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CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 27, 2010

Torpedo Factory: The Beauty of Sexy Balusters
Filed under: Cool Projects — Tags: , — nedpelger

TBW and I recently visited Old Town in Alexandria, VA to visit a friend headed for an assignment in Afghanistan. While in Old Town, we toured the old Torpedo Factory. Located along the Potomac, it has been renovated into an art market. They’ve kept a few torpedoes around as a reminder.

As a lover of all things beautiful, I was especially taken by the innovative stair railing balusters. The 4″ sphere rule didn’t seem to apply, but the design certainly made me stop and smile. And take a couple of photos.

Some other, less voluptuous, balusters also caught my eye.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 26, 2010

Table Saw that Can’t Cut Your Fingers
Filed under: safety — Tags: — nedpelger

When a carpenter buddy told me about a table saw safety feature that was absolutely fail-safe, I had to check it out. In 10 seconds, the video below will make you a believer.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esnQwVZOrUU

Steve Gass loves to work with wood and has a PhD in physics. He conceived the idea and started Saw Stop to make and sell his innovative table saws.

As I watched the video, I thought of another buddy of mine who works in a custom cabinet shop. His boss pushed him into cutting some thin laminate backwards through the saw, even though my pal mentioned how the last time he used that method it grabbed and kicked back. After being upbraided for almost an hour about the need to just get it done, the supervisor ordered him to do as he was told.

With a fear of losing his job, he started cutting and the material bound and pulled his hand into the saw for a nasty gash. The wild part of this story, though, is that the cabinet shop is owned by a physician and he treated my friend for the Workman’s Comp injury. The Doc/Owner told him to go into work the next day, that he’d be fine and certainly didn’t need any time off, even though he has permanent nerve damage in his hand.

In Lancaster County, we tend not to sue people and my buddy just went back to work. Jobs are hard to come by these days.

To end on a lighter note, you can’t watch a saw safety video on YouTube without getting some suggestions about not so safe saw work. Here’s a short one that made me laugh…imagining how easily it could happen to me.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHUtp5w3kis&feature=related

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 25, 2010

Ugly Is as Ugly Does
Filed under: Design — Tags: — nedpelger

When I was visiting my brother and his family in Missoula, Montana, I saw a church building that made me shudder. Now I’m not some flighty design student and fully understand that everything isn’t going to be beautiful. Average means average.

I suppose to have beautiful and average, though, ugly just needs to be there to complete the series. When I walked past this church as I was exploring Missoula, I stopped and stared. I thought, “Seriously? Did some architect actually design and specify those materials? Could he or she really have gotten his or her head that far up his or her butt?”

Here are two photos for you to determine if I’m exaggerating.

I suppose what bothered me most about the design was the wasted money on expensive materials that look cheap. For example, the concrete block looks like the cheapest quality available but is actually a reasonably expensive colored block. Similarly, the material behind the cross looks like OSB board but actually is an expensive stone panel. Generally all the different materials, and the trades that had to stop and start to get them installed, screams poor design to me.

So let me know what you think of this work of art. If you have any photos of buildings you find particularly ugly, shoot them over to me.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 24, 2010

I Love the Smell of Cedar in the Morning
Filed under: Design — Tags: — nedpelger

An architect friend dropped off some prints at my office and included some design magazines he thought I’d like. I really enjoyed Metropolis: The Magazine of Architecture and Design. The photos were inspiring and the writing was solid.

After reading for a bit, I was motivated to grab my chain saw and head out to my shop to start chopping away on a couple of cedar logs I’ve had drying for years. I could see the cedar was split and rotting through the heart wood, but couldn’t tell how badly. I recently conceived a design to sculpt this log into a cool shape to sit outside my office door.

I got the log blocked up off the ground and started sawing off the ends, checking for rot. If you’ve never had the privilege, chain sawing cedar trees should be on your bucket list. The heavenly smell isn’t like anything else. Unfortunately, I kept finding rot and splitting wood as I cut off pieces. So I ended up without the cool piece of wood I was hoping to sculpt, just pile of firewood.

As is often the case, though, the thing I thought would be useless wasn’t. The stump piece that I assumed would be rotten was solid with a funky shape. When I set it upside down and chopped back a few roots, it started to look like a cool little end table.

The red cedar swirls are gorgeous, though I understand that the red fades with time.

As I walked over to snap the above photos, I saw two mortal enemies sunbathing together. The frog was on the upper deck while the water snake was just below.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 18, 2010

Some Wisdom for Moving Forward
Filed under: People Skills — Tags: — nedpelger

It’s that time of year when graduates pop out of their cozy educational wombs like slippery watermelon seeds. Typically they get a graduation speech from some suit. I just came across a different kind of commencement address from which we all could benefit. Hope you enjoy it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzFCkRG–NQ&feature=email

Here are a few chestnuts from the speech:
Worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra problem by chewing bubblegum.
Do one thing a day that terrifies you.
Keep your love letters and throw away your bank statements.
Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Don’t read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Since my last post got a little religiousy, I thought I’d change it up with this one.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 14, 2010

God’s a Bit Sloppy in Geometry
Filed under: Ned Weirdness — Tags: — nedpelger

Puzzler:
What could make me conclude that God is a bit sloppy at geometry? Or at the least that He’s rounding off some significant digits?

