KKSD 09: The Sand Reckoner

Derby Video!

2009-06-05T16:22:00.001-04:00

Thank you Hedy!

Many thanks to Peter Parker & Jordan Romney for the video footage.

Extra special thanks to Douglas, for taking one for the team. And getting it on film.

The Glory

2009-05-20T14:57:00.019-04:00

Saturday started off bright and early at the shop. Last minute tweeks, tightenings, decorating and costuming took up the few hours the team had left...

The crew rolled The Reckoner out and started to pedal... and then it happened. Erik thankfully noted that one of the cassettes was slipping again. Better right near the shop than half way through the derby eh? There are definately some gremlins in our shop...

John rushed back and performed some extreme welding in the street. His lack of welding gloves was compensated by his shoulder pad. Safety third ...

NOTE: Do not buy crappy bikes from Walmart unless you like fixing them

Everything fixed! Ready to roll for real this time!

Ava ready to man the Dune Skipper's chaos cage

Hedy puts some final touches on The Dune Skippers sighting scope

The neighbors are already starting to flock around the vehicles. Time to set sail and make the journey to the Derby staging grounds!

But not before a team toast!

Bill and Dave staged at the Derby prepping the weather balloons for the mudpit finale! Apparently when you tell the local gas house you want 2 helium tanks, they deliver and charge you for 3... No worries that means we have to hand out more custom printed Sand Reckoner balloons.

The weather was supposed to rain all day, it was borderline drizzling when we go there. It just had to hold out for a few more hours. Rain or shine, The Crew must ride! Generator gassed up, playlist in order, tires inflated, wheels true, bubble machines fueled, crew fit and ready, all systems go!

12:30 Derby Time! We positioned ourselves last in the parade. Hedy and her crew of Kate, Dave, and Ava lead the Sand fleet

while Tom, John & Erik cover the rear.

Mackie 450 pointed at the ground + laptop + tech house + Honda suitcase genny = huge sound, spinning propellers & people dancing on the street

Keeping invaders at bay with the bubble pistols. Time to head to the park for the loop around.

Tom, John & Erik keep a watchful eye as the rest of the parade circles the park section of the race. The plywood ramp to get up to the park was too narrow for The Reckoner's massive wheel base.

"What do we do now?"

Onward!

The last leg of the race is through Trenton Ave, an old cobble stone street about a mile long. This is the true test of your sculpture. The death rattle is enough to break the mightiest of welds and collapse even the strongest of wheels. This would be the Dune Skippers second voyage down the gauntlet. Hedy steers her crew into the storm with nerves of steel and a look of concentration that would slice through brick.

The Sand Reckoner does not hesitate for a moment either, wherever The Skipper goes The Reckoner will follow!

The cobble stones were enough to trip the tilt sensor in our on board generator so it was dead silent besides metal rattling noises the entire ride. All the team could think about was if 'it' would hold.... whatever 'it' may be.

Made it through! Everything held!

There was a backup for the mud pit finale so the team discussed approach strategy. It was decided that The Dune Skipper would build up speed and take it head on while The Sand Reckoner would slowly crawl up and low gear it across with lift assist from the weather balloons.

The Dune Skipper blasted through with a roar from the crowd. The Reckoner made it maybe 2 feet then stopped dead in its tracks. John, Erik & Tom hopped down braving the mud and pulled her through to bring the Derby to a triumphant finish.

Post mudpit, the Sun is shining!

decompressing after that amazing ride

she did well
great job on the details!
Whats a derby without beer?
Amazing

where is Tom?

Erik, Kate, Ava, Tom, Hedy, John & Dave

Winners of the 'Best Art' Award

Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby

Trenton Ave Arts Festival 2009

Some other shots of the day:

Philadelphia Casino Protesters

The Zombish, won 'Peoples Choice' Award.
Amazing work

Our friends, The Flying Monkeys.

Winners of 'Best Costume' Award

What a great experience from start to end. It has been a pleasure working and getting to know everyone in the crew. It really is a testament to what can happen when you bring curious minds together united through a creative drive. Thank you to Erik, Hedy, Dave, Tom, Kate, John and everyone who popped their heads in the shop to help & support over the months.

Until next year!

