Marcin Log

11/25/11

• Floyd Details Workshop Alignment Methods*

• Techniques and tools to perfectly align workshop
• Level, chalk line and string line instructional
• Patterns to ensure level alignments
• Use of cripplers for beam and box installation

• Putting roof sections on the workshop
• Roof sections lean on roof
• John the Carpenter discusses progress and forecasts roof rafters up next week (weather providing)
• From pulverizer to brick
• Pulverizer munching soil
• From pulverizer to brick line
• From pulverizer to brick line

11/24/11

• Testing Report for Field Pulverizer*

• Modifications and issues from Field Pulverizer tests
• Safety recommendations from Marcin for safe Field Pulverizer use

• Workshop roof preparation construction
• Temporary post use
• Simultaneous action of CEB Presses
• Getting cement mixer up and running
• Brick City, repository or bricks for storage from elements
• Windrows of dug-up soil for brick pressing of 2,000-3,000 bricks
• Reject limestone soil use
• Leveling workshop frame questions
• Workshop skeleton panorama
• Strawbales and shop

11/23/11

• Roof Anchoring with Floyd*

• Floyd discusses anchoring the structures for the upcoming roof build

11/22/11

• Floyd Discussing Structural Stability*

• Floyd discusses bracing, support triangles and tying in preparation for Roof Boxes

• Next steps to the roof with 30-year carpenter industry veteran John
• Construction scene review

• Workshop Status with Floyd Hagerman*

• Floyd discusses interim progress on workshop build and upcoming element builds

11/16/11

• CEB Construction Review and Problem Solving*

• Experienced builder Floyd Hagerman brings 20-years of experience to CEB project
• Addresses structural and moisture issues of troublesome wall on build
• Floyd discusses important details about weatherizing exposed walls and fixes for existing issues

• CEB Press fitting crack

11/14/11

• Prepping for columns build
• Reinforcing main compression chamber

11/13/11

• Moving lumber for roof boxes
• Moving lumber for roofs
• Preparing to build columns
• Reinforcing main compression chamber

11/13/11

• Yoonseo Gives Tutorial on Laying Bricks for the Columns

• Yoonseo explains the proper use of slurry, brick laying techniques and proper patterns
• Finishes with a Q&A where Yoonseo fields questions as to why brick patterns and proper technique are necessary

11/12/11

• Problem with Nov 12 Pressing

• Rain without sun left the soil wet, putting a damper on the scheduled pressing

• Bridging Issue

• Wet soil causing problems with bridging
• The painfully slow, yet effective, 'poking-it-with-a-stick' methodology keeps project on track but behind schedule

• Meeting of the CEB presses
• Powell machine arrives to the site
• Powell CEB Press creating different sized blocks
• Moving Powell machine while on site
• Visual of pressing machine at work
• Bricks finished being loaded onto pallets
• Forklift moving pallets of pressed bricks

11/11/11

• Prototype 1 Loader Mounted Cement

• Visual of Prototype 1 and its quick attach motor, Lifetrac standard, large internal paddles
• Additional visual

11/05/11

• Workshop Columns Assembly

• Column construction coming along nicely

• Words of Wisdom from Yoonseo

• A wonderfully eloquent soliloquy about what brought Yoonseo to the Factory Farm project

11/04/11

• Workshop Slab

• 2/3 of the slab is finished
• Description of the final details and pour to complete the concrete slab
• concrete slab joints cutting visual
• Release cut ergonomics

10/29/11

• Saturday the 29th--Update

• Short update--continuing pressing

• CEB Micro-controller Repair

• Micro-controller repair of accidentally-broken solenoid on the CEB press
• Solenoid repair

10/27/11

• CEB Workflow

• Short update on the brick laying process

• Pressing Grates

• Short update on the work site
• realization that a grate modification is needed

10/24/11

• Brick Pressing in Production

• Shims

• Brianna documents the importance of using 'shims' while welding

• Remote Technical Documentation

• Video documentation from Rebecca regarding her and Brianna's build
• Brianna working on written documentation
• Help with CAD documentation needed for clarification with computer modeling

• Power Cube Power and Return

• Power lines from Power Cubes explanation

• Case Drain Returns on Tractor

• Case drain return, a low fluid line connecting the 4 motors

• Pressure Relief Instructional

• Rebecca and Marcin show how to properly set the pressure relief PSI settings

• Properly Installed Drawers

• Brianna shows what the finished project should look like
• Tips on how to fix any misalignment mistakes

• How-To Install Drawers

• Brianna's step-by-step how-to on the drawer installation
• Tips on mounting to the rollers correctly, a rather tricky process

• Progress on CEB Press

• Bobcat to Lifetrac Conversion Video Instructions

• Step 2
• Step 3
• Step 4
• Step 5
• Step 6
• Step 7
• Step 8
• Step 8.5
• Step 9
• Step 10

10/20/11

Bobcat meets Conversion Plate meets Pulverizer

• Soil Pulverizer on Bobcat

• Pulverizer mounts on Bobcat

• Bobcat meets Pulverizer

• Bobcat to Lifetrac conversion plate
• Recovery plan on CEB construction
• Placing CEB press in position

10/18/11

• Oct 18th Update

• Update for True Fan supporters
• 6K for Kickstarter campaign with 30 days to go
• Main focus currently is mounting the pulverizer onto the tractor--plan B should the 3 tractors not hold up is to rent bobcats and create conversion plate
• New equipment protocols coming online, including cement mixer and sawmill

10/17/11

• Shuttleworth Fellowship Brief

• Marcin describes the ideology, current and on-going projects of GVCS and the future goals and plans for the Shuttelworth Fellowship committee.

