Posted by Jerry on May 2nd, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Woodwork
I’ve mentioned my daughter’s fire twirling before (more on making firestaffs later) but this weekend’s project was to make a portable tightrope so that my daughter’s circus skills could be extended a little. For those, like me, who searched the net in vain for instructions on making a tightrope, here’s the way I made one. First up; the disclaimer – if you follow these instructions I take absolutely NO (zero, zip) responsibility for anyone hurting themselves or their property – I have no control over your standard of workmanship, the quality of materials or the manner of usage – so you do this entirely at your own risk (so don’t sue me okay?).
Now the fun stuff. Take 9.4 metres of 50mm square section galvanised steel tube. Add one 10mm turnbuckle, one 10mm ring bolt with 2 washers and nut, 2m of 5mm wire rope, two 5mm rope thimbles, four 5mm U-bolts, two 2½-inch three-eighth inch bolts with nuts and washers; twelve 2½-inch quarter inch bolts with washers and nuts; and finally, six plastic end-caps for the 50mm square tubing.
Tools: one angle grinder with metal cutting blade (you could use a hacksaw, but it would take a lot longer) one portable drill with three-eighth and quarter inch drill bits; a pair of pliers; spanners for the various bolts and nuts; and a small lump hammer – for added persuasion.
Safety gear: full face mask, hearing protection, leather gloves (or wet cotton ones while cutting) and a leather apron (you don’t want to cook your privates!) and leather safety shoes – this is serious metal fabrication!
Time: one weekend.
Instructions: First, cut the steel tube to the following lengths:
one at two metres
four at one metre
two at 70cms (0.7m)
four at 50 cms (0.5m)
Take the two 70cm bits and cut out opposing sides leaving two legs long enough to fit over one of the 1m pieces at the halfway point so that they meet like a T. When it is snugly mated, drill through and fix with a quarter inch bolt. Do the same with the other 70cm piece and attach it to another of the 1m pieces. This gives you two T-shaped parts which will be the uprights and the feet.
Next do similar cutouts at both ends of the 2m part, then attach it to the uprights just above the feet.
Now do similar cutouts at each end (but only one side) of the four 500mm (0.5m) parts -these are the triangulating braces for the uprights. Make the cutouts deeper at the lower end to allow for a shallower angle (about 30 degrees). Drill and bolt these to the side of the uprights and to the feet.
Now for the longer braces that make the truss structure. Make these with cutout as as for the braces supporting the uprights, but these 1 metre pieces will extend form the inner side of the uprights to near the centre of the 2.0 metre base. And drill and bolt these when they are in position. Now add the end caps to the four feet ends and the two uprights – this will make it much safer if you fall against one of the uprights.
The finished structure should look like this:
Now for the wire rope.
Drill three-eighth inch holes through the two uprights near the top. Attach a ring bolt to one end and the turnbuckle to the other, ensuring that you have washers on the outside where the nuts are to ensure a strong anchor – this is important, beacause you will be applying around three tonnes tension to the wire.
Open up the rope thimbles and insert them so that they straddle the eye of the eye bolt at one end and the eye of the turnbuckle at the other.
Feed one end of the rope through the eye of the eyebolt so that it sits in the channel of the rope thimble and clamp it with TWO U-clamps of the correct size.
Then do the same at the turnbuckle end, ensuring that the wire rope is pulled fairly tight.
Now tension the wire with the turnbuckle until you get a nice deep bass note – now that is tight, and you should be able to apply weight (gently at first) to ensure that everything is taking the stress okay, then do a test walk along the tightrope!
And here is the finished tightrope. Do use marine quality materials for the rope attachments – they might be a little more expensive, but you want to minimise the risk of things breaking at inopportune moments! Enjoy – and good luck 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on May 1st, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Technology, Woodwork
One of the things about renaissance technology is that it works – and works well. And what better way to prove it than by using the technology for something useful today! My partner, Sharon has been dyeing threads for some years, but there was always the problem of how to skein the threads off and how to wind them back into skeins when they had been dyed.
The only technology I had seen was at the Canberra School of Art in the Textiles Department – a wonderful German skein winder that ran on smooth bearings – great if you have precision technology for building such things. But there was no way I had that kind of precision in my home workshop so I cast around for a technology from a time when perhaps tolerances were a bit wider than a few tenths of a millimetre.
And among the devices of Leonardo (who designed thread winders and looms) and Taccolla (from whom I picked up the spur and cage gear train) I found the solution! And here it is: My version of a Renaissance skein winder.
And just to prove it works:
Jerry’s skein winder in action
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on April 20th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Music
Well, recording is coming along – very happy with the results so far. Here are a couple of images from our preliminary recording session live at the National Folk Festival in Canberra, Australia:
and a more intense moment 🙂
Cheers
Jerry (Canberra, Australia)
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Posted by Jerry on April 17th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Music
Who would have thought that my hardanger fiddle would end up being discussed in Norway eh? Well, my good friend Enok in Norway asked me in 2000 about my music so I sent him a couple of photos – and within minutes they were on his website :-0
I thought I might share them with you too …
So, what is a hardingfele? Basically it’s a violin with eight strings (don’t try this at home folks) – it has the normal four strings tuned the Australian way (G-D-A-E – which spells “G’day” – the classic Aussie greeting) plus there are four sympathetic strings that run beneath the fingerboard, through the middle of the bridge, and these are tuned various ways – my favourite is D-E-F#-A. The effect is like having a delay pedal – accoustically. When you play strings normally dampened by fingers, the sympathetic strings keep vibrating, giving a haunting echo-like sound. There are some sites with recordings of hardanger fiddles – one of my favourites is this one: Hardingkvartetten – the hardingfele quartet which has some mp3 downloads of hardanger music.