(HD Video to be posted soon)

more media can be seen in the meantime @

http://www.philebrity.com/2009/05/18/slideshow-trenton-ave-arts-festkensington-kinetic-sculpture-derby-51609/

and

http://www.philebrity.com/2009/05/20/and-now-more-weird-things-people-made-with-old-bikes/

3. 2. 1...

2009-05-15T09:39:00.000-04:00

The final hours! Friday night, the team gathered to finish up.

Erik was back on the creeper, with last minute brake fixing.

Hedy put the final touches on the sculptures:

No matter what happens tomorrow, this has been an unforgettable journey!

Last Minute Video

2009-05-14T00:01:00.005-04:00

A few videos of our tireless work over the past 2 days...

The Dune Skipper and her crew scout the park out. The chain sound wasn't originally intentional, but we are keeping it now because it fits the theme so nicely. Keep them chains hangin' low for real.

The Sand Reckoner gets augmented with her overdrive boost kit. This is in emergency situations when a full head on charge is needed while crashing the gate.

2 more days...

3 Days

2009-05-13T09:24:00.006-04:00

The Dune Skipper is about 99% there. Kate has been busy finishing up the chaos cage and crew guards. Erik made a new friend, Big Red, the shop creeper who fits perfectly under The Dune Skipper for work on the derailleurs & disc brakes. Hedy has been busy detailing the sculpture and John, Dave & Tom have been finishing tuning up The Reckoner.

Just a few more details and she is ready to take her scout car role in front of The Reckoner. We will be showcasing 2 different vehicles from the same fleet... one nimble scout & collection vehicle and one crawling machine of war... we cant wait.

Her wheels may be small in comparison but she has the top end speed

That's right, she is on blocks. Look at that steel ball detailing (insert ball joke here) and those plush reclined leather seats complete with cup holders. You cant get any more luxurious can you?

We left the front 'incense' holders from Octovishnu last year as is. His humble orange octo spirit lives on! Its interesting there are pieces of all 3 Kinetic Sculpture Derby entries on The Dune Skipper. The chain guides are from The Mothership, the original entry to the KKSD 2 years ago, that John was involved in. My my how the vehicles have evolved in just 2 years!

Its getting close!

4 Days

2009-05-12T08:46:00.005-04:00

Today we were interviewed by a local radio station WRTI about the upcoming Kinetic Sculpture Derby and our progress. The team tightened up some bolts and snugged up a few wires and the Reckoner was down off of her blocks and out for another test run.

Final check before the ride. Tom approves

Captain Tom doing what he was born to do

Pedaling to the meet-up spot

Tom, Dave & John

Interviewin'

We were near the El, no good for radio having a train ruin your recording every 5 mins. So we decided to take the reporter on a ride to a nearby park where it was quiet.

Great to hear every ones input, it was amazing to reflect on the entire process and what we experienced.

Oh look who decided to show up at the park? The Dune Skipper and her loyal crew!

Overall the test ride was a success! We loaded up The Reckoner with 2 additional people to see how it would handle weight. After about 4 or 5 blocks worth of riding the wire spokes stretched a little bit which is good/bad. We now know roughly the weight limit this thing can handle before the wheels start to flex. Interestingly enough the rear wheels full 3x spoke pattern didnt stretch at all, the front wheels which have a half 3x half 0x stretched the most. All knowledge for the next build! Now back to the shop for a tune up and a final prep for Saturdays glorious ride!

Final Stretch

2009-05-11T09:23:00.003-04:00

Well its crunch time! About a week left and lots of detailing to do!

Kate gets to work augmenting the Dune Skipper with a chaos cage. Look at those plush seats...

On the other side of the shop it was welding limbo trying to install the new go-kart breaks. John and Dave had quite a time playing Sand Reckoner twister and came out victors. Dave braves the tack welds risking his skin for the glory of the Reckoner as John balances his right foot on yellow and left hand on green.

Tacked into place, everything aligned and tight. No hydraulic fluid to deal with... just cutting down break line sheathing to size thanks to Erik's exceptional needle nose plier skills.

Now that's stopping power with style. Each pedaler has break control over their own wheel so its quite an orchestration between both drivers and steering... fun fun fun. Next Shes ready for another paint coat from Captain Tom. Dune Skipper is in tip top shape. 5 more days until we depart!

The Dune Skipper

2009-05-06T22:22:00.008-04:00

It was a suspiciously busy night at the shop, especially since "everyone was taking the night off." One by one we filtered into the shop...makers never stop making.

