Not-Ephemerisle Platform Build

Finished results of third protyping session.

Kickstarter is here!

This is a volunteer effort to create a large, floating, communal platform for the Not-Ephemerisle festival. The wiki link for the community platform project is here. This information will probably be rolled into the wiki page at some point.

Co-conspirators:

• Matt Bell
• Adam W.
• Ratha Grimes
• Michael K.
• Michael C.
• Clark
• Tobias
• Christie D.
• Dave W.
• Max P.

Project Goals

Build a large (~20'x20'), stable, and safe floating platform for public use at the Not-Ephemerisle festival, through volunteer labor and community funding.

Design constraints:

• Use materials that are as inexpensive as possible while still being reliable.
• Favor reusable materials over one-time-use materials that will be discarded.
• Build a platform that is continuous and relatively rigid over its entire size, as opposed to made up of free-floating, hinged segments.
• The platform must be launchable from a boat, and therefore modules must be connected together primarily in the water. All fastening in the water must be doable from the top (e.g., no underwater bolt fastening). Also, as much construction work as possible should be done prior to loading the materials on the boat that will be used for launch (e.g., no caulking at final assembly time).

Project Status

Success! The project was funded and successfully deployed. We built a 20'x24' platform at Ephemerisle 2011. The materials are all resusable in future years.

Photos from the event.

2011-04-24 Build Session - #4 (Prototyping)

Attendees: Christie, Clark, Matt, Ratha, Terry.

Built two modules with a “plus” 2-layer pattern (with 3/4" plywood) and found this to be (a) easy to assemble on the water, and (b) very strong. Tested the proposed technique for lowering modules into the water with rope and hooks, and found this to work very well. Measured the amount of water that got into the flotation bins after some vigorous jumping on the platform, and found it to be a small amount, but still enough to warrant some sealant to prevent its entering.

2011-04-16 Build Session - #3 (Prototyping)

Attendees: Adam, Clark, Ratha, Tobias.

Session photos

We built two full modules of the 3-layer plywood design and joined them in the water. We reached consensus that this design is adequately stable and simple. We plan to use one more prototype session to decide between 2 vs. 3 layers of plywood.

Full session report

2011-04-03 (?) Build Session - #2 (Prototyping)

Attendees: Adam, Ratha, Matt, Michael C., Michael K.

Session photos: I think Matt took these, but they don't seem to be uploaded

At this session, we built a full 4'x8'module with 1/2" plywood, 2x4 underlayer, and the Home depot heavy-duty storge bins for flotation. We tested the module in the water. We found that the flotation was adequate, but 1/2" plywood was too thin, even with 2x4 supports. We also found that the 2x4 underlayer required quite a bit of precision labor.

Extracting full session writeup from email TBD

2011-03-12 Build Session - #1 (Prototyping)

Attendees: Adam, Ratha, Matt, Dave

Session photos

We built two half-size modules with two layers of 1/2" plywood each, and tested joining them in the water. We found that the two layers of 1/2" plywood were too flexible and weak at joints. For flotation, we used medium-sized inexpensive storage containers, which proved smaller than ideal and a bit too fragile. At the end of the session, we threw on some 2x4s for a support frame and were pleased with the preliminary results. Next steps: Resesarch other flotation options and sketch a design using a 2x4 frame for support.

Extracting full session writeup from email TBD