Miniature city comes together

Well all the miniature castings are complete and the structure is screwed together. Just need to do the miniature lighting. and then seal everything up in packing cases. Its a flurry of activity as we close in on my departure which is

Tuesday. Then drive cross country and start up again cutting wood and building enclosures, benches etc.

Casting the details

I've been furiously casting the detailed little city that lives at the heart of Zark
Using a variety of small parts, I carefully sculpt the negative of what I want in clay. Since I am sculpting upside down and inside out it is very improvisational.
Here is a picture of half of the underground city with my hands for scale.

PEXFestival Test

First I added an extension on the main hoist so that we could lift the ends into place. This worked well but needs a pulley and some buttressing
The flexible plywood test went well and will be our choice of material. It's relatively strong for its weight and can be screwed to itself so we don't need all the blocks inside. We also glued the segments before we screwed them and that will help a lot with bonding the segments together. In this test we used yellow glue. At Burningman we will use construction adhesive. It is stronger and will be easier to apply in the crack and upside down. We struggled in Maryland to apply the yellow glue so I'm pretty sure that yellow glue would be a nightmare at BM. The legs (pointy 1 X 3's) worked well again in this test. I'd like to figure a nice way to finish the inside end. We will still need stands to hold the whole structure off the ground.
The metal plates from PDF worked well with the Masonite but they produced cracks on the plywood so I made plywood braces from the left over scrape flex-ply and they seem to hold up well and solve the bending problem.
Unfortunately building half of Zark is almost as much work as building the whole thing so we had to support the inside with lots of structure. This should all be gone at BM. The good news is that Now I've built this twice and Travis and Mike have each built this once.
So I struggled with the problem "To paint or not to paint" I liked the natural wood but it was a test and we painted. Now that I have painted it once I feel like we will not paint it at BM. Multiple problems. Cleaning brushes, protecting the playa, getting crisp lines means that using brushes would be difficult and unsatisfactory aesthetically. Spray paint is a possibility but the raw materials are so much more evocative that I don't see how painting will improve the look. Plus I want to keep the form evocative but ambiguous so that participants can interpret it how they like. The painting nailed the piece to a caterpillar form
The main test of course was making the plastic head. It is made from 1 gallon water jugs cut and stapled together and lit with superbrite LED's. I'm happy with the head. The only change will be the addition of more LED's. The glow inside is awesome. I'm really happy with how it lights the space

We added aircraft cable tie downs to the neck area to counteract the force of wind on the head and tail. I think it will be enough but we may also need another set of cables lower down to stop any occilations in the wind.
Here are two views of the finished product. I am starting work on the fiber optic bristles that will run along the shoulder. We need some light cast on the sides. To illuminate everything. I think the tail antennae will also shine on the outsides. At PEXfest we used Xmas lights on the ground but no generator at BM.

When Mike and I were hoisting Zark into place we heard a loud crack and a piece of plywood flew out the top. Turns out we had the towers too far apart and the hoist cable broke a chunk out of the support collar. We won't have this problem at BM because we already know the proper distance for the full Zark but I thought I'd show the piece missing. You can also see the improvised cutting I did so that the plastic head could fit on the neck. This shot also shows the shaped internal braces. For the test I just left them rectangular but we will use a router to make them wiggly like the exterior ones. They really looked great without the paint.

PEX festival test #2

Well just back from first day building at PEX festival. Everything went well and my newest team member, Mike McGurk was awesome, Thanks Mike! We built half of Zark and tomorrow I will go back and finish. Fist real test of the flexible plywood and everything is looking good.

The Head

Making the head has been a frustrating process of pursuing a line of creation only to end up at a dead end. Well not precisely a dead end. Each line of creation leads to a whole new branch of possibility but not necessarily the solution to my problem which is how to make flat plastic bend into a hemisphere. I made some terrific stuff like this flat hexagonal sheet made from recycled water bottles slightly heated and reformed. Made with a reverse vacuum forming technique. I thought of using a geodesic dome plan to make my patterns but the head is not a regular dome shape but is more elongated along one side. Moving slowly forward. More tests.

Collars

Juri offered to help out and I came up with a great job for him. I want to turn the opening into intricate skylights. During the day the light will shine in through the plastic head and then at night the LED's will illuminate both the plastic head but also the interior. In the prototype (left) the opening is a plain plywood collar but I am starting to design a more intricate opening for the light to shine through.

