Thursday and Friday Recap! I’m going to throw it back to late last week when the crews were rolling along, knocking things out, and getting it done.
The welding crew were hard at work finishing the last of the wall panels while the rest of the steel crew were working on setting up the overhead trellis mockup. The overhead trellis has CNC jigs that help hold the whole thing together while it is being welded but the trick is to get the jig aligned. Our first attempt to get the jig aligned ultimately failed due to the guides not being square to each other and the steel not staying in the guide. The outer frame pieces of the trellis are slightly bent so fitting them into the slot that holds them in place was not working. They kept popping out of place and would not give us a good connection to weld. Our second attempt got even closer with some rails we attached to keep the jigs together but failed again because of the uneven floor. Our third (and final) attempt to get the jig aligned resulted in us putting the jig on tables in the metal shop. We leveled the tables out and got the jig correctly aligned much quicker this time. Our fix for the bent outer pieces was to clamp a straight piece of square tube to the. outside of the frame. This straightened the frame and made it so much easier to fit it into the guide. We also added some blocking in the jig to help with clamping while welding. It’s crazy how doing the same thing 3 times in a row helps you to learn and get faster at it. Finally the trellis was all in place and ready to be welded. Once welded by our resident master, Malu, it came time to finally test the mockup. Lifting it off the table was a feat and put up a fun struggle but we learned what we needed to from it. The trellis will need some combs welded onto it to keep the frame rigid and to also help stabilize it.
While that was happening, the wood crew was finishing up some CNC work on the thermally modified pine, and the first wall was being assembled. All very fun and exciting activities in the shop with little room to work.