Since the whole team was on deck, we set up the Sand Reckoner's skiff, The Dune Skipper, in the repair bay. Saturday she gets an overhaul and makeover...for the glory of riding in the KKSD once again!

Awesome video by KATE.

Failiure IS an option...

2009-05-06T10:31:00.008-04:00

Well, unfortunately things do go wrong through the design process. One of them being using salvaged materials during building. These calipers were pulled off of an 80's Honda 750 from good ol A&J Cycle Salvage right near Philly International. The owner claimed they were in working order (no) and cut me a deal on the calipers, rotors and the front end... well what do you expect from parts that have been sitting in a scrap heap for nearly 3 decades? After flushing and reflushing the breaks one of the bleed valves treated Tom with a nice confetti of metal shavings... caliper housing stripped...

We also found that the calipers did work, just not with equal pressure no matter how many times we bled/adjusted. This would not be acceptable for our design since, unlike on a car where you have an engine with some horsepower, we are pedal starting this. Any minor resistance which is usually felt by a motorcycle/car caliper set is more than enough to stop us dead in our tracks pedal powering this. Mountain bike break discs are too dinky for our application... go kart breaks rush ordered...

.... We couldn't lend ourselves to destroy these breaks, even after they screwed us over. Banished to the parts bin for another project! After 5 hours of break work, it was time to take a rest and instead get the creative juices flowing with some artistic detailing.

Oh, new Argon tank refill came in for the welder, Kate to the rescue ... butter welds from here on in! Its these little pleasures in life that can turn frustration around. Welding with/without shielding gas is like using MSPaint when Photoshop is available. It 'works' and gets the job done and one could get quite good at paint right? spray can anyone? But why bother when Photoshop is right there?

Hedy says enough of the rain! Paint time indoors is a good way to spend a rainy evening. Its been raining for 3 months straight in Philly.. whats the deal?

fresh matte black plastic coat finish on the frame thanks to Tom! He braved the mighty clouds of black paint and came out triumphant...

Cast iron detailing

Cup holders cut from steel pipe with team initials torched into them, thanks again Kate!

Rear lighting installed

Proper step-up for the captain

Propeller mounts to come... another badass find by Kate during her latest Fazzios run

Only a few days left! Its crunch time!

On The Road Again!

2009-05-03T22:04:00.004-04:00

The crew took her out for another road test today. She was a hit with passer-bys!

Finishing Touches

2009-05-01T14:18:00.002-04:00

We have been busy touching up on some final things on the vehicle over the past few days... we basically could ride this thing out of here as is, but there is no fun in that now is there?

John adding additional seat braces, when he is not welding?

There he goes again, adding handlebars to the bottom of the seats to mount shifter knobs. Erik is a brave man.

He survives! Look at that relaxed geometry, thanks craigslist for the weight bench!

Hedy continues to coat the sculpture pieces in glue, waiting for that sunny day to paint!

Size comparison of these bitching details she added. Watch those hands...

Erik mounts the shifters, full 21 gears of go go go! No hairspray at the shop to get that last bit of knob onto the bar, damn!

John tweeks the break pads. We had to grind about an 1/8'' off of both pads to get the rotor to float inside the caliper nicely. If we didnt do this, since this is human powered, the added resistance would have not alowed us to pedal this baby. Lets make sure to breathe in that break dust!

We decided to flip the wheels so the mustang logos appear on the inside. This adds additional rigidity to the axles because it brings the hub closer to the bearing mounts, reducing the amount of 'floating' axle length to bend. Looks better this way as well, crimps galore!

Spinnin'

Roll of The Dice

2009-04-30T07:17:00.007-04:00

This week has been spent putting finishing touches on the vehicle. Mounting and tightening the shifter knobs, speakers, power source for all the electronics, shaft collars to beef up the axles a bit, ect ect.

Sculpture is in its final stages, waiting for a sunny day to bring the pieces outside for painting.

The cassettes decided to take a crap all of the sudden and stop free spinning. You would expect dirt cheap Walmart bikes to last a little longer right? I guess we got what we paid for... both failed the same way. Maybe there was lead based castings or something in the freewheel casing... problem solved though, Erik bought American made quality (after being to be subject to a lecture on how buying china parts is crap from the bike store guy) and now they freespin smooth as butter silk pancakes.

