Elbow problems.

03:30 28th december, my elbow is in a strange position and I cannot feel or move my hand.  After moving my elbow and waiting a few seconds I regain movement, but my fingers are still tingling later in the morning.  My doctor is on holiday, so I go to the ponsonby A&E.  The doctor doesn't think that any bone or pins have come loose or anything drastic like that has happened.  I have probably just overdone things and stretched/stressed a nerve.  He prescribes some anti-inflamamatory painkillers.  I'll have to go and see more doctors in the New Year and this may mean that the further surgery previous specialists have suggested is now inevitable.

The anti-inflammatories help and I feel a lot better, but not quite up to making the last few cuts in the legs that I was supposed to do before moving operations to my brother's house.  Instead I try and assemble the Elephant loosely to get an idea of the scale of the animal.  At least I can do this one handed.

Loosely assembled Elephant

I then carefully pack the Elephant in the car and transport it to my brother's house.

Being able to pack the instrument into our car is an important design criteria for this project, so it is good to see that it works.

The backbone and hips need to be glued together and I can help with that one handed, so we glue the hips and backbone together and call it a day.

Jigsaw Jiggery Pokery

The next step of Elephant construction; transfer the leg, hip and backbones to the ply, cut out bones.
The goal of this part of the project is to cut the shapes into manageable sized pieces so they can be moved to my Brother's house.  My Brother has a lot of specialised tools that will be essential to a well finished Elephant.  More importantly, he can also explain how to use them correctly and safely.

This process starts out promisingly, and by early afternoon Boxing Day, the shapes have all been transferred.

Transferring legs etc.

Next step, to cut them out using a jigsaw.  This went well for the first sheet of ply, but for the legs, which will have to support more weight, we need the extra thickness of two sheets glued together.   This is likely to be harder on the tools.  Glueing two sheets together at the outset would the proper way to do this, but it would be a major task and would involve several helpers.  I decide to hold the two sheets of ply together with screws as I can move a single sheet of ply on my own even with an injured elbow.  The bone in my elbow has not properly healed from a bad break 2 years ago, but apart from a few recent twinges it has been fine for the last few months, so I am hoping it won't hold this project up.  Once the shapes have been cut from the plywood I will be able to carry each one without difficulty.

Drilling pilot holes

At this stage in the process I am still full of bravado, I have almost everything I need and a month before the performance.  Although there are still a few details to be worked out, but at this stage it is just a case of liberating the elephant from some very large pieces of plywood.

Those painful twinges in the elbow that have been happening for a couple of weeks, we'll just ignore those for the moment, although the photographs reveal that I am, at least, wearing an elbow support.

Time is pressing on so I fire up the Jigsaw.  This is my second favourite tool, although it would be fair to say I haven't treated mine well.  The previous project involved cutting a metal owl from corrugated iron, which isn't what Jigsaws are intended to do.  Cutting through wood, even quite thick pieces, should be fine though, and my saw cut the ribs out quite happily.

If I can catch him once upon the hip...

So, with two sheets of ply screwed together, and a new, slightly coarser blade, I start cutting out the hips.  The jigsaw seems quite happy at first cutting through two sheets of 25mm ply, until moments after this picture was taken, when the blade simply pulled itself out of the saw.  I try tightening it up.  It drops out as soon as I turn the saw on, before I have even started cutting.  I try a different blade.  It cuts briefly and then drops out of the saw.  After several attempts to get further with this cut, it becomes obvious there is something wrong.  A closer look at the small aluminium parts that holds the blade in place shows is twisted and deformed.  There will be no more Elephant Liberation until the jigsaw is repaired.

One of the problems with summer holiday projects, especially on Boxing Day is that everywhere is closed, so even if it was possible to buy a spare part, the parts supply place is closed.  The blade holder shouldn't be too hard to fix, given the appropriate tools, so I take the small bit of aluminium over to my brother's workshop to see if it can be straightened.  Using a vice, large hammer and adjustable spanner we manage to get the holder to something near true.

After returning to the elephant, the blade is no longer falling straight out of the saw, but it is getting too late in the day, so cutting will resume in the morning.  The goal, at this stage, is to get the bones seperated so that the Elephant components can be transported to my brother's workshop, where there are bigger and better tools.

Next morning I start off, intending to use a combination of my jigsaw and a larger, faster, but slightly unwieldy reciprocating saw I have borrowed from my brother.  I intend to use the jigsaw on the difficult curves, and the reciprocating saw on the longer straigher cuts.  This method is faster, but not very friendly to my elbow, so I'd rather use the jigsaw.  The blades are staying in place in the jigsaw for longer, but now it keeps behaving erratically, and not always starting when I pull the trigger.  I do one long cut with the reciprocating saw, which is a bit uncomfortable.   Fortunately, at this point my brother arrives with a second jigsaw, so everything is expected to happen really quicky.

A few seconds into the first cut, the little wheel behind the saw blade on my brother's jigsaw falls off.  The tiny circlip has flown off into the ether.  Incredibly, his saw is the same brand and almost the same model (slightly more powerful) as mine, so we can take the little wheel from mine and get one working jigsaw between us.

We proceed taking turns cutting out legs, and opening up my dead jigsaw to see what might be wrong.

Inside a Ryobi Jigsaw.  No operator serviceable parts inside.

It seems the screws holding the wires have shaken themselves out of place and by the time I'd cut a couple more ribs out my brother has fixed that.

