RING STRUCTURES

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Prior to starting the frame assembly, B.C. gathered a few basic tools and materials . . . including a hacksaw, a small electric deep fryer, some vegetable oil, a pair of pliers, a vise, a couple of homemade swaging tools, a ruler, a cookie thermometer, and a supply of cold water. Actually, even this equipment would be unnecessary if one wanted to buy commercially made couplings to join the ends of the pipe together . . . but to save that expense, Corey used his tools to enlarge one end of each ring tube, forming a socket that would accept the opposite end.

To accomplish this, he first heated the vegetable oil in the fryer to about 450°F, or enough to make the plastic pipe pliable after a minute of immersion. While each tube end was soaking, he gripped a swaging tool in the vise and, when the plastic became soft, slipped the pipe over the tool's point until about 2" of the plastic hose was enlarged. (Naturally, the swage used must be only slightly larger than the actual outside diameter of the pipe being formed.) Once each "bell" was made, he fixed its shape by dousing it with cold water.

After preparing the six pipes that would constitute the ring framework, the designer set about weaving them into the proper pattern . . . a process which, though it appears to be a major effort, involves little more than paying attention to what Corey terms the "alternate", or over-and-under, rule of thumb.

To start, he placed the first pipe's ends together to form a ring. (While a 2"-deep socket will form a secure joint, an application of PVC cement will guarantee its adhesion . . . and such a union can always be broken with a few deft strokes of the saw, at the expense of only a few inches of material.) With that done, he slipped the second ring in a counterclockwise direction over the first, then under it, before joining its ends.

Next, he took the third member and directed it—again in counterclockwise fashion—over the second ring . . . under, then over the initial ring . . . then under the second ring before fastening the third ring into a hoop. The fourth ring was woven through the second and third rings in the same manner.

Before introducing the fifth ring component, Bernard arranged the four existing hoops to describe a crescent . . . then passed pipe number five over the fourth ring . . . under, then over the third . . . back under the fourth . . . then—bypassing the second entirely—under and over the first. This, too, was coupled to form a circle.

The final, or sixth ring, as you might imagine, went through some pretty serious contortions. Beginning at the right-hand side of the layout, Corey first ran it over ring five . . . then under and over the fourth ring . . . back under ring five . . . on over the first ring . . . under and over the second ring . . . and under the first ring again. Once that path had been described, he linked the last hoop, and all six rings were arranged in a symmetrical fashion to form a circular shape on the ground.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print