Stephen Whiting Log
Collaboration Ecology: The main document for the summer of design at OSE.
August 2014
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Wednesday August 6
Began work on documentation for the Microhouse 3. We used Victor's build instruction template. build instruction template.
- Dozuki page for MH3
- SketchUp file for Microhouse v3 File:MicroHouse3.skp designed by Curtis
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Tuesday August 5
Brick press was fully operational. We pressed at least 800 bricks in the afternoon. It might rain tomorrow in the evening so everyone is a little rushed to press bricks.
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Monday August 4
Broke the forms off of the foundation with Greg.
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Saturday August 2
The velocar workshop began in earnest. We laid carbon fiber wheels in molds of FDM machined on the new CNC router.
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Friday August 1
Poured the foundation for the microhouse. We ordered three cement trucks with 9 yards each, but the foundation only ended up being 24 yards. We spontaneously made forms and poured the extra four yards in front of HabLab to level out the porch.
July 2014
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Thursday July 31
Started planning a composting toilet in preparation for the microhouse workshop. Drove to the quarry to pick up some crushed limestone. Went back to Gary's to finish butchering the lamb after it chilled overnight.
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Wednesday July 30
Continued work on the formwork. Slaughtered a lamb with Gary Kanak. Pictures are on trovebox. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday July 29
Worked on the formwork for the foundation.
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Monday July 28
Spent most of the day fixing the life trac 4. First one of the bolts holding on a wheel sheared and we had to replace it. About ten minutes later one of the mounting plates on another wheel broke off (it had been welded on) and I had to grind off the bolts, torch out the welds, and go to the auto shop and buy/install lug nuts.
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Friday July 25
Filled the septic tank hole in the morning and pressed bricks in the afternoon. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday July 24
Built a second picnic table and installed the septic tank for the microhouse.
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Wednesday July 23
Finally got the brick press up and running. We pressed a couple different concentrations of bricks. The majority of the bricks were mixed in half of a 50 gallon rain bucket. They were composed of 2 five gallon buckets of soil from Pile 1, 1 peanut butter container worth of sand, and 1/4 peanut butter container worth of cement. Spent the morning cleaning the old workshop. Plans are in the works to build a 'common throne' out of the test bricks. Hopefully they stick together over the next couple days.
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Tuesday July 22
Moved the powercube and brick press up to the build site. We spent a chunk of time building the pool. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday July 21
Helped with preparations for installing the septic tank. There are lots of good pictures of the outdoor work on trovebox.
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Thursday July 17
Built a picnic table with Gary, Arif, and Michael. It turned out pretty great. Worked on the soil mixer and pulverizer. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday July 16
Continue work on the brick press. It is almost operational but we still need to install/adjust the pressure dial and release. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday July 15
Finished welding on the frame and the drawer. Drove to Sweiger in the blue truck again to pick up the cotter pins and the coupler. We should be pressing bricks by tomorrow. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday July 14
Began CEB press build in earnest. I worked on the frame module with Danny (until he went shopping) and Carter, who is currently biking across the country. When I was giving Carter and Nick a tractor lesson on the lifetrac 4 one of the hydraulic fittings on the older power cube split in half right as I turned the key. We were able to replace it in a few minutes and they were still able to drive the tractor around a bit. At the morning meeting we finally decided to renovate the old workshop into a kitchen. That will probably end up happening next week. Steve Love World (an old friend from Berkeley) drove through on his way to his new life in Nashville.
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Friday July 11
I drove the blue pickup (I can drive stick now) to Sweiger to pick up the steel tubing for the arms and legs. The steel arrived in the afternoon and we started work on the brick press. I tacked the main section of the frame together and am ready to start welding it together. We hosted the first community potluck, and five people showed up. We had a nice bbq and gave them a tour. Danny was great with the little kids.
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Thursday July 10
Steel is still being cut, the brick press build probably wont start until tomorrow. We started calling organization from the list that Devin drew up. Aidan, Guillaume, and Victor fixed all the welders today.
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Wednesday July 9
Began working on the power cube documentation with Victor's new template. Also started working more on Workshop Organization
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Tuesday July 8
Went into KC to pick up some nuts and bolts (and electrical tape, thread tape, measuring tape, all sorts of tape). Started cleaning up the workshop but there is way more work to do. And Tim arrived with chickens! Yay chickens.
