BANG!

Everyone has been very eager to do the sculpted concrete work on a larger feature than just the benches we've been working on all week. With threatening rain clouds overhead this mornng it was definitely an inside the shop day. The thing is however is that the shop is pretty full with the treehouse frame inside but we decided there was just enough room for one of the cannons to be squeezed into the shop doorway (plus four more benches too). The cannon was a medium sized but complicated piece, a good sized bite of work for one day. Since I was tied up at my design desk for the bulk of the day it was up to Peter and the crew to pull it off and that they did with a BANG! This shot was taken just before a very late lunch. (Concrete waits for no one) 

By quitting time the first cannon was totally sculpted (along with four more benches) and the shop was nice and clean - just in time for a long weekend.

Monday is a holiday so the colorful paint job won't begin until Tuesday morning. This piece will be the real test for many of the new colors we've picked for this project. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Bumpers

We've built and moved our pieces since we started decades ago. Some of the larger pieces have been very challenging to say the least. Through the process we have become good at designing structures, lift and tie down points. But with the Trinidad project things are at a whole new level. Instead of worryiong about highway regulations we are faced with the dimensions and maximum load weights of standard shipping containers. These limits control the design of our features but with some creative thinking we can piece and build in sections to allow anything imaginable.

The new challenge is how to get our pieces safely into the containers and keep them from shifting while in transit. The realities of movement on highways, railroads, ship and barge are real forces to be dealt with, not to mention the challenge of pushing the pieces into and pulling them back out of the containers. After some head scratching and tests we have come up with a solution. BUMPERS.

We will now fabricate bumpers around all of our pieces that will prevent them from shifting inside the containers. The front and back bumpers will be extra sturdy to allow the forklift to push and pull on them as required without fear of damage to the (relatively) brittle decorative concrete skins. The first piece to have the bumpers installed is the treehouse structure. These bumpers will be cut off just before the concrete is poured around the base of our features and the remnants will be hidden by the deck concrete..

Now we'll be fabricating similar custom bumpers to all of the pieces for transport.

-grampa dan

Have a seat

With the great summer weather we continue to work both inside the shop (for the welding) and outside in the parking lot for the sculpted concrete work. The benches are the first items of business. Being small, they will fit into the smaller spaces of the shop for painting when the fall rains begin. The center of the shop is reserved for the larger pieces which take up the bulk of the room.

The bench armatures were first flipped to do the bottoms and legs of the benches. They were allowed to cure overnight before they are turned back on their feet to do the tops.

With the style of carving now set, the colors all picked and everyone up to speed, we are all eager to begin the larger more complex pieces. This is going to be FUN!

-grampa dan