2 Hints: The answer involves construction and I’m currently reading the The Daily Bible in Chronological Order NIV.

See if you can be the first to post the correct answer and win the title of Chief Construction Knowledge Poo-bah.

UPDATE: I asked my son if he had figured out the answer to the Puzzler and he responded, “That’s not a Puzzler, that’s just some random Bible verse you read.” As I thought about it, I had to reluctantly agree with him. So here’s the answer.

In 2nd Chronicles 4:2 Hiram the Artisan makes a large makes a large, fountain-type bowl located just off the altar. This bowl is called “The Sea” and is described as follows: “He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring 10 cubits from rim to rim and 5 cubits high. It took a line of 30 cubits to measure around it.”

To consider this bowl in math terms, it’s half a sphere with a diameter of 10 cubits. Since we know the circumference is diameter x Pi (or 3.1416), we know the diameter should be 31.416 cubits. Since the verse provides the measured diameter of 30 cubits, something is off. Was Pi in Biblical times 3.0 or was this a bit of inaccurate reporting? I developed a theory about this.

Years ago, when reading the NIV Study Bible, I came across a few notes that indicated some of the numbers didn’t jive with similar numbers from other Bible locations and suggested those numbers seem likely to be copyist errors. Attending a seminar on genetics at Princeton, given by the now Princeton President Shirley Tilgman, she discussed the copying errors that happen when cells reproduce. The errors don’t occur often, just occasionally and enough to muck up the calculations and make everything much more difficult to understand.

I theorized that Biblical copying errors, like DNA copying errors, are not random but intentional and lead to the concept of how much more complicated the universe is than we generally suppose. I’m comfortable with that complexity, but still work to understand my little bits truth that hover around me.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 11, 2010

A Redneck Skill Every Contractor Should Have
Filed under: Sitework — Tags: — nedpelger

It’s been many years since I worked in the field every day, but the video below makes me remember some of the things I miss. WD-40 truly is a magic elixir.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSDPHjo1zRU

The joys and tribulations of getting equipment running, pumps primed and generally being stuck in the mud makes me smile as I look back. At the moment, of course, it’s totally aggravating. Like life, for the most part.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 8, 2010

Those Magnificent Engineers
Filed under: Cool Projects — Tags: — nedpelger

3,000,000 gallons of crude oil spewing into the sea? Call the Engineers!

Generally the engineering profession has the practitioners in a back room with there heads down and their fingers on a keyboard. Occasionally, though, a spot light shines. Now is one of those moments.

With a 200,000 gallons per day oil leak a mile below the ocean surface, the conditions are brutal. I calculated the pressure to get a sense of the scale. Generally we design building footings to resist 3,000 pounds per square foot. So think about the amount of pressure a multi-story building applies downward on its footings. Got that? Then make it 100 times higher and that is the pressure encountered at 5,000 feet below sea level. And it’s dark.

Bill Salvin of BP said, “We are essentially taking a four-story building and lowering it 5,000 feet and setting it on the head of a pin.” The latest news indicates that the engineers have the concrete structure just above the leaking pipe and are preparing the surface prior to set down. I assume they are trying to get the best seal possible.

If the plan works, they will be able to connect pipes to the big concrete funnel and collect the oil. Those rascal Engineers are going to figure a way to make some money on this thing as well!

Here’s a couple of photos of what the platform looked like before and after the explosion. I understand the flames were over 200′ high.

Sorry I can’t give a link to credit the photos, they came to me as a forward from a friend (Thanks Rob) and don’t have any link or info attached. I try to honor copyright as best I can.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 7, 2010

Sliding Down the Stairs of Life
Filed under: Cool Projects — Tags: — nedpelger

This stair slide makes me want to build another house just to include this feature. As in most of my ideas, though, I’ll lay down till it goes away.

The location of the stairs next to the windows really adds to their charm. The stair shown below, which I’ve posted before, just doesn’t have as cool a feel.

CONSTRUCTION KNOWLEDGE BLOG

May 4, 2010

Want to Build a Log Cabin?
Filed under: Carpentry — nedpelger

It seems most people that stumble into the construction industry (which is how we all ended up here, isn’t it?) have a secret desire to build a log cabin by hand. An Architect friend recently gave me a VHS copy of Alone in the Wilderness, in which a 50 year old guy films himself building this wonderful cabin in Alaska. He did the construction in 1967 and then lived in the wilderness until he was about 90 years old.

I loved watching this guy efficiently and effectively walk through the process of building a log cabin. It was doubly fun to watch it with my carpenter friend who is moving next week to the woods in North Carolina and will be doing that very thing. Of course, he bemoaned the fact that more detail wasn’t shown on exactly what was happening.

Here’s a portion of the video to give you a sense of the story.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss

Alone in the Wilderness clip

Dreams are funny things. I like the idea of holding onto that dream of building a log cabin, but am ok if I never do. I have other dreams that feel more important to me that I prefer to focus upon. This website and the phone apps certainly are one of those dreams.

I like to work at the smaller dreams too…a weekend away with TBW, walking in the creek with my grandson, practicing triathlons with my buddy and nemesis Cromer. Let’s all strive to fit our dreams and our work into beautifully woven life. Right now is the only time we have.

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