So we have .75'' axles supporting this thing, more than enough steel to hold this baby up in its current configuration. The wheels flex slightly when loaded, not terrible but certain sections more than others. John decided to add some shaft collars to beef up those certain sections and cut down on the flexing. A 1.25'' OD x .75'' ID aluminum tube was magically ordered. Now the ID had a tolerance of .020'', you basically have a 50% chance of it being oversized which is what we want in this case to slide over the shaft easily. Tube arrived, John broke out the calipers to see where it fell in, .735'' ... =*(

John didn't have access to a .75'' reamer at the shop, luckily he found a dull .75'' drill bit that happened to cut just undersized enough to be a pain in the ass. Multiple passes were made on each collar to make sure the max amount of material was cut from each. The final bore was somewhere around .748''. Taking into consideration the axles have around a .005'' tolerance this would definitely cause a headache somewhere during the fitting process. Well nothing beats oil, mallets and some good old old elbow grease. After about an hour of wailing on the 3 axles John and Dave got them snug and in place.

Beefy, look at those guns

Tom went to town with the angle grinder cutting mesh sections for equipment mounts and foot rests. Those cutting wheels really got chewed up by the mesh material. Cut, cut cut, sparks, sparks, sparks ::: break::: replaces wheel, cut, cut cut, sparks, sparks, sparks ::: break::: replaces wheel, cut, cut cut, sparks, sparks, sparks ::: break::: replaces wheel. If only we had our oxy/acetylene tanks filled... More pics coming soon. Only 2 weeks away!

Seat Mounted

2009-04-28T10:52:00.004-04:00

Short day tonight at the shop, Hedy Erik John & Tom dove right in. We don't have too many pics of tonight, but... the seat is mounted

Ready to set sail

Bowie approves

Sunny Saturday

2009-04-26T08:41:00.001-04:00

Saturday was quite the day at the shop. The crew was all busy working on getting this thing riding today! It was about 92, sunny, perfect for a ride on the Sand Reckoner. Rob made a guest appearance today to help with the break system.

2 Rotors welded to 3/4'' keyed hubs, 2 calipers, 1 master cylinder... its breaking time

Rob gets to work with the break mounts

sizing the mounts to the calipers

Meanwhile we cut and moved the bikes forward and up. Looks better yeah? This will allow us to be above the wheels instead of inside them thus avoiding tire rash on our arms. We also welded a cage for Tom to sit in for the rest of the day.
Mounted the calipers and rotors! Everything fits and is ready for final adjustments... now we are stoppin' with hydraulic disc power baby!

Happy idlers and sprockets

While the rest of the crew was working on the vehicle, Hedy was enjoying the sun working on the sculpture pieces.

Looking amazing

Another angle, cant wait to mount these to the vehicle!

And as promised, we finally got the Reckoner outside for a test run!

Gogo iPhone video...

We pushed/hand pedaled it down to the local park. Steering system worked flawlessly, it was quite an effort though constantly adjusting and compensating for the delay. Its like steering a boat. Lots of people commented on the vehicle, most were confused and amazed. Great fun!

Next we mount the seats and the sculpture and get working on detailing this baby up!

+215+

2009-04-24T13:02:00.004-04:00

Kate getting some lettering ready... badass

Its starting to get warm out, the team is itching for the first ride. Octovishnu is whispering to us to take him out as well... Lets see what the weekend brings it's supposed to be beautiful out!

More Sculpture Sculpting

2009-04-23T14:35:00.000-04:00

Thursday Night was mostly sculpture & wheel truing related.

Really starting to take shape..

Makings of sculpture attachments... fun fun

Its finished!

2009-04-21T09:49:00.002-04:00

Complete with 6'' steel mine stomping wheel boots!

Nah, we got a few more tweeks left with the steering, wheel truing & bike geometries then she should be ready to ride. Fingers crossed the first test ride will be this weekend!

Bowling a Turkey

2009-04-18T23:09:00.010-04:00

The next series of photos is over 2 days, everyone has been so busy working that we didnt have time to upload all the pics!

Welded #40 sprocket to a steel hub/cassette ready for bearing installation

This is where man meets machine...

Old hub turned into steering cable spindle

Spindle joined to ground down front end and mini wheel for balance

Kate does some last minute welding on the steering arm

TIME TO MOUND THE 3RD WHEEL!

