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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2013 16:11:09 GMT -5
Last year near the end of Pennsic, the wind picked up Clan Yama Kaminari's camp gate and dumped it into the street, smashing it. I was asked to make a new one. I've been working on it for about three weeks, but mostly piece by piece because it takes a bunch of people to set it up. Today was the first assembly of the whole structure. It's huge. You don't think about how tall 10 feet is until a 10 foot 4x4 is holding a roof over your head. I'll probably be reducing the length of the main vertical posts by a foot. It's much more stable than I feared it might be, but there's a lot of weight up top pulling the post back and forth, so I'll have to stabilize the base with some rebar pounded into the ground and lashed to the vertical posts. This is the largest woodworking project I've ever designed and made, so I'm pretty happy it all came together at all. Now if I can just convince the demons of wind and rain to not destroy it... |
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Post by roninpenguin on Jul 14, 2013 23:23:16 GMT -5
Looks better then the one I made for Estrella about 8 years ago that is for sure. It probably goes together easier too. Did you take progress pics? If so please share!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2013 6:28:23 GMT -5
Looks better then the one I made for Estrella about 8 years ago that is for sure. It probably goes together easier too. Did you take progress pics? If so please share! I have some progress pics, but most of them just look like pieces of wood with holes or notches. Here's the collection - www.ee0r.com/proj/gate.html . I discarded the idea of using that fancy splice joint when I realized I'm not very good at those yet. With myself and Lady Hara, it took about ten people to stand it up. Until then, it looks like a pile of lumber. Don't be fooled by the earlier pictures of me with the hand saw. I did some of the first cuts by hand and some of the smaller joinery, and all the joinery had to be cleaned up by hand, but I used lots of power tools on this project. The big through-mortises on the vertical posts were all done with TechShop's mortising machine, and the roof panels would not be nearly as nice without their miter saw and table saw. |
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Post by roninpenguin on Jul 15, 2013 16:37:19 GMT -5
Man, yours colaped better than mine as well. It just goes to show what a skilled man can do with the right tools. Inspires me to build a new one.  |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2013 12:37:49 GMT -5
Man, yours collapsed better than mine as well. It just goes to show what a skilled man can do with the right tools. ...and more than a month of (what would have been) free time. Seriously, according to my notes the first work day was June 15th and that doesn't count the time to plan it out and go get the lumber. I can get a lot done in a month of evenings and weekends, it seems. Did you (or anyone) get any pictures of your old gate? I found some mentions of it here but no links to photos. Yay! I have some drawings and some semi-detailed plans if you want to imitate mine. The main flaw with my design is that I used tongue-and-groove 1x6 boards for the roof, which looks awesome but makes the roof weigh about 200 pounds. Plywood roofs are a lot lighter, but as you found out they just don't last over time. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably use 5/8" fence pickets instead and just overlap them. |
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Saionji Shonagon
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Jul 16, 2013 12:44:47 GMT -5
Did you (or anyone) get any pictures of your old gate? I found some mentions of it here but no links to photos. I have some from the year he built it. I swear I almost cried when I pulled up and saw what he'd made. So cool!  style="max-width:100%;"]  style="max-width:100%;"] |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2013 14:06:13 GMT -5
I have some from the year he built it. I swear I almost cried when I pulled up and saw what he'd made. So cool! Thanks for the pics. I agree; that looks great. I don't know why you're so down on it, Yagyu-dono. |
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Saionji Shonagon
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Jul 16, 2013 15:16:26 GMT -5
I don't know why you're so down on it, Yagyu-dono. If memory serves me - and I may be mistaken - wasn't there a problem with some of the lumber warping between the time it went up at that first war and the next time it came out? We did christen the thing at an unusually wet Estrella. The last time I saw it was the year before last and it looked fine to me. |
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AJBryant
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Post by AJBryant on Jul 16, 2013 22:47:33 GMT -5
Excellent job. That's a stunning gate.
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Post by roninpenguin on Jul 16, 2013 23:56:00 GMT -5
If memory serves me - and I may be mistaken - wasn't there a problem with some of the lumber warping between the time it went up at that first war and the next time it came out? We did christen the thing at an unusually wet Estrella. The last time I saw it was the year before last and it looked fine to me. There were two big problems with the gate. One was that it was a pain in the but to transport and put together, most of the pieces were permanent and needed at least a trailer to move to site, and Two it was a pain to put together and take apart. One of the reasons it is now retired is that it was complicated to put up and take down and the second to last day of Estrella I tore the nail off of my right big toe on a tent hook not pounded all the way into the ground. Asking two people who didn't have knowledge of how it went together lead to several pieces being broken while it was being taken down. I could probably repair it, but after seeing how compact yours is I think I may start from scratch after I finish a few other projects. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2013 10:29:32 GMT -5
There were two big problems with the gate. One was that it was a pain in the but to transport and put together, most of the pieces were permanent and needed at least a trailer to move to site, and Two it was a pain to put together and take apart. Well, my version doesn't solve either of those two problems. We're making a special trip up to Cooper's Lake (Pennsic) this weekend just to bring up the gate. Normally, we don't go up until the second week. We'll help construct the gate and then go home. Luckily, it's only about an hour from home. Once it's up there, it can stay in the on-site Clan trailer between Pennsics. This gate takes at least a half hour and five people to put up. I hurried the job this past Sunday and we actually put it together wrong. It worked, but the bolt holes weren't where they were supposed to be and two important bolts were actually forgotten. The current plan is to construct the roof, attach the main vertical post, stand the thing up, then attach the rails and outer posts to keep it from falling over. This makes it easier to assemble the roof since it's at ground level, but it also means lifting the ~200 pound roof tennine feet into the air. As if that isn't dangerous enough, it also means trying to lower it slowly back down. I'm not quoting the bit about your foot. Ow. I don't even want to think about the bit about your foot. Ow. Ow ow ow. Ow. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2013 13:23:05 GMT -5
The new gate is set up at Pennsic. Any of yinz going to Pennsic this year should make sure to swing past Clan Yama Kaminari in E03 and check it out. If you can, come inside and see the even nicer roof that Michael the Tinker made for our camp shower, a gabled roof with cedar shingles.
...for our camp shower.
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Saionji Shonagon
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One dreamed of becoming somebody. Another remained awake and became. (Found in a fortune cookie.)
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Jul 22, 2013 15:14:40 GMT -5
(Mope. Mopemopemopemope.)
Maybe next year if the travel budget permits....
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2013 11:18:28 GMT -5
The gate stayed up for all of Pennsic (we staked it out with six 36-inch iron spikes pounded 18 inches into the ground and lashed to the upright posts), disassembled without major problem, and now rests in pieces in the storage trailer until next year.
The person who camps closest to the front gate and who is our unofficial camp docent says that a number of people stopped by to express admiration and ask questions about the gate. I should have thought to prepare a notecard with some information.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2014 11:40:28 GMT -5
The gate is once again set up at Pennsic, as the entry to the encampment of Clan Yama Kaminari in East 3. It took a bit more time to set up this year, mostly because of fewer volunteers and the fact that it was raining. Squire Robert put in a lot of effort helping, and many thanks to him. We rounded up more volunteers for the stuff that requires more people.
The joinery slid back together mostly no problem. I didn't have to pull out any tools for tuning like I feared I might. It took a little pounding sometimes with the rubber mallet, though.
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