There was the slightly worrying issue of the bit that was left over.  There's always a bit left over, this is some kind of a rule.  Anyone who has taken a car apart knows this.  Usually a small insignificant bolt.  In this case a tiny spring clip.

We each puzzle over the location of the clip in turn while the other carried on cutting more elephant parts.

Then my brother's jigsaw starts cutting out, a similar problem to the one mine had experienced.  So, we dismantle the second jigsaw, carefully noting the position of the mystery spring clip.

At this point, my jigsaw starts up, but has no little wheel behind the blade, and my brothers saw doesn't start.  So, we swap wheels back and cut a few more legs with the one remaining working saw before calling it a day so I can go off to a relaxing jam session and barbeque with some rather good musicians surrounded by native bush, birds and some exotic plants.

My arm is feeling a little unfomfortable after all this effort and vibration, but it has only done something disturbing and painful a couple of times, and still seems to be working.   Tomorrow should see a lot more progress.

All the ribs have been cut.  They now need to be sanded, some nice smooth edges routed, and some gaps bogged up with bog.

Next step, long bones, has been delayed by Christmas and the need to manufacture presents.  I would blog the construction process but that might give away the surprise.

Transfer to ply and the first cut...

The next step is to transfer the scanned plans from the computer, where the components have been carefully rearranged and modified in Photoshop, to the plywood.  For my previous large sculptural object, metal giant owl, I used a grid trace method.  I like this method - although slow, it is relaxing.  Really I should project the plans directly onto the ply and trace them, this being the 21st century, but events are conspiring against this, and anyway, I feel more connected to the project tracing freehand.  It is summer, and 2011, a most disastrous year in general, is nearly over.  I think the slower relaxing contemplative method has most appeal.  So grid tracing it is.

Transferring Plans to the Plywood Sheets

I am listening to Oumou Sangaré to get into a suitably African frame of mind while tracing.  Eventually I trace in silence though, as music as background never really works for me.  Any music I would want to listen to soon takes the foreground and steals my concentration, and if it doesn't do this I wouldn't be listening to it.

Shapes transferred.

Having transferred the shapes, the next step is to cut out the first rib.  It has been a year or so since I used the jig saw, so I start with a small rib.

Rib the first...

The first rib is done.  The elephant is breaking free of the wood at last.  Looking at the rib, it is a slightly strange shape, but comparing it to the original, this is mostly because the original was a slightly strange shape.  I think I'll look more closely at the next ribs before cutting.  

To make sure the curves are clear, I outline the next ribs with a Sharpie and flexi curve.

More ribs

More ribs and the base of the head are cut.  Each shape seems to be easier than the last.  The project is progressing nicely, but dinner with friends beckons.  I should have the rest of the ribs done and the long bones transferred to ply by tomorrow evening.  

The long bones will be more difficult.  These are going to take the weight of the instrument and need to be sturdy, so I will be laminating two sheets of 25mm ply together.  This will make the wood much harder to cut, although the shapes are generally easier.  I am debating whether to glue the sheets together before cutting, or hold them together with screws and laminate afterwards.  Laminating before will use more glue, and require drying for several hours, so I really needed to have done that already.  Laminating afterwards gives more options for cutting out hollows simply, without requiring a router, and will also leave me with easily manageable offcuts for other parts of the project.

I think I'll go with screwing together before cutting, and glueing later, although I think that might be slightly harder on the blade.

Elephant plans

For a few years now I have been imagining the possibilities of musical animals.  My vision is for a small herd of animal shaped frames, each of which has  several built in musical instruments and noise making modes.  The animals I imagine are large enough to be played by two or three musicians at once.   When I saw a call for proposals for the performance event "Bathing With Elephants and Other Exotic Reveries", this seemed like the perfect opportunity to embark on this project.   I put forward a proposal and they accepted my crazy scheme.

So I am now committed to constructing and performing with a Musical Elephant.

The frame for this beast is based on a wooden mammoth skeleton model, within/around which I am planning to eventually include instruments which are either based on traditional African instruments, evoke the spirit of Elephant, or which become obvious to include once the frame develops and I discover what sounds it makes.  At this stage I am intending to include a Marimba, Kalimba, a Side Blown Tusk Horn, Split Log Drums, Trunk Trumpet, Kundi, possibly a membrane bagpipe and a bass string running to the tail.

Thanks to Ivan, Nicolai, and Cath I now have Mahogony for the Marimba, a pair of excellent fibreglass tusks, and a small wooden Mammoth skeleton to base the frame on.  Mammoths and Elephants are very similar at the skeleton level, and the frame does not need to be anatomically correct, so this is perfect for my needs.  I also have some large sheets of plywood and other various other tools, bits and pieces so construction can begin.  

There is an Elephant in here just waiting to come out.

Some items still need to be acquired, spring steel for the Kalimba, broken cymbals for the ears and/or a large sheet of thin metal or PVC  for the head, which will be modelled loosely on the Eames Elephant chair.

Scale Model Elephant.

This is the 1/10 scale model, the tusks have been cut down to make it less Mammothy.  

Most excellent tusks.

Here are the actual tusks, which are hollow and made of fibreglass, and will work perfectly as a sideblown horn.

Using photoshop I have modified the scanned plans from the original Mammoth to fit on sheets of 2440 x 1200mm plywood sheets.  The sheets are 25mm thick and two sheets will be laminated together for the structural elements (legs, backbone).

Long bones, hips, shoulders and backbone.

Ribs, spare ribs and default head.

Now I just need to transfer the plans to the plywood sheets and start cutting...