There she is... ready to tear it up

Bikes welded, ready for chain work

Meanwhile Tom gets chugging along with the bowling pin captains wheel.

This thing weighs at least 50 lbs... 10 bowling pins...

Hedy continues work on the sculpture, almost there (This thing is massive)

Close up of our 4 way roller from a winch used as the steering cable guide... Keep those hands clear!!

Custom pulley block welded on angle iron. This is the final bend before the spool. Old Bowflex parts coming in the clutch, Feel the burn!

Time to weld the captains wheel/spindle combo to the frame. The top of those pins are about 10'

leftover spoke cable used for the steering system. Since this is a rudder steering configuration we are crossing our steering cables so the captains wheel & steering direction coincide.

She steers!!

Just tightening up the chains, installing the seats & mounting the breaks and she is ready to ride!!

Tranquility Falls

2009-04-15T14:52:00.008-04:00

Soothed by the ambient sound of water fountains, the team put in a long, productive Tuesday night at the shop.

Dave & Erik get to work chopping the 2 bikes.

China's finest cassette

John is a man of many spokes...
Aligning up the steering arm for welding... How many cameras can you spot in this photo?

Brainstorming on the best way to attach the steering arm...

Prepped for the steering, Tom is lifting the 3000lb frame with 1 arm...

Last minute crimping..
and wheel truing..

A quick team meeting to discuss the sculpture part of the vehicle.

...then it's off to work!

A quick size check.

Next visit, steering arm is going to be attached or we quit!

We Got a Bleeder!

2009-04-14T09:27:00.012-04:00

Monday night was quite the busy time at the ol' shop. We worked through a few problems (opportunities) and came out triumphant and excited. Kate, Tom, Dave, Hedy, Erik & John put in another hard night of work to get The Reckoner on her legs.

First order of business was to solve the steering arm design. Tom suggested we go with a bent tube design. This would cut down on the amount of welds and alignment . We were going to order a metric steel tube to fit the motorcycles steering assembly, but after searching the scrap pile originally for a piece of steel to test the bender with, we ended up finding the perfect fitting piece of rusty old scaffold. Yay for scrap pile finds!

We ground a bit down on one end and it looks like it could fit... Now to test the bender and see if we can get everything parallel.

John workin' the 12 ton bender. Go go harbor freight its great!

knowledge.

This may look like a mangled piece of failure but we learned quite a bit from this test piece. The top two bends were done with a smaller die which ended up pinching the pipe. The bends resulted in both ends nearly parallel to each other, but twisted slightly. The bottom bend was with a larger die and successfully no pinching. The bend radius was unfortunately too large and ended up twisting the pipe further. All in all we realised that there were too many variables using a hand bender with pipe twisting and making sure parallelism is maintained on both arms. If we had a nice set up with proper measuring tools & jigs, a steering arm out of bent tube would be the way to go. So onto plan B which is inserting 2 short tubes into the steering assembly and welding up a square tube steering arm.

Tom gets cutting the tubes...

And grinding ...

Kate cuts all the steering arm square tube...

Meanwhile Dave finishes the steering arm bearing mounts. Curse you dull drill bits and your siren screams!

Victory slam!

Hedy starts crafting the sculpture pieces. Who knew PVC fittings could crack so easily? Does Hedy have super human strength? Its a mystery!

Good old PVC & chicken wire

Kate & Hedy sizing it up... The Reckoner is coming together

Erik saves the day with a late night bike delivery.

We decided it would be best to go with 2 new cheap steel bikes for the drive train instead of sorting thru our scrap pile and sizing components. Building up the hubs & derailleurs from our scrap components would cost more than the new bikes from Toys R Us! New complete drive trains with everything fitted... its the way to go. This means that the 2 bikes we cut & prepped were for nothing, well no we now have prepped bikes for future goofy bike projects!

Taking all the steering arm parts and aligning it for welding.

Magnets are your friend.

John carefully tacks the pieces in place. Can't warp the steering arm!

Tom finished the tubes. Old rusty piece of scaffold vs ground down shiny tube bling. Time to fit into the steering mount!

The butter zone. The tubes fit snuggly, success!

Both tubes fitted, steering column looking a little heavy... time to cut her down.