10/15/11

• Power Cube Tabs Connecting to Tractor

• Tab-mounting instructions for mounting Power Cube to the frame of Lifeterac

• Lifeterac Motor Coupler Failure

• Keywheel on Lifeterac snaps coupler
• Remedy to have new couplers made by shop on Monday
• Instructions on how to remove difficult wheelshafts and coupler
• Welding Lifeterac Mufflers
• Welding Remaining Mufflers

• Power Cube Wiring 2

• Instructions on connecting wiring

• Oct 15 Update

• Tractor issues: snapped couplers on wheel motors by forgetting to adjust pressure on main hydraulic line
• Reducing from 3,000 PSI to half that, for safety

• Pouring Concrete Foundations

• A panorama view of the concrete pouring

10/14/11

• Moving Rebar to HabLab Site

• Using OSE Tractor to move rebar to site

• Foundation Pouring Series
• Ready to pour HabLab foundations

• Foundations for HabLab ready to pour
• Overview of final foundation constructions
• Floating
• Pour Sock--first slab flattened, pouring second
• Beginning to Pour--pouring concrete for first slab
• Little Dry Quick Fix--"Little dry so were adding 5 gallons of water"
• 8 Cubic Yards--pour of 8 cubic yards, 7.5 for slab
• Cool panorama shot of the Pour

10/14/11

• HabLab rebar and embodied energy

• 10-man team pulls all-nighter to finish outside forms (average 6 people for 18 hours = 108 manhours)
• view of completed layout with forms
• retaining wall and forms completed and rebar layed
• ready to pour concrete

10/13/11

• Preparing the for HabLab Wall Foundations.

10/10/11

• We are finally kicking off our Kickstarter to go The Last Mile on the construction part of the Global Village Construction Set:
  • http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/622508883/global-village-construction-set

• Construction Planning Meeting

10/09/11

• Dear True Fans: October 9 Update

10/07/11

• Soil Pulverizer Prototype 3

• Cost: 1215 in labor, 25h at 50 dollars/h + 750 in materials.
• Pulverizes and loads the soil in 1 step!
• This device replaces a stationary pulverizer plus a conveyor (both about 20000 dollars).

• Ted Mosher arrived today:

• CEB Controller Wiring explanation - check the 6 parts.
• Hydraulic Hack
• 4 CEB Presses, finishing - 2-3 of them for construction.

• Documentation evolving
  • Upload immediately to youtube from an iPhone
  • People can access it and make instructionals, Ian Midgley will share how to do it.
  • The more material we have, the more material people can choose.
  • We write down the procedure in the Wiki
  • Howard Agnew writes the actual scripts remotely.

• OSE HabLab - 8 minutes to build a platform, Beginning to stack bales on platform

• Temporary strawbale structure, stacking strawbales
  • See Temporary Hay House, 1h to build.

• Bailing results, On trailer to pick up bales, Picking up bales

10/05/11

• Ergonomic analysis of excavation - 500 sqm with foundation pads
  • For excavation 4000 dollars for 4 days of labor.
    • Day 1 - 4h bulldozing with CAT D7, 4h trackhoe.
    • Day 2 - 9,5h excavator (all 10 hours of labor), 3h skid loader
    • Day 3 - 11h excavator, 3h bulldozing, 6h skid steering with Bobcat
    • Day 4 - 1h excavator, 3h skid steer
    • Fuel: bulldozing 10gal/hour, excavator 4gal/hour, Bobcat 3gal/h

• Baling and House construction ergonomics
  • Baling ergonomics: 3h for 100-200 bales. Issues with the length of bales.
  • House construction ergonomics - 3h to pour 40 pads, 7 cubic yards of concrete, 6 people working. 6x3 = 18 human hours.
  • Ergonomics of preparing the forms - 0.5h per pad, 40 pads = 20 hours. Leveling them off. So about 1h for each pad = 40h for all pads. Work: lay the form out, do the rebar, put the rebar in, dig out a little bit, put some gravel and leveling.

• Cement truck arrives and pours cement in the Foundation pads.
  • Side comment: For the foundation pad construction: 20 minutes per pad, to put it in form and put in the metal. With 1-2 people.
• Muffler design
  • Parts: steel pipe and insert with about 40 holes, 7 inches long, 6 inches on the inside, 1 inch from the base. With modular pipe fittings.