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Monday July 7
Morning meeting began with planning the workflow for the Microhouse 3 build. Where will we stack the bricks? Where does the scaffolding go? Today we are going to finish the power cube and microcube. We are going to organize and clean the workshop. Steel for the brickpress might not show up until Thursday... ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday July 6
Long workshop this weekend. Mostly completed the hydraulic reservoir for the power cube (except for the last few fittings). We had a good discussion about the workshop at the reservoir after dinner. I think that we need to organize the workshop first thing tomorrow and compile a list of things to pick up at the store in preparation for the brick press build (wednesday). Also on the agenda for Monday(tomorrow) is to have a community meeting sometime in the afternoon.
Pictures from today's build Power Cube Workshop Hydraulic Reservoir Module ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday July 5
The rain is coming down as we begin the powercube workshop. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Friday July 4
Micro Power Cube workshop with Tom Griffing. We need to build three or four power cubes to operate the soil mixer, soil pulverizers, lifetracts, and other machines. This workshop we will be building one power cube in a 4x4 structural steel frame and one micro power cube using an old vacuum motor.
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Thursday July 3
Day off before the powercube workshop this weekend. Marcin should teach me how to publish the workshop files.
Sign this petition for sustainable agriculture in Berkeley, California!
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Wednesday July 2
First tractor lesson on the lifetrac 4 with Aidan. We needed to replace the battery, as well as the solenoid. Greg made an instructional video on how to repair a solenoid. We began repairing soil mixer, by mounting a hydraulic motor. We made a coupler with a 1 3/8 diameter six spline tube connected to a section of 2 inch pipe. We (Greg, Michael, Aidan, and Moriah) turned the spline in the lathe, which is a magnificent dinosaur of a machine. We also torched a hole in the motor plate using an oxy-acetylene torch.
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Tuesday July 1, 2014
Edited (and completed) Microhouse promotional video.
June 2014
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Monday June 30
Finished my module documentation. Began working on the overall assembly documentation. Also started working on the promo video for the Microhouse III build.
Underground ethernet cable: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CERTICABLE-500-CAT-6-CABLE-OUTDOOR-UNDERGROUND-DIRECT-BURIAL-WIRE-NO-CONNECTORS-/190526586459
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Friday June 27, 2014
Finished painting the solar cabins. Wrapped up the brick press documentation. See brick press overall assembly presentation.
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Thursday June 26
Reviewed notes from the brick press build and continued to update the drawer, drawer guides, and secondary cylinder modules. Painted the walls and ceiling of the solar cabins white. The septic tank's leach field is slowly flooding and the plumbing is all disconnected. Woo no water.
A note on hydraulics: compression fittings with swivels or ones that have rubber o-rings(sae) dont need thread tape. The reason you dont cover the first two threads on nptm and nptf fittings is because because some of it might end up in the hydraulics.
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Wednesday June 25, 2014
Reviewed notes from the brick press build and continued to update the drawer, drawer guides, and secondary cylinder modules. Helped mount plywood walls and OSB flooring in the solar cabins. Tim Gravlin from USDA came again and we planted two more rows of tomatoes, edamame, jalapenos, and green peppers.
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Tuesday June 24, 2014
Reviewed notes from the brick press build. Worked with Anthony trying to document the process of opening and modifying files for the CNC torch table on LD3 of the liberator. We were able to fix all the issues with the part programs. Files should first be opened in libreCAD to create polylines and equidistant polylines .0368 inches off, internally for internal cuts and externally for exterior cuts (This is one half of the 1.87 mm kerf of the torch). You should also delete all the layers in libreCAD except for the visible layer and the layer 0. This reduces file sizes from ~1 MB to ~ 50 kB. Next open the dxf file into inkscape and scale it by 25.4 to convert from inches to millimeters. Set the default units and custom units both to mm and set the custom size to 500 by 500 mm, or to whatever the size of the metal you are cutting. Save it as a .svg file. You can change the order of the paths by using the XML editor in inkscape and dragging the individual paths into the order that you want. Internal holes should be cut first and the perimeter should be cut last. While still in inkscape, use the node tool to select a node where you want to add the lead in and lead out. Break the path at the selected node and then select the node. With the drawing tool you should be able to click once on the node, and then click again where you want the path to start. Do this twice for each node to account for both the lead in and the lead out. For internal cuts this should be the center of the hole, and for external cuts it should be 1-1.5 cm away from the edge of the part. Save the svg file again and upload it to lasersaurApp. We are currently using an ethernet cable to connect to lasersaur.local. This worked for me in mozilla firefox but not in chrome for some reason. Check the tool path preview in lasersaur to ensure that the cuts are starting at the lead in's, and cutting the perimeter last. Export the gcode from lasersaurApp and add the pierce routines in notepad++ after each G0 command. The current pierce code also has G0 commands in it, which makes this slightly confusing. Use find and replace to replace \n with \\n and \r with nothing. Finally, in lasersaurApp, right-click and inspect element to pull up the html. paste "send_gcode([paste gcode here]......) (I'm not sure what the exact command is. Check Anthony's documentation.) with the gcode file pasted within the square brackets. Set the nozzle height 7 mm above the surface of the steel (for cutting 1/2 inch thick steel plates). This should produce a successful cut with the correct path order.