Slim diet of sawzaw blades & grinder did the trick. Ready to mount to the frame!

It was a great effort today, great job team! In the next few days we will be mounting the bikes & the steering column with arm attached... Then The Reckoner is rolling!

Key to the Kingdom

2009-04-11T18:20:00.003-04:00

Today was a quick stop at the shop. Dave, Tom, Erik, Hedy and John all dove into projects making the most of a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Erik continued to true up all the wheels. We found that a few spokes were maxed out and we have to cut the crimps off and recrimp so that they can be of use.

Dave worked on the shoulder bearing mounts for the steering arm

Tom and Hedy started cutting the captains wheel out of 2 3/4'' sections of plywood glued together

Tom making a finishing pass. Clearly enough room for bowling pins to mount on

John was a weld monkey finishing up all the sprockets and hub adapters.

The next week will be very busy, steering column will be cut and welded, wheels recrimped, trued then mounted, steering cables ran, bike fronts welded & captains wheel set in place. Before you know it we will be Sand rollin' down front street.

Things Are Heating Up

2009-04-05T10:45:00.005-04:00

This visit to the shop was very productive. Things are starting to come together fast! John picked up the first hub adapter plate from the machine shop and did a test fit and everything aligned perfectly! Time to weld it to the adapter and get a wheel mounted!

Everything lines up, bolt circles match the hubs

Checking for warpage... everything ok so far

Time to move the frame from the ground to up on our 'jig' so we can work on the wheels and have better access to the underside.

Erik & John moving her into place..

Tom always making sure things are moving smoothly, nothing but class...

The first wheel is mounted! YAY!

Meanwhile, Dave goes to town finishing bike prep for the pedal system.

Kate gets to work cutting more gussets for the frame

Welding bike parts

More welding...

Well the next visit to the shop should be equally as busy. The motorcycle front end will be ready and the other 2 hub adapter plates will be in as well. Hopefully within a week or so we can have this thing ready to ride!!!

Bike Stripdown

2009-04-02T13:10:00.003-04:00

This visit to the shop was very busy. Since the frame and wheels are finally finished, its time to start installing all of the drive train hardware and prepping the bikes for welding. The salvaged front end is still not ready for pick up, so we need to do as much as we can now to prep for its arrival .

3/4'' shoulder bearings installed on the frame, 4 in total. The bolts will be flipped in their final configuration

Erik works on stripping the first bike down to the frame

While Dave works on the second bike....

Hedy takes a 'go juice' break

John cut a few frame braces

Kate turned into a welding machine cranking out the steering gussets

And the additional frame braces

Erik cut both bikes down. We are using only the rear triangle off of each frame.

Hopefully next visit we will have the steering pieces together so we can start mounting all of the wheels!

Technical Drawings & Stuffs

2009-03-30T20:34:00.003-04:00

Here are a few documents generated by the team throughout the build we thought we would share with you!

This is a breakdown of how we used spokcalc excel sheet and our hub & rim measurements to determine our 3x spoke pattern lengths.

This is a construction blueprint of all the frame pieces that had to be cut for the basic frame. Disregard the rediculous .000'' tolerances on the measurements... drawing error heh.

This is the drawing that will be used to program a cnc mill to cut our wheel adapter plate so that we can secure the wheel to the drive shaft with standard X-Size keyed weld hubs

This is a very preliminary layout concept. We have decided since then to add more riders and change the seating configuration to a bench style in the middle and bring the steering forward a bit.

TREADS

2009-03-29T22:43:00.003-04:00

Erik finishes the last of the tread. 4 bike tires per wheel. And screws, screws, screws, screws.

Go juice.

Salvage Yard Saturday

2009-03-29T11:59:00.008-04:00

The wheels are just about all tread ed at this point. Spirits are high and excitement further building. Saturday morning, John & Denise went to a motorcycle salvage yard and put a deposit down for a front end off of an 80's Honda 750 for the steering system. This includes the front neck, triple trees, 2 calipers, 2 rotors, a master cylinder & a brake lever. The cool thing is, since we are salvaging the neck, it includes a salvage title. So technically The Sand Reckoner has a dmv title to its name... custom plates anyone?

Erik working hard to tread the last of the wheels.

