After eight long, amazing months building XyloVan, we’re finally going off the grid this evening and heading 10 hours north to Burning Man.
To all our friends and family staying behind – we love you. Thank you for all your support in bringing this crazy dream so far.
To all our fellow burners – see you on the playa!
We pulled down the canopies last night, collapsed the booms and began packing in earnest. Our work is done. See you on the playa!
Power drill-driven screwdriver, taking down the canopies. Approx 10:12 p.m. Apparently I am a klutz.
Last night was all about hitting XyloVan’s extensive punchlist of Little Things that Need Doing.
I spent the better part of a flaming Technicolor tequila dusk on the roof beneath the gently fluttering canopy, paranoid that we’ll crash or break down en route to the playa, and debugging shorts in the strobe/flood bars. Then I set about hammering out all the other little things I’ve been meaning to do as this insane 6-month project comes to fruition.
Things like … Continue reading
Time to add the unreasonable number of big, cheap Chinese-made LED floods and strobes … Continue reading
I was up until 1 a.m. last night doing wiring (details later). I was up at 7 a.m. this morning. This is probably the third week straight I’ve been working at this pace. I feel like this:
Sad thing is – I can’t tell which one’s me, and which one’s the project.
(Image via BoingBoing)
We got it all rigged. It took the four of us about half an hour to get it all monkeyed together, but by god, it stands – at least it still is as I write this, two nights later in peak winds of 18 mph – and the whole thing hangs together structurally as if it could stand more. How much more remains to be seen.
I think I’ll need bigger rope, in the long run – no telling how much damage the rope will take from the ringbolts it’s passing through. I wonder if I should run it through pulleys there, like tall ships do.
It just needs to be realigned around the shoulders, and it’s missing a couple of gussets at the ends, and perhaps a sewn-in draw-bar for the canopy end.
Clean enough, anyway.
That wicked line buzz is gone. It turns out I needed to ground the mixer to the chassis, which involved tearing apart and then sewing up the 20-foot umbilical. That took a little while.
Pay no attention to my banging. I’m just banging. But it’s sounding pretty lush. And I”m excited to show it off. Thanks to everyone who pulled up and talked to us this afternoon. It’s all good.
Just a little more wiring to go.
What holds this crazy rig together? Why, gussets, of course.
Fold a nine-inch wide strip of fabric (at 60″) into a strip four layers thick, seam its long edges, and then cut it into strips about six inches long.
Then seam the cut edges and voila – a little stack of stout reinforcements …
… to be sewn into place to keep the fabric all in one piece while still letting the air flow through.
Step one, attempt to throw together an enormous framework of PVC pipe to arc over the van like some demented logo for caffeinated high-fructose corn syrup ‘n’ gutbombs.
Valiantly attempt to model it.
Then, when that fails, toss the PVC aside and acquire some 1″ steel conduit and connectors for a new frame, which you injure yourself building.
Then start sewing. (more photos after the jump. Continue reading
