ARTIST MEETS ENGINEER (or vice versa??)

Paul and Rex came over yesterday and we assembled the hyperboloid. That's the middle part of the sculpture and the piece I have had the most worry about getting right because there is a lot of math involved in getting the dimensions all to work out. We tried to bend the ribs ourselves but it was just too much work with our little machine, so I got a fabricator to do it. Cost some $ but they did a great job matching my pattern. We did bend the step rings ourselves and yesterday I was thrilled that it all came together as the math predicted. It has been pointed out to me that even though I am aspiring to more explore my artistic dimension when I retire  I couldn't have gotten this built without some engineering background. Well, hopefully my brain can accommodate both the artist and engineer....

Here's a picture of Paul and the hyperboloid. His experience as a climber was a big help this morning using Z-rigs and rappel brakes getting the hyperboloid lowered and raised so we could get the top on.

Here's a guest blog from Steven Wright aka "Rigger" my main man for help both on and off the playa. Couldn't do it without you Rigger!

"Seattle is a good place to find rusty chain and Rigger when he’s not on the Playa.  Jim Dwight of Bowhead Transport  connected us with Rasmussen Marine Supply. He also convinced them to let us “borrow” 200 feet of rusty loggers chain for a few months to install at the base of the tower. The chain is all twenty foot sections of 3/16 to 3/8 steel link chain, used to tie down huge diesel powered winches, windlasses, and lash massive spools of tow cable to decks of barges and tugs that ply the Salish Sea. So this week we went down to their yard to pick it up.

Here is a picture of Jim standing next to ten sections of chain after helping to load them into Rigger’s car, listing a bit to “aft’ under the extra load! All measured about 350 pounds of chain will help dress the base of the Tower once it’s assembled on the Playa. So another piece of the assembly is now ready!"

ON A PIPE BENDER...

Paul came by today to help with bending the ribs and rings with the new pipe bender. Although it can bend the 1 1/2" pipe it is so tedious and difficult we gave up on that and just worked on the 1" pipe step rings. We got about half of them done. So it's back to getting a commercial outfit to bend the ribs...


Here's a photo of me with grease on my face. It was a tough day. We think we could sell this bender to a gym - it was quite a workout...