![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So, for the past 2.5 months or so i've hermitting in the machine shop, barely seeing anyone and occasionally emitting streams of expletives from the depths of the basement. I feel intimately familiar with all of radioIO AMBIENT, and have pulled enough all-nighters in the machine shop to have heard their entire inventory. I've been working on Aerial Rig Mark 2, a rig of a very different design as the one that has been in my yard. Object was to design a rig that needed much less people to erect, could be transported using the two vehicles we own (both scion xBs), requiring minimal extra support tools to erect, and most importantly, require *NO* external guy wires and be able to be put up somewhere without any ground anchors needed. I wanted to bring this new rig, if ready, out to Burning Man, and guy wires are a danger to the public at night. And this one should be lighter, and made of aluminum instead of steel. And i wanted a swiveling mount point integrated into the rig, so that we could make our silk rigging simpler.
Anyhow, this project has eaten all of my spare time since early May. I thought it would be much easier than the last rig. I mean, what could be so hard about building an equilateral pyramid, with a tension cable network at the bottom to keep it in place?
Of course, as it turns out, the devil is in the details. And boy were there details. I won't describe them here; ask me in person if you have any interest. And as the deadline for having things ready for packing onto the Boston Burning Truck approached, i began to think that i had bitten off way more than i could chew in time. Thats when the weekend all-nighters started. And then the stints in the shop on a work night until 3am. At some point last week i crawled into bed around 3 and said to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
klingonlandlady, "I don't know how much more of this i have in me."
Today, however, all of the work has seen fruition, as we did a successful full-height test raising of the not-final, but good-enough to be functional rig. It only took 4 people to raise and lower, as opposed to the 8 or so the square rig requires (or the *30* you need to raise the square one in an open field)
I was sort of dreading the test today, worried that we'd find *some* fatal problem in either the design or raising method. But everything worked! Lots of thanks toklingonlandlady, sensesurfer, and doze_e_fish for their help in the project today. More thanks to sensesurfer for the use of the Multicam 1500 CNC Machine Of Doom. Onward to the Playa! much much much thanks and love to klingonlandlady, who has put up with me during this long episode of hyperfocus. Hoping to relax a bit now.
( More details and pictures behind the cut )
Anyhow, this project has eaten all of my spare time since early May. I thought it would be much easier than the last rig. I mean, what could be so hard about building an equilateral pyramid, with a tension cable network at the bottom to keep it in place?
Of course, as it turns out, the devil is in the details. And boy were there details. I won't describe them here; ask me in person if you have any interest. And as the deadline for having things ready for packing onto the Boston Burning Truck approached, i began to think that i had bitten off way more than i could chew in time. Thats when the weekend all-nighters started. And then the stints in the shop on a work night until 3am. At some point last week i crawled into bed around 3 and said to
klingonlandlady, "I don't know how much more of this i have in me."Today, however, all of the work has seen fruition, as we did a successful full-height test raising of the not-final, but good-enough to be functional rig. It only took 4 people to raise and lower, as opposed to the 8 or so the square rig requires (or the *30* you need to raise the square one in an open field)
I was sort of dreading the test today, worried that we'd find *some* fatal problem in either the design or raising method. But everything worked! Lots of thanks to
klingonlandlady, sensesurfer, and doze_e_fish for their help in the project today. More thanks to sensesurfer for the use of the Multicam 1500 CNC Machine Of Doom. Onward to the Playa! much much much thanks and love to klingonlandlady, who has put up with me during this long episode of hyperfocus. Hoping to relax a bit now.( More details and pictures behind the cut )