• Getting ready to bale , Baler adjustment, Engaging the baler
  • We are not using LifeTrac because all of the wheel control valves are broken. Will get new one, but a new delay.
  • Good news: Saw mill blade ordered, 1000 dollars.
  • We need a Farmer!
  • Baler Discussion
    • Big wheel and a fly wheel - we can replace it by hydraulics.
    • Auger, the pick up mechanism, and String tie mechanism.
  • Straw quality assessment - dry, crispy,
  • First bale!, Baling shakedown in progress

• Baling day 1 summary
  • 3 bales/minute, 180/hour, about 1500/day. 1 bale is sold for 3 dollars = about 5000 dollars per day.

10/03/11

• OSE Certification
  • Power Cube Producer - Tom Griffin from Texas, 1st replication, aiming for OSE Certification.
    • OSE provides Marketing assistance, publicize in our networks
    • He is contributing back to the community.
  • OSE License relates to the OSE Specifications, features the OSE products embody.
  • Certified people will comment and describe how their product meets each point of the OSE Specification. It will be transparent for the user if he gets a product from somebody else or us, so he know exactly what he is getting, particularly on a life-time design and modularity aspects of our equipment. The world benefits by knowing what they are getting into, and the certified producer benefits by the having access to our marketing channels.
  • OSE License is for building a distributing economics. It is not for us building an empire, but for us distributing as much productive power to everybody out there as possible.
    • To support the open sourcing of civilization, the producers would contribute a reasonable amount back to the OSE project, like 3%, we will have to decide on that, we don't want to overtax them, but a little kickback to the project to continue further open source development.
    • We will custom design these agreements, it will on a case by case basis.
  • With this OSE distributive economics license we focus on the fact that whoever is a producer is documenting the work completely, meaning the bills of materials and designs and they will pass our mark only when they are truly bringing about distributive economics for the whole world to benefit with. And that's a beautiful package that nobody can disagree with, that can get a lot of public support on many fronts.
  • That's about the OSE License, we will keep developing it, as people get on line to produce it we hope to have people actually funding the project through donations back to the commons in terms of developing further open source goods.

• Message to Jason Fields from the Urban Farming Guys
  • Ian produced 7 minutes video for the entire procedure to build the frame of the LifeTrac.
  • Start writing the script and preparing your Kickstarter materials asap.
  • Create a simple jig and I am hoping that even you guys will complete the whole tractor frame within hours.

• Dear True Fans and Supporters - Update
  • about 42 days of construction. Foundation will be poured tomorrow. Excavation is done. Right now we are doing haying for the hay bales.
  • Next week we will be full-time producing and laying CEB Bricks. SHonda is getting the CEB up. We go now to Sweiger to work on the Sawmill, hay cutter and pulverizers.
  • Kauffman Foundation may would have 103,000 dollars for us, but I would like to see this money across the table, there are a lot of technical difficulties there.
  • If we can show the straw bales and cut lumber from our own tree, that would be beautiful. We are finishing the Sawmill, we didn't get the blade till tonight, we will try to secure that.
  • By the end of this week we aim to have 3 Tractors with 6 Power Cubes so we can start construction.
  • Yoonseo Kang is coming this Thursday. And Ted Mosher anytime this week.
  • Revenue streams from non-profit, real production, investors, loans.

• Lifetrac Tracks design and jig comments - 3 links in-between, quality control - make sure the links are touching against the rebar.
• Filling Tractor 2 with hydraulic fluid

10/02/11

• Hay conditioner 101 - International 1086 Tractor - about 130HP, Hesston hay conditioner (a rotary cutter), 1 steel and 1 rubber roll. In Action.

• 1500 bales to be pressed - Meet the hay conditioner
• Beginning to clear vegetation, Starting the dozing
• Secondary cylinder mounting
• Brianna explains 1) Squaring CEB Drawer, 2) Frame Jig, 3) Fitting Cylinder, 4) Frame and Roller Guide Holes, 5) Frame Jig Turning, 6) Frame Welding, 7) Making Bolts, 8) Shims Squaring Drawer, 9) Squaring Hyd Cylinder, 10) Squaring Hyd Cylinder, 11) Torching Sensor Holes.
• Loading the Soil Pulverizer

10/01/11

• Nearly finished grading
• Clearing off vegetation

9/30/11

• Column foundation forms - a laser level would be useful that sense out an array of lines across the whole field so that we don't have to mess with the water level.

• Hammering Foundation pads - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfcSDbkpJEw

9/28/11

HabLab

Excavation started	Gravel trucks and spreading
Excavation	Bulldozing

• $60k construction grant is in

• CEB vault prototype 1 and 2
• Cat D7 bulldozer fuel consumption - 10 gal/hr, 90 gal fuel tank
• Monday midnight oil update - shipping 2 Power Cubes, Bulldozer came.