded Monkey Hut - for better travel and resiliency

[burn_shady]

With BM right around the corner, I felt that I had to get this out in whatever form that I could. In it, I introduce what I'm calling the Threaded Monkey Hut. It is primarily aimed at people who cannot use pipes over 5' long. Fortunately, the things you have to fix when you go to 5' pipes turn out to give the overall design some added benefits.

(wrt the subject, I mean resiliency in regards to other huts made of 5' pipes.)

In an attempt to help the burner forced to go straight from a big box store to the Playa, I've made a list that attempts to be a thorough starting list for creating a reliable shade structure with minimal modifications and minimal moop.

The elevator pitch is this: Starting with a regular Monkey Hut, I describe how to run line within the PVC from anchor to anchor to supply a strong, dedicated, compressive force rather than trying to do it externally, which will never be able to compete with the internal application.

Using this approach, 5' pipes are not a problem at all. The end result should be at least as strong and flexible as the original MH if not a slight bit better due to load distribution. When done correctly, the anchors/rebar will have to be pulled out of the ground before this structure goes anywhere. I also describe how to get by with fittings (if you have to use one, you use 1.25 based fittings and always embed a 1" pipe through the length of it).

With BM being AT THE END OF THIS MONTH!!!!! (holy moly!), rather than portion this out a little at a time, here's the whole thing at once. It covers some design motivation, the design additions and construction techniques that make it all easy and doable. It covers 3 levels of adoption for those who just might want to solve some specific issue and not have to go all in:
https://burningshady.files.wordpress.co ... 08/tmh.pdf
(I tried posting the whole doc here, but .pdf isn't allowed to be uploaded)

I've been trying to finish writing this for weeks... months. This version is actually my "easy, breezy" version. I have a more exhaustive write up that I might publish before BM if there is interest. I haven't proofed it much. As I said, being August 1, I thought it more important to get out than to keep whittling on it to get it absolutely 100% to my liking.

This is the result of a year long obsession (since last year's burn). For those who have been in this space for a long time, you might think many things I describe as pointing out the obvious, but I've actually limited my document to the things I did NOT see documented to any detail anywhere else. In fact, most if not all of the content is what I've figured out on my own. So minimally, even if it is obvious, at least now it's also in one place.

Next up, once I recover a little bit: How to extract rebar without special tools or vice grips (not that the vice grips ever worked for me)

[burn_shady]

Just a quick followup, for the record, my altered MH was 7-8' tall (almost all the way across, so all usable space), about 12-14' across, 20' deep ending into a slightly taller, slightly narrower dome structure (that also did a phenomenal job of holding up to all of that wind energy). The whole thing used two 20x25 tarps (with lots of extra material on the dome section) and the tarps went all the way to the ground (two endless breezes providing air movement when needed). Throughout, no pipe was longer than 5' (so all pipes fit across the pickup truck bed deck lid) and no guy lines were required or even used as backup (zip, zero, nothing).

During the harshest gusts of the burn, the structure swayed and thumped with the wind, but inside, the air was generally so still that we lit a candle and it hardly flickered as the scent filled the structure (rather than being immediately blown away). We sat and watched the white-out come and go (and in between giving the guy two tents away help with his traditional MH). Other than possibly replacing rebar with lag bolts and better focus on securing the tarp for minimal/zero movement, this will be the hut of choice for me (unless I start obsessing on ways to extend the dome ceiling throughout... dang... that's a pretty good idea...).

Anyway, the point being that I spent this burn in this structure utilizing these construction techniques and it weathered it all quite well.

[BBadger]

The link above doesn't work. I'd like to see pictures of the reduced-sized monkeyhut though. The length of those poles seems to be the biggest problem for my needs.

[burn_shady]

Dammit Wordpress! So go to this blog post of mine and at the bottom is the link to the PDF:
http://burningshady.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/17/

Here is the current PDF link that will work until the document is updated, in which case, Wordpress will delete it, but not allow me to reuse the exact same URL to point to the updated version (i.e. it'll work until it doesn't work and then you'll have to go to the containing blog post and then grab an updated version of the PDF file if it exists by then).
https://burningshady.files.wordpress.co ... 8/tmh6.pdf

I would have posted the PDF here directly if I could have. I've no desire to inflate blog entry views just to publish the PDF.

[MacGlenver]

That... Is one thorough document. Haven't had a chance to read it fully, but looks well thought out. Just cause everyone on Eplaya is supposed to nit pick and criticize, I'll say that "threaded" is a bit deceiving, as I would interpret that as having threads that screw together. I guess my other question is whether or not this is over-engineered, though I'm not sure there is such a thing.

[agent13]

Thanks for the thorough descriptions and instructions. I'm glad to see it worked well for you this year. I'm just starting to look into MHs and will definitely keep your PDF handy.

[burn_shady]

I'd like to see pictures of the reduced-sized monkeyhut

Heh... no, this isn't a half-height MH. In the document I walk through altering a std MH with the goal of mostly retaining the original dimensions. I start with just the task of using 5' pipe segments in an easy, reliable way to replace each 10' section with two 5' sections joined with a 6 inch long 1.25" sleeve that is made to stay in place. I use paracord sandwiched between the pipes and sleeve, but any reliable way to hold it there is sufficient. The sleeve does the hard work, all we have to do is make sure the sleeve stays in place. I've also used tie wire inserted through to capture and provide a positive stop for the 1" inside of the sleeve. The key is to never rely upon a fitting to EVER solely support the side-load. Fittings can be useful in this space, but not for this task. (I really wanted fittings to work and tried MANY different approaches but in the end, a small sleeve reliably held in place cannot be beat, especially when you factor in its simplicity.)

MacGlenver, I wrestled with many names but this one seemed the best despite the expected confusion around the word 'threaded' itself. I'm using "threaded" in the sense that one might 'thread a needle'. To use it in the sense of screwing something together, as you point out, the pipes would be threaded, but its not like the whole hut itself would be threaded so as to be screwed into something else.

As for it being "over engineered", I can understand it giving that appearance. I would agree with you if attaching unplanned for guy lines to a MH was a rare occurrence. However, it seems that at some point or another all MH builders also embrace the spontaneous hobby/sport of how to tie the hut to just one more thing that will finally hold it all down (regardless of whether or not the real issue is the same builder following the original instructions to the letter or not. A design flaw or a commonly made building mistake that results in a flaw is still a problem with the overall process and result). Given the frequency of this, I'd say that this is building in some easy, extra security so as to preempt the ad-hoc additional engineering one must do to add additional guy lines when it is determined that they are needed.