Useful suggestions

Spent all day calling around looking for materials both here in Philadelphia and also in Boise, Idaho where I will do the final cutting and off site building. Kris suggested that maybe we could use glue and a nail gun to quickly get the panels together; the nails holding long enough for the glue to bond. If it could work it would make it so much stronger and faster to assemble. Excited to go do tests.

First hurdle clear

Well there she blows. We got the prototype up in 1.5 days which i think is pretty good for the first run. We learned a lot about which fasteners worked and which didn't. The hoist system was flawless. It was nice to see that most of our planning went as expected. We will need more reinforcement in some areas but that should be easy enough to fix. We burned it Sunday night and it burned so hot the crowd had to step back from the 30 ft perimeter we had set up. Pretty awesome.

More input

Met with Travis Sierra, owen, Mike, Sien and Joe. They all had great suggestions and solutions. looks like we will use trucks and come-alongs as the power source to hoist the structure. I'll alter the gin poles so that the pulley can be built into it. And I'll add some more bracing to help make the sides more rigid and distribute the load more evenly. This is going to be a big test of concepts and I think we are going to do well.

This is going to be a big test of concepts and I think we are going to do well. We spent all night hashing out ideas. We talked about everything from hoisting options to fire starters. Still need a dedicated crew for Burningman itself. I'll send the call for assistants further afield.

Refined model

I've taken all the recommendations and designed a new model with sturdier legs, eye bolts to guide the cable, and a sexier curve. Plus I've added tie downs and worked out a construction order.

close encounter

Does anyone remember the famous scene in the movie "Close Encounters" where Richard Dreyfuss' character, obsessed with an image in his head, starts ripping out the shrubs and throwing dirt and plants into his house so that he can build the model? You may have never seen it because in the Special Edition, Speilberg cuts that scene. Well I am having a little model scene myself today. Getting very excited. I've incorporated Some of Big Jawns suggestions and things are working well. Still working on the wind issues but for now I want to get the Playa Del Fuego version up and use that as a learning tool.

My construction model

Well I've been working with my construction model to see how to raise the sections off the ground while they are bolted together. I have worked out a design for the metal plates that connect the masonite down the spine and I've got a good relationship with a local sheet metal fabricator to make my custom connection plates.

I started building in the back yard and so far each leaf (2ft X 16 ft) is pretty strong. Manhandling and dragging them around has not damaged anything or loosened the connections. But obviously I need big fender washers to spread the fastener load. I am using 3/8" hex bolts to connect the individual leaves together down the spine. Big Jawn suggested using eye bolts on the inside of the spine to guide a cable for hoisting. At this point it is unclear whether this cable will need to remain after construction.

More research

Well I got some more info. 26 gauge Sheet metal will weigh 800 lbs. Masonite will weigh only 500 lbs. At this point I think sheet metal will be too fragile before it is assembled but I'll wait until the prototype ( made of masonite) is finished.

Going to work with Big Jawn to look at engineering issues. Did the first bend test and the masonite will actually bend like I said it would.

Been working with my model trying out different ways to assemble and raise this monster.

1)Assemble all the layers flat on the ground and gradually hoist them up as they are bent into shape.

2)Assemble sections and hoist each section into place

3) Need some more ideas.

Wart drawing

I am making warts to place along the dorsal rails of the caterpillar, I am calling the roof the caterpillar because it will look like a worm from a distance. They will have a LED center light and 3 fiber optic clusters. and they will emerge out of holes cut through the roof skin . Scale to be decided probably 10 inches in diameter and 6 inches tall.

What about Galvanized sheets

Again up late problem solving and working on the construction model, trying to figure how this thing can bootstrap itself into being. haven't figured it out yet. But as I was pondering the model I realized that this thing , if made of wood, will be a pyros wet dream. Spent some time reconciling myself with the possibility of it being maliciously burned and then, Ding! "What if I made it from sheet metal?" It would look great and fasten together easily and securely and not burn. I didn't factor the cost of sheet metal into my budget but it might work. more research.

Lots of Thinking

Well as I finish up some huge work projects I basically only have time to think about what I will be doing. Here it is 4:52 AM and I can't sleep, basically pouring over in my head about the metal parts that will hold each section together. I found a local sheet metal fabricator and they can do some simple cad drawings to produce plasma cut sheets approx. 8" X 24" but they aren't very skilled. Wish I could find a more skilled group. Ordered some fiber optic cable and it just arrived. Eager to try some experiments.

Welcome to Zark!

Here is an unadorned sketch of the form of Zark! There will be lots of detail and LED lighting.