Last night we took our first trip up to JMO Woodworks to begin the production process. We milled and glued the repurposed wood in preparation for construction, and had our first experience using epoxy to brick lay our pieces and clamp them into one big block for fabrication. There were eight of us there for several hours cutting, gluing, and taking a break for some delicious Mexican food.
- Lauren and Elissa apply epoxy to boards in preparation for bricklaying.
We were all excited to finally be building and making tangible progress toward the final product. But, excitement often translates to an eagerness for completion which can lead to rash decision-making and even carelessness. So, after another trip to JMO this evening we realized, and our wise professor pointed out, that we really were not ready to abandon our “architect hats” quite yet. We need a more thought-out and easy-to-use system of construction documents in order to maximize efficiency in building. So some of us hung up our hard hats for the night in order to return to school and focus on organizing and detailing exactly how the parts and pieces of this structure will be cut and assembled. Working with various thicknesses, repurposed wood of varying dimensions and a complicated mechanical system requires an immense amount of organization on the front end – not to mention the fact that, with a little over two weeks to go, there is no room for error.
- Mike holds boards in place (while protecting his hearing) for Elissa who simultaneously glues and seduces the camera.
And so we continue… with our architecture hats, construction hats, seamstress gloves, and very little time…