Rally West Virginia Trophies.

I have a friend I have met through rally Bill Caswell.  He has a polarizing affect on people.  He got laid off from the financial industry a few years ago and has been having some adventure since then.  He has Rallied all over the US, talked his way into parties of the rich and famous, and put stickers everywhere much to the chagrin of many car owners, hotels, bars, and governments.  I may not agree with that portion of what he does, but he puts a lot into promotion. Much of it self promotion, what he does behind the scenes rarely is mentioned as much as a sticker in an authorized place.   What he does to improve the Hobby (it's not sustainable, so it isn't an industry) that never gets publicized.

He asked me to help with a project on Wednesday afternoon a week prior to Rally West Virginia.  He was tasked with making trophies for RWV and had a short time frame.  At my day job we work in a fast paced prototyping environment where we "Quote in hours, Parts in days."  He was having issues with extracting cutting data from the graphic of the event.  I work with Spaceclaim during the day and knew it would make the design very easy.  I was not able to get to it until Friday afternoon after work but took in the data and quickly went into the design.  The image was junk as far as extracting data.  The edges were not crisp enough for automated tools.

The original Graphic for the rally

I imported the image into Spaceclaim and started to put some geometry to the original graphics.  I am used to designing for a CNC Laser Cutter so adjusting design for Waterjet would not be that hard.  Bill mentioned they would be for three places with three classes so I tried to do something that would pay homage to classic cars of yesteryear.   This is what I came up with for the first iteration

I had everything layered where all the items would be fastened to a black background  this would look pretty good, but assembly would be a pain.  You could just double stick the letters and layers together, but making sure everything would end up in the correct place.  Originally, I was going to do the fabrication at MakeIt Labs on the CNC plasma Cutter and powder coat everything.  I did not have the time to do the fabrication, so I spent a little extra time making it easy to manufacture by whoever Bill would have Jet cut it.  I inverted the color scheme so instead of twenty five separate parts it could be made with five.  

Connecting islands

When doing anything in a 2d single point cutting system (water jet, CNC Plasma, Laser, Router) it cuts along a tool path generated by the DXF.  If you have things that float, like the center of an A or R, you can either cut it out as a separate part, or make a bridge.  This is a delicate process that is reliant on experience with a specific tool.  In the case of Waterjet, it puts a large amount of force on the part if the bridge is to narrow and can blow it out.  If they are made separate, your often are fishing for small parts in the water catch.  

Assembled trophies. with color.  

I then broke out the backing so the outside had a boarder of yellow and the year circle would be broken off.  I pulled through holes for assembly so it could all be easily pop riveted together.  I used this to make sure everything is in the right place and it has a race feel to it.  I sent everything as separate files so all the components could be cut out easily.  

Expanded view of the assembly.  

I sent it all over to Bill and hoped everything would pan out.  

A week later I got this text and was super happy with the result.  The delivery constraint made powder coating or anodizing impossible.  Polished and assembled, they look fantastic.  

The finished product in Aluminum 

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.

The view from inside the cabin.

View of the beam detail.  

JB and Betty hanging out on the new steps.  

A view of all the work over the weekend.  Steps, and headers.  We did not get to the front header because we ran out of construction adhesive.  

Well, plugging along and I am almost done with my class.  We can then kick it up a notch with fabrication and sourcing to get her finished off.

Curved rafters: Plans E through G

Someone thought throwing buns at the safety fan would be a good time.  It was.  The photo turned out pretty cool where you can see through the blade from the exposure.  

It was a rainy weekend on the forecast which meant a full house at MakeIt Labs Adam was working on the TR6 getting the suspension back together.  Riley powder coated a friends trucks on his long board.  Paul was getting ready for his glass class.  Rob R was working on the wall for the CNC Plasma cutter.  Libby and I got to work on making curved beams.  

The first setup was to put the second bevel onto the rafters this would allow them to sit flush to the main roof beam.  In keeping with the ReUse theme, Libby and I have been making our own Iced tea at home and bringing it with us.  I like my stainless bottles, and Bamboo Bottle for a durable (Libby and I drop them, leave them on bumpers as we drive off, etc, all the time.)  We have been doing pretty good with making food at home and not going out to eat lately.

Stacks of rafters ready to be cut.  

 First try Plan E: Portable bad saw.  We tried remounting the Portable band saw to the arm and taking small cuts.  Well, the iced tea was good at least.  The saw bounced and would not track.  The blade pulled to the inside and left an angle on the cut.  On to the drawing board

Plan F: for fail.  I just had no plan F, we took a brake and grilled some food.  Plan F has been the best so far.

Using a High precision Layout tool (sharpie) we used the jig as a big compass.

Plan G use the Circle cutting truss to as a giant compass.  It worked.  We had to remove any screws that might have been in the way of the cut and then used a jig saw and time to cut it out.  the blade walked some and gave us a not so straight cut.

Libby cuts segments so we don't have a giant chunk of scrap.  

Before we do any cutting we need to remove all screws one screw will (and did ) destroy a jigsaw blade.

Libby follows the line as best she can.  The laminated beams were tough to keep cutting correct.

Paul gets his glass class ready for students.  It is exciting when folks learn things.

Libby traces an arc to make sure no screws will get cut and damage a blade on the Jig Saw.

This is what a screw in the exact wrong position goes.  

It got to a point where Libby and I gave up for the evening beyond cleaning up. We left with 14 of 24 rafters cut and no energy.  Back at it in the AM.

In the morning, we started cutting but Libby had the glass class.  She was making a birthday gift and learning about glass grinding.

Grinding curves into the glass chunk.

After a few hours of instruction, Libby, Mike and Nate made some very cool projects.

Celestina tests her RGB LED lights for the hamburger trailer.  I am ready for her to start serving hamburgers.

 Libby cut most of the rafters out after class while I worked on the peak beams and large rafters.  They were all made up of 4x4's and 4x6's.

We had to pull some shallow angles that our setup tool would not do anything above 50 degree's.  I use a machinist Layout Square to get the complementary angles and make a 22.5 degree angle.  

Look at that giant beam waiting for some glue and a big curved cut.  

This is what that big beam looks like in profile.

A detail of the main joint.  It should work.  In theory.  it will be made in two parts and assembled with the gusset up at camp with Lag Bolts we recovered from the Pallets.    

This is what we made today.  Plenty strong.

All of the parts constructed up to this point.  

All we have left to cut aside from Roof and wall sheathing.  Progress is happening.  

Adams truck full of scrap and cut off;s from this weekend. time for a bonfire.  

With any luck, the last two pallets will come in this weekend and we can finish these rafters up this weekend.  Time for a nap.