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.

Play 4 Life

Staying healthy is something I have struggled with for years.  I love cheese, fried foods, meat, and snack foods that are easy at the gas station.  I enjoy drive through food an energy drinks.  At one point I made it up to 350 pounds and would get winded walking up stairs.  At that point, I started buying sugar free energy drinks.  I lost like 10 pounds.  I started going to the gym on and off at work out world.  I would finish up and go grab something to eat at taco bell and dropped down to around 325.  At this point I saw a friend of mine Tyler who had gotten fat while at college (not as fat as me) and was now in good shape.  I asked what he did and he talked about a friend who opened a new gym with something different.

I hit it hard and started going doing boot camps and improving by leaps and bounds. On day one, I could not do a sit up, I could not do an air squat.  A plank was not conceivable, let alone a push up.  I am still not able to do a pull up, or a dip un assisted but, I am still working on it.  I found a new passion and community with John, Tyler, Doug, Greg, and a few others as we walked in together and pushed as hard as we could.  I started hitting little goals.  One day, I could do a full air squat.  Then I was able to do sit ups.  Push ups came next, and I noticed things like a shirt had more room in the gut.  We have fun.  I like flipping tires, hoisting atlas stones, and dead lifting big heavy weights.  My girlfriend Libby would come with me and it was our routine.  We would go to the gym, and then make some healthy dinner and go for a swim out at Rocky Pond.

I saw the other side of 300 pounds for the first time in years.  I was to the point of being able to run a mile before I messed up my knee on my birthday this year.  Since then I had some issues with my kitchen at home which made making food a pain in the but and ate out way to much.  I gained back about 20 pounds which I doubt was muscle.  Since Libby has graduated, she has helped us to eat some better food and prep meals as well as iced tea.  The fact I have not had a heart attack in the past year is likely her doing.

While I had time trying to heal my knee, I have been doing some research on calisthenics.  It costs nothing to do, and prisoners use it to not die.  Nashua doesn't really have anywhere to do this aside from using children's playground equipment.  I watched the video's from Barstarzz.  These guys are insane and doing these things without fancy gym's, just dedication and a pull up bar for the most part.  I started doing push ups, sit ups and air squats at work while I waited for files to load.  I can only do so much with my knee, but something is better than nothing.  

Then Sunday morning, I saw a post from a Facebook friend Mike linking to an article from the New York times.  I read it and new Nashua needs something like this.  We need a park with equipment that is meant for working out.  Someone should make one.  I realized I could be someone.  I have plenty of contacts through work and my after work activities at MakeIt Labs to help get things donated.  I have skills with design and should be able to figure this out.  I looked at some commercial equipment and it all looked great.  Strong and would do what it needs to do.  It is very easy to fabricate and pretty vandal proof.  It is just not pretty.  I want to make something that you show up to and you want to do a pull up.  It should look like it is meant to be there and integrates into the surrounding landscape.  

After very little thought, the site should be Mine Falls park.  I lived down the street from it when I was a kid. I rode my bike to My first job at Aubuchon hardware.  I walked to High School every day before I could drive.  I rode in my first bike race around the loop.  It holds lots of memories and I would love to give back. I am just starting this project so many things like actual viability are unknown at this point.  

I like the idea of a trail of workout stations.  I have seen them before, you go through and hit numbered stations as you move to try and hit all of your muscle groups.  Wikipedia has a good article on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_trail

Doing anything for public installation has a few design criteria.  I am unsure if a formal list exists, but this is what I would use.  

1.  Super strong.  Something that can withstand large force without deflection.  Overbuilt = just strong enough.  When you let the public touch anything, they will find a way to brake it that you never came up with.  

2.  Bolted down.  People steel anything so anything that needs to move should be fastened in such a way that removal is very hard without a cutting torch.  

3. Resistant to being defaced, easily repaired.  It should be hard for someone to damage it with a knife and good looking enough were people would prefer to do a pull up instead of carve a word into it.  

4. Low maintenance.  I want to make something the parks department has very little work to maintain.  

5. Low environmental impact.  For the entire project, I want to try and use recycled material when possible. Steel beams I will try and source from local recycling firms.  Wood, from local tree service folks.  I want to use something with an organic shape.  I would like for everything to work with the surrounding woods, not stick out. 

I modeled up a traditional outdoors pull up station.  Very functional, cheap to manufacture, and easily available.  

This is what a normal station Might look like, A few heights and allow you to do a muscle up.  

So this would work, would be very easy to make and not to expensive.  I want to make something that a  Disney Imagineer  would be proud of.  I was watching the Modern Marvels on the tree of life and the cool things they did.  

It will take lots of design work and some artistic input to make all of the stations, but this is what I have an idea for just the pull up station.  

So this is what I think a pull up tree should look like.  

