My mistake...three stories high!

When I got into the workshop today people had already disassembled the lower level that was left standing last night and had reassembled the structural framework for the second level. I asked someone what we were going to do next and they told me, "we're going to build the next level on top."
Oh, I see, this tree stump is three stories high!

Before I could move Babs and Sara grabbed me and dragged me over to the bark substructure they were busy working on. They then went on to explain to me at length how the parts fit together and what was needed to complete each section - just so I would know in case I might feel like helping them out. Then Sara said we needed more bark in order to complete the next section so we went off to make bark.

This required texturing the pieces I had been cutting with the plasma cutter on Tuesday night. For "texturing" read "hit with a hammer".


Sara hammers a bark piece

 So I pounded away at that for a while...this is where some blacksmithing training came in handy. swinging a hammer all day is tiring work and can really strain your arm and wrist. There is an ergonomic way to hammer.

• Make sure the work is slightly below waist height so that your forearm is horizontal when bent ~90 degrees at the elbow ;
• Hold the hammer mid-shaft with a 'soft' grip made by the thumb and fore-finger;
• Raise the arm from the shoulder keeping the elbow locked;
• Bring the arm down allowing the weight of the hammer to do the work;
• As the hammer head approaches the work snap the wrist forward to strike the work with the hammer.

People were bashing away all day to make bark. Even then we only have enough to cover one panel of a section of the bark substructure. This is going to be a massive undertaking!

Minions hammering bark

Meanwhile Margaret had started to assemble the next story of the structure.

Margaret welding

She came and grabbed me too "You're a hot commodity" she said meaning the fact that I am available regularly makes me useful for different departments and they all want to use my labour. Kind of flattering...in a way.

Margaret wanted me to help assemble the structure while she went and helped the Geeks with some other task. She handed me over to Dan and we did an inventory of the pieces required to make up the third story.
Each piece of the structure is labelled with a numbering system according to:

• the level i.e. A, B or C;
• the section eg. section 8; and,
• the number of panels in that section eg. 2

Labelled parts C8.1 and C9.2

 The parts are labelled this way to avoid confusion. They all have to go together like a big jig-saw puzzle so they can be welded into place.

There was a pile of cut pieces stacked in the racks and we matched each piece to its panel. Then took stock of what needed to be cut. Pretty much most of Layer C!
OK.
So which are the easy bits to cut?
Oh, the ones that someone has already cut.....

Dan and I set about measuring and checking the angles on all the pieces and then with the remaining two lengths of 2"x2" box steel we determined an order and marked them out for cutting so that there was as little wastage as possible. Then we cut the box steel using a band saw - but not like one you use for wood, this one is mounted sideways with a pivot at one end. The weight of the saw puts downward pressure on the blade to make it cut but this is resisted by an hydraulic cylinder that you can adjust to alter the rate of the saw.

Dan monitors the band saw as we cut a section off the last piece

Once all the pieces were cut we laid them out around the lower section (layer B) to make sure they were all accounted for.