Nearly there . . .

Second to last day before the build and being in the Shed all weekend has completely screwed up our body clocks so now none of us really know what day of the week it is. Time has, to quote the immortal words of Jen, gone out the window!

We planned the day so that we took shifts between working on the pavilion and working on our portfolios.
SamSam headed straight over to the workshop with Joe to finished CNC-ing the frame. This was then bought to the small team of us in the wood-workshop to be chiseled, filed and sanded to within an inch of it's life. This would then be ready to varnish.

The CNC machine in action

Over the weekend, we had also glued six plywood layers together to create a thick beam for the base. The slots for the frame needed to be chiselled out to make sure the frame fitted well. This was also done in the workshop before taken back over to our storage container.
Lunch time came with a shift change so while I spent the afternoon catching up on some blog entries and portfolio, other team members were slaving away to finish the varnishing and the inserts.
As we had finished varnishing the inserts on Sunday, they could then be fitted properly by pinning strips of rubber/scrap lino flooring around the edges. This was so that they wouldn't fall out of the tubes.

By the end of the day we were nearly ready for the test build.

Operation Top Secret Working in the Shed Without Anyone Finding Out

Varnishing the frames

Over the weekend, we were able to get into the Shed to continue work on the pavilion. And did we need it! 


So while Clara and I were sat behind a craft stall in Prestwich, a group of dedicated volunteers offered up their Saturday to the cause. From what I can gather, it was a great day. The weather was good and there was just the right number of people there to help out. 
They were able to finish coating the inside of the tubes with PVA - some of them had been missed in the first round - and make a good start on varnishing the frames. Inserts were also PVA-ed ready to be varnished. 

ooooh . . . magic

I just wish we were having as much luck with our craft fair. We were all set up but unfortunately, there was hardly anyone there (we found out later that it could have been due to a Christmas fair being held further up the road. Grr) We managed to sell a few of our off-cuts and some of my cards but it wasn't nearly as much as we had hoped. 

Sanding, Snacks and Sunshine

I was able to go and help them on Sunday and although the weather wasn't as nice as the previous day, we still got quite a lot done: all the tubes got varnished and we were able to make a good start on varnishing the inserts. We also varnished all but the un-cut frames - which were due to be done when the workshop opened on Monday morning. 

The binbags made a re-appearance as we
coated the inserts

Just chillin' in a bin . . . as you do

Black Friday

Just for the record: Not a lot happened on Thursday. It was, of course, lectures but a very small handful of us volunteered to come to the Shed super early and chop down the forest (continuing with the metaphor from my last entry). This involved us meeting at 8.30am with the plan to be finished in time to get to lectures at 10am. We managed it and the tubes were stacked on shelves in alphabetical order by the time we left ready to be worked on that evening after lectures had finished . . . . . 

That didn't happen.

Third year were using the room and we would have to wait at least an hour before we could get in there, by which time there would hardly be any point in us starting varnishing. So we all got a well needed early night.

Onto Friday!

Nothing seemed to be going right on Friday. Despite planning on a really early start, it was a slow one as we were moved from place to place due to the spaces being used for teaching. 

Once we had finally settled, SamSam were off to the workshop to CNC the frame. The pieced that had been CNC-ed were then bought back for us to chisel out the circles (which seem to be taking over EVERYWHERE now!) and sand the frames down ready for coating. Sheel and Taniya were sent, once again, to B&Q to pick up said wood varnish.

Progress was also made on the inserts and over lunch, I heading over to the workshop with some 120 off-cuts to get them sanded for the craft fair. 

Whilst all this was going on, it had begun to rain so we had to quickly get all the still-slightly-wet tubes in before sending Sheel and Taniya to swap the wood varnish because it wasn't actually waterproof (???) 

Filing and sanding on the frames continued for the duration of the day but Clara (who would be coming with me to the craft fair) and I managed to escape and decorate some of the beautifully sanded off-cuts. 

By the time Sheel and Taniya got back to the Shed, it was closing time. However, Siobhan had managed to get the Shed open over the weekend for us to continue, but Shhhhh, it's a secret!

Icky Sticky Stuff . . .

This week has been all about the tubes

Apologises for the very late entry; we have all been so busy with the pavilion. Wednesday morning started with gluing the remainder of the tubes so that we could start varnishing that afternoon. Work went well and we were done soon after lunch so they could be left to dry.

Long days + solvent = crazy students

Meanwhile, Alex and Jamie were on the hunt for varnish. Jamie was enquiring about sponsorship from one of the suppliers but to no avail - the manager was in China. Darn. However, we managed to find a supplier in Manchester and Siobhan was able to go and collect that mid-afternoon. 

We were told that the CNC machine would be free that afternoon so Joe was working against the clock to finalise the CAD drawings to make them suitable for cutting. He and Oli were up at the CAM suite to get that sorted.

I managed to confirm the craft fair on Saturday and to build up funds, Taniya and I planned to sell cards and decorated off cuts at our hall's bar that evening.

 While we were waiting for the glue to dry, the priority was to get the back room reclaimed and ready to varnish in. This involved people clearing tables away, laying down paper and, probably most importantly, opening the large doors at the back.

Nearly there!

Our Tube Forest

We started getting ready to varnish at 4pm and we were done by 6pm. We actually finished quicker than we thought although the back room turned into an eerie – and smelly – tube forest. Donning latex gloves and some rather fetching bin bags protected our clothes and we kept the massive doors open to aerate the room slightly – thanks to Jen for making us take a 10 minute fresh air break before we got too high on the fumes.

While most went home as soon as we had finished, the few of us who stayed behind to clear up chilled out with Siobhan outside the fume-filled room and ate Subway while the room aerated for a couple of hours before the Shed closed for the night. 

Waterproofing test of tubes

Another early start in the library for Tube Cubed. After hours of hard work the tube team managed to test the waterproofing for the coated tubes. Coating of varnishes will help the cardboard tubes repel water and will stain the pavilion with a nice earthy brown, fitting right in with the beautiful gardens of Dunham Massey. A little experiment has been done with three one-meter cardboard tubes which were treated with different varnishes and different PVA base applications. Three qualities were tested:

1. Type of varnish (outdoor vs. yacht)

2. Number of layers of varnish

3. PVA base quality (diluted or not)

From the results of the experiment, both outdoor and yacht varnish worked well on waterproofing and gave the same result. Water flowed down the tubes and did not soak into the cardboard. Water formed droplets and slid off the tubes. The number of layers of varnish and PVA didn't affect the waterproofing much in this test. It is, however, important to know that more layers of varnish tend to darken the tubes. We may need to coat the ends of the tubes with more layers in order to protect the weakest points.