John cutting the rear steering bracers on the chop saw

Sketch of the basic frame, there will be additional trussing added down the line

After all frame pieces were square and welded it was time to position everything we had so far into its final configuration. This really was inspiring to see it all come together. The design we choose has 2 wheels in front, 1 person per wheel pedaling and 1 wheel in the back which is for steering. Below is roughly what the final vehicle will look like:

Rear angled shot of the beast

Top down shot, chair is there for visual purposes.

A proud team standing in front of their creation!

Hmm, what is this? A mystery project??

Next on the agenda is mounting all of the drive train hardware to the frame. At this point, the team can start getting an idea of how to mount the sculpture on top of this. Things will be moving pretty quickly in the next few weeks! Almost there!

Friday Frame Build

2009-03-27T23:14:00.006-04:00

Tonight Kate & John met up to cut and weld the frame. The team decided to make the structure out of 1.25 x 1/16'' wall square steel tube. First step of the night was to cut all the pieces to length and then grind & wire brush prep them for welding.

John, griding the piece to finish

Once all the pieces were cut it was time to lay them out and get welding! Its important to sequence your welds so that the thermal expansion from heating up the steel wont warp your final dimensions.

Kate laying out the initial perimeter

John about to make the first tack

John running the first bead.

Finished wheel frame, nice and square

Kate doing a final inspection on the squareness of the frame.

What a way to spend a Friday night! Kate and John got just about all of the frame welded, all that is left is the steering braces and then its ready for trussing! Tomorrow its a trip to the motorcycle salvage yard, more wheel treadin & welding!

Treadin' Tediously

2009-03-25T11:39:00.003-04:00

Now that the wheels are complete, the next step is to add some treading to them so they can grip the various terrains we expect to encounter as well as protect the plastic from wearing. Oh, did you think this task would be non-tedious? What were you thinking...

The shop is calm... almost too calm

Erik, Tom, Dave & Hedy took charge coating the wheels with their new rubber skins. Tom calculated that it would take 2, 26'' mountain bike tires per ridge, so that's 4 per wheel and 12 tires total. This adds up quick, if you can go with salvaged tires. We found some new, fairly cheap, tires online to keep the look consistent. The steps for this round include: Cut the tire into an interlocking pattern, spread glue on the plastic ridge, lay tire over the glue, clamp, then start screwing her down tight.

Look at that work face, Erik is definitely into it.

Clamping the tire, ready for screwing

Do this 1000 times

Dave working hard, one wheel almost complete!

Looks bad ass! Great job team!

ATLAS | ANGUS | ALICIA

2009-03-22T19:56:00.006-04:00

THE LAST WHEEL

Tom, John, Dave, Hedy and Dominic assembled the final wheel, Alicia.

Dave threads.

Bowie watches.

Dom and Hedy crimp.

John weaves.

Tom and John tighten.

Tom smiles.

Alicia plays.

A Field Trip to Fazios

2009-03-22T08:51:00.004-04:00

More nuts. More eyebolts. And a bit of steel. Followed by a family outing to the Berlin Flea Market!

Deja vu

2009-03-19T23:43:00.003-04:00

Prepping for the third and final wheel.

Spoke cutting jig.

John welds more eyebolts.

Alex crimps the spokes.

Finishing Angus

2009-03-18T21:58:00.006-04:00

The team spend a few hours each weekday finishing up Angus and prepping for the final wheel Alicia. The method was sound, the team members experienced, and the wheel making not so tedious anymore. We figured it takes about 4 hours per wheel from measuring, drilling, cutting, crimping and weaving. Not too bad when you have an amazing group of people working together!
Tiredness, anxiety, and boredom cease to exist working on this collective creative endeavor . Great inspiration!!

The usual suspects, Dave & Tom getting psyched for tedious tasks Tuesday!

Octovishnu watches silently over us longing for the days of his four wheeled personal transport. Its been a while since hes been outside, maybe when it gets warmer we can take him for a ride and relive the old days one more time. Is he staring at a ghost?

Expert crimp team Erik, Dave & John terrifically tasking on tedious task Tuesday!

Weight test for Angus.. that thing doesn't deflect at all under 250lb load! Fears of the wheels not being able to hold up the sculpture are extinguished and excitement increases!

Great job team! Atlas and Angus are ready to take up their roles as drive train wheels!

Rollin' on Unicornz yo

Now to finish Alicia then the frame design begins....