It has multiple stations and allow for different height folks to work out at the same time.  The supports should be high enough to allow for a muscle up.  It uses an I beam as the main structure, which will be way above what is needed for strength.  This would able to be fabricated off site and trucked in for installation.  the majority of it would be welded so no fasteners to be removed and items to be stolen.  Now the hard part is coming up with what other equipment is needed and how to make it look awesome.  

Stations I want to incorporate:

Dips

Rings

Row

Push up bars

Monkey bars 

Please put what else you would like to see in the comments.

I wrote this during the 2010 state of the union.  Without edit, it still apply to the healthcare bill.  

Please poke holes where this does not work. Revised recently due to the state of the union. Now I need to find an office to run for.

Politician vs Statesman: an angry essay by Robert Masek

So what’s a Statesman, (as defined by me) A person who is voted into public office in order to work for the public sector and then return to the private sector. A person who is in government to help others, do their civic duty. SOmeone who decides that everyone else who could win is an asshat.

A Politician is a scumbag who spends years working themselves up the ranks so they have the leverage to get what they want. Scumbags who lie, rape, steal, deceive, obfuscate, collude, and most could not even get a credit card.

So how do we fix it? 

First step is realizing "we" have to fix it, meaning You and I will be involved. First thing we as a people do is start at home. Pay off our debt, biggest interest rate first. Credit cards > car loan> home loan. Live within our means, and then when it is all paid off, start saving money. Sure it is hard. but, when banks no longer see lending as a huge profit center, the whole system will change. then when issues come, we will have some money to pay for help instead of asking for help from the government. less help from the government = less government jobs. less federal jobs and assistance = less taxes for everyone. I am not against assistance, I just think it should not be through the government and should be handled at the community level. less administration and oversight is easy when the people handling the money have to make eye contact which if my observations of people are correct, it is harder ethically to steal from the needy when you have to see the hand your taking from.

I have a great way to fix government. Super easy with the current infrastructure.

Term limits for everyone. Legislature, judicial, everyone. I think an entire new breed of elected official will show up. People who run business in the real world. Who add value to the country instead of leaches like investment bankers, lawyers, non value succubuses.

No lobbyists. Listen to me, to my parents, to people who pay taxes, not who are paid to look after an interest of some guy with more money which should not equal more pull with the government.

Tax the heck out of imports. So what if a 52 inch plasma costs 8 grand instead of 4. What do we need a giant tv for. How about we go outside and enjoy the diversity of environments this country affords us, read, share books, talk to our neighbors. Live in a community and stop trying to have a house full of technology made in china designed in India. During world war 2 we were known as the sleeping giant. An industrial power house. Now, find a kid who even knows what a lathe is. We couldn’t manufacture our way out of a paper bag.

Public review of all bills. Before anything voted on, it has 7 days unmodified of public review. We can all read it, on the internet at a library, newspaper, somewhere. What, it is wasteful to print a 400 page bill to review; maybe we should limit a bill to 4 pages. Less words are easier to understand. No pork.

Make them show up to work. How many votes does a senator have to miss to be dismissed? A 5 day work week, sounds good to me.  How about compensation, everyone gets a choice between a Ford Focus, Chevy Aveo, or Dodge Neon. Government officials should be rewarded enough to serve their follow man.

Live by all the rules they vote for. Yes, they would have to pay into ss and would loose their death benefits like all other citizens. How about retirement benefits, none. No continual pay, no healthcare. And if they commit a felony, forget about getting voted into office. How can someone have a publicly elected position as a felon and not allow a felon to vote?

Can’t run for a new job while you have the first elected one. IE while your the governor, you have to wait till after your out of office to run for senator. In the private sector, your boss usually will not allow you to spend 20 hours a week trying to get a better job on his dime. why do we allow it in government?

Get rid of the irs, flat taxes, no loopholes. You make money in the US, you pay US taxes.

Pay the stupid debt off.  How come I can’t just make up money? If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Be more efficient, get rid of the rules we don’t enforce, and the stupid ones, like no texting while driving. Common sense will do a lot for this country, your kids are dumb, go do homework with them. Your fat, go work out. Your in debit, stop buying things.

Pay teachers more, and have the pay be performance based. Fire the crap ones.

All government officials’ schedules are public including who they met with, and minutes from the meeting. Open and honest government.

I can follow a budget, put it all online. why do we need a special sub-comitee when we have a 300 million person auditing team who can do the work for free. all we need is the entire budget, and this is the important part, actual accounting of moneys spent available online in real time.

Require a civics test to vote. Require citizenship to vote.  

Your an illegal alien and want to be a citizen?  No problem, you start paying taxes pass a civics test and the actual cost of administration.

Gay marriage? go for it!

Who pays for college? all that money we spent on the IRS.

Last but not least, everyone in this litigious society takes responsibility for there own actions.

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.