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Monday June 23, 2014
Reviewed notes from the brick press build. Worked with Sam on the soffit.
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Tuesday June 17, 2014
First day of the Brick Press Workshop at Mid-State Technical College. I worked with Ben on the Drawer Module. Learned more about welding.
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Monday June 16, 2014
Drive to Wisconsin all day long! Arrived at 3:00 AM.
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Friday June 13, 2014
Finished module. Worked with Anthony on the CNC torch table. Worked on the pool (slow going).
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Thur June 12, 2014
Completed the Feet/Legs/Hopper Support build instruction module. Link to PDF File:CEB 6 Build Instructions- Module - Legs, Feet, Hopper Supports.pdf Began documenting the processes for preparing files to be cut on the CNC Torch Table. Helped Jeff put siding up on the solar cabins. Assisted with pool assembly.
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Wed June 11, 2014
Worked with Anthony in the morning testing the CNC Torch Table.
Got the Ultimaker 3D Printing working and printed test parts.
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Tue June 10, 2014
- Worked on the Ultimaker FDM machine. Added washers to the front, tried using longer springs, and adjusting the limit switch. Trying to level it and get the first layer of ABS to stick.
- Worked on the foundation for the gazebo.
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Mon June 9, 2014
- Worked with Anthony testing the CNC torch table.
- Helped Sam and Graham disassemble one of the old powercubes.
- Removed a faulty pump.
- FDM printers are finally operational!
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Sun June 8, 2014
- Danny, Jeff, Emily, Graham, and I built a cob oven!
- Kittens!
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Fri June 6, 2014
- Continued working on the CEB Press Feet, Legs, and Hopper Support Module build instructions.
- Finished the raised beds!
- Filling the beds with soil using the LifeTrack
- Minor maintenance with the LifeTrack
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Thur 5, 2014
- Continued working on the CEB Press Feet Module build instructions.
- Made cob and patched holes between bricks under the raised beds and under the edges. Continued filling the beds with dirt, hay, clay, and other green biomass.
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Wed June 4, 2014
- Continued working on the CEB Press Feet Module build instructions. Assembled raised beds and dug out holes beneath them. Filled the holes one third of the way with wood, hay, clay, and other green biomass.
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Tue June 3, 2014
- Began work on the build instructions for the legs, feet, and hopper support module.
- Agriculture work: Assembled the seeder, hoed three rows and seeded corn north of the other agriculture.
- Cut and painted wood for the raised bed.
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Mon June 2, 2014
- Started work log!
- Downloaded SketchUp, FreeCAD.
- Deconstructed CEB Brick Press.
- Worked with Tim from USDA to planted agriculture in the field:
- Row 1: Sweet Potatoes
- Row 2: Sweet Potatoes
- Row 3: Sweet Potatoes and Sweet Corn
- Row 4:
- Row 5: First half (West half) edamame, second half jalapenos on the south side of the drip line, bush green beans on the north side of the drip.
- Row 6: Tomatoes: roma and cherry.
- Seed stored in the old workshop include 3 lb of sweet corn, zucchini, yellow squash, and edamame.
- To Do: Prepare thin metal wires to pin the drip lines in the center of the rows.
- Tim's suggestions: Add livestock (chickens/rabbits) Other crops, more drip lines.
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Sun June 1, 2014
Arrived in Missouri. Toured the Factor e Farm Meet the team.
