Robot Robs Blog: Steps and a single roof truss.

It's been a while. Not a whole lot of progress since the last post, I have been busy with school and work. Without Libby I think I would have lived on Rockstar Energy drinks and Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers. I have had to postpone the last two trips up to camp to take care of school work. Libby and I have been working on and off building up more components for the cabin. This post will not have many links due to my time constraints of school and work.

Where we last left off, we had walls up. Cutting the radius onto the rafters has been a tougher task than we had thought it would be. I had planned to laser cut out the two rafter size's into patterns but the machine was just to busy with actual work. I ended up cutting patterns in Masonite using pattern transferring like they did in the old days before computers.

Using geometry and a sketch, I figured out what the thickness would need to be every 12 inches.

I put a screw at every intersection of layout lines.

Using an aluminum piece of stock, I estimated the curvature based on each measurement.

I wanted some steps for the cabin, so I came up with a set of steps that curves with the path.

Frame setup and steps mocked up for height

Libby testing for comfort.

Making steps one at a time in the morning.

Finishing up the frame for the last step.

This is me under attack by bugs.

My little sister thinking about her next Scrabble victory.

I have been working on transportation of tools and planning to improve or time working, and less time organizing.

Building the Composite Beam

One side

Full view.

We may need another step or two.

For putting the beam up I tied the two sides together so it would be stiff for lifting.

Joe and marry helping lift the beam up. Lifting it with the point facing up had already failed at this point. Joe came up with the plan, to lift it up and use a dead man to put it upright.

One end up!

A system that sort of worked, we had no way to keep it stable for fastening.

Adding bracing so we had a lever to keep everything stable while fastening.

Libby looking through the board with handles.

All non essential personnel had to leave for safety while we did the beam raise. No photos of the beam going up, but it magically worked thanks to Joe and Libby's input.

Screwing everything together.

The corner joint. Everything fit like it should. Kind of amazing.

Joe making things happen.

Stabilizing frame in temporarily until we get everything tied down.

Mary looking at how awesome it is.

Our guest Photographer for this build. It was her first time and I think she did a great job. She also put in many of the screws for the stair treads.