The Cursing Begins

2009-03-16T09:12:00.002-04:00

Today was Repetitive Task Sunday. Hedy, Erik, Tom, Kate, Dave and I put in a full day of work on the Reckoner's wheels. The goal was to get at least one of the wheels done, 'Atlas' was chosen first. Mind you today would be the day where all of our wits would be tested, and as predicted, people would be cursing. The shop was in full swing with multiple stations set up. And now a quick recap of what we are getting ourselves into; The design we have chosen requires 3 wheels with each wheel requires the following:
1 rim cut from a 36'' ribbed irrigation tubing
1 hub off of a mustang
96 holes drilled into each rim
48 holes drilled per flange
2 flanges per hub
96 wires cut for spokes
96 ferrels threaded and crimped
96 thimbles set
96 cable stops crimped
96 eyebolts to weld
96 bolts
96 washers

That is about... a million steps. Perfect for Repetitive Task Sundays! Time to get started! Kate took lead on welding duty closing all the eyebolts.

Tom is ready for anything

Tom was head of the cutting station, with appropriate union representation, prepping the axles. Nothing but class and professionalism....

Do this 1000 times... with class

Erik was drilling the final few holes on the flanges

While that was all orchestrating, Hedy, Dave and I threaded thimbles, ferrels, and crimped the spokes. Our fingers were chewed up pretty bad by the end of the ordeal

Duct tape bandages are for hardcore wheel makers

Whew! Finally 96 spokes ready to crimp. Erik and Hedy made some serious headway crimping the first spokes! But...

We realised about 20 spokes in that we crimped the wrong length spokes. Tom was to blame, luckily we could salvage the cut spokes and use them on the other flange since they were still long enough.

This was a good time to break for lunch and recharge the old batteries around the fire.

Lunch was good, rejuvenating our bodies and resetting our minds for more repetitive tasks! Once the first flange was crimped it was time to weave the first spoke pattern. We decided to go with a 3x pattern for torque on both sides. We ran into a problem when weaving the pattern, we kept getting 1 extra spoke. After counting 5 times and re-spoking we finally got the pattern down. Note: Math isn't a strong point for us.

One side woven! Looking good

We flipped the wheel around and our expert crimping team finished the other flange:

Headlampin' for serious crimpin'

Now time to weave the other side:

Kate and Family helping out

More weavin'

Yes, another snag.... The second side spoke length, even though we cut it for a 3x pattern, wasn't long enough. After more cursing and brainstorming, we discovered that a 0x pattern fit. We had to progressively tension the wheel to get all the spokes to fit. But alas! 1 wheel finally complete!

Great job team!

1 wheel down, 2 to go. The rest of the wheels should go much smoother since we figured out all the kwirks making Atlas. Getting excited!

The Begining of Wheel Makin'

2009-03-12T08:11:00.001-04:00

Last night, Tom Erik Hedy and I began to tackle the monotonous task of making 40'' wheels out of irrigation pipe. 48 holes per flange, 2 flanges per hub, 96 holes per rim. So the grand total is 576 holes that need to be measured, scribed and drilled..... fun times.
By the end of the night we had all the rims drilled. As for the hubs, 2 are completed and one is measured and scribed and will wait until next time we are in the shop to be finished.

Things we learned:

Very slight printer variance can throw off circumferential patterns enough to cause a headache. I made the templates to scale and (I thought) printed them to scale. However, Hedy and I's versions were about a 1/32 off which is enough to throw off a hole or two over a 42'' circumference. One method We ended up using 40 holes from the template then eyeballing the 8 additional holes so everything was equal. Another method we found worked was setting the arc length on a pair of calipers, scribing a hole, re-measuring using that hole as a reference, scribing, repeat until we got to about 38 ~ 40 holes then eyeballed the other 8.

Beer can tabs should be turned to the side if used as ashtrays so people dont mistakenly sip from them.

Psytrance is perfect for listening to while doing repetitive tasks such as slaving away with a center punch and drill.

Next visits agenda is:

cutting the wire for the spokes
welding the eye-bolts shut

position the thimbles in the eye-bolts

crimping ferrels

measuring & marking spokes to length

threading spokes in the hub

crimping the cable stops in place

The goal is to get these wheels done asap since they take the most of our resources to complete. Once these are out of the way, The Sand Reckoner will begin to take its shape!