So how did these amazing instruments come about, and when?
The story I heard is this: Back around 1750 music was undergoing a revolution – Bach was playing with the new well-tempered scale which allowed fixed tone instruments to change keys without too much clash; and, due to government cut backs, orchestras were being scaled down – the problem then was to make the same amount of sound from fewer instruments. The solution went in two directions:
* firstly, the whole music scale was raised by nearly a semitone – “A” went from about 360 cycles per second to 440
* and secondly, instruments grew more strings and better sustain – like the hardanger.
Urban legend has it that the hardingfele (named after the Norwegian town of Hardanger – already famous for its distinctive white-work embroidery) was invented by a Norwegian schoolteacher from that town. Whoever invented it, there is some debate about the dating of the oldest known hardingfele – the “Jaastad” fiddle (allegedly 1651) with subsequent hardingfeles known only from the mid-1700s.
And so to my hardanger, eight years in the (partial) making (in South Australia), and subsequently expertly rebuilt properly (with larger internal structural blocks) and beautifully completed by Scott Wise of Perth (now Margaret River), Western Australia.
The first photo is from the Canberra Times newspaper of Easter 2000:
And now the hardingfele:
Hope you enjoy – I may put up some sound files later
In the meantime here are some music samples from the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on April 14th, 2004 — Posted in Journal, Music
Easter weekend – I know I haven’t been blogging for a few days – here’s why:
National Folk Festival Four days of fiddling, concerts, guinnesses (guinnaeii?), and *ahem* recording…
You see, it was like this… I met up with some old mates, including ex-Mucky Duck Band (like myself) and now poet extraordinaire, Roger Montgomery – who won this year’s recitation trophy; John Angliss of Dingo’s Breakfast fame (and also ex-Mucky Duck Band and Ten Pound Tourist Band (like myself), and a raft of other West Aussie and South Aussie mates. Much sessioning in the Bar (with the likes of Billy Moran, and Scott and Louisa Wise (Scott made my hardanger-fiddle about 20 years ago!). More sessioning until about 4.00AM. Sleep.
Dawn (well crack of noon actually). Analyse reason for headache… it wasn’t the two bottles of wine; nor was it the five pints of guinness; nor was it the three cans of Fosters Light Ice… but perhaps the combination of these? Better put the mute on the fiddle – at least while I tune up…
*Carefully* began learning a new reel – Star of Munster – and met my neighbour from the next tent – a New Zealand fiddler.
concert highlights: Wongawilli Band – Jane Brownlea’s excellent fiddle playing was truly outstanding – awesome. Finnish band called Jepokryddona and you can hear some of their music here. Other highlights included the Toe Sucking Cow-Girls, a guy with a two-metre unicycle! and a recording offer…
A what?? Well… I was checking out the market stalls, and stumbled (can’t think why) into a stall full of bodhrans [Irish frame-drum played with a single, double-headed stick] (okay I was a champion player once – many years ago) and the stall owner said “Maaaate, have I got a deal for you!” – I thought hello, he’s going try to sell me a bodhran – next thing he’s saying that he saw me and me guitarist mate for the last couple of National festivals in the session bar and was wondering if we’d like to record some instrumental tracks so he could market a CD for aspiring bodhran players to play along with… I hesitated for, perhaps a millisecond bfore saying, er… okay. The upshot was that we ended up the following day recording some preliminary live tracks courtesy of some borrowed equipment (thank you National Festival) so we could test the concept. The real work still lies ahead – I’ll blog you later on that little project.
More sessioning, some concerts – some great young talent and a whole new repertoire of classy musicians. And so to sleep…. Or try to… Canberra’s freezing nights saw me awake more than asleep.
Up at the crack of noon (again!) Argh the frustration of finding all five volumes of Brendan Breathnach’s Ceol Rince tune collection – at fifty dollars apiece! Missed a blackboard concert slot by about three people… back to the session bar. A short afternoon nap – in the van this time – much more comfortable, and ready for a Kranski German sausage moment. More wonderful concerts, more sessioning with my daughter (who plays mandolin) then retiring early (about 2.00AM) for the first full night’s sleep
Awoke refreshed – finally after a good night’s sleep. Greeted the early morning sun with some spirited tunes (other happy campers provided some vocal accompaniment with lyrics like “shurrup!” “b*gger off” and “what tha?”) A truly good start to the day 🙂
A little light rain settled the dust a bit and took the edge off the mild sunstroke – I was glad we brought the tarp for some cover. Got a bit more of the Star of Munster reel down – I hope whoever was recording the radio interview on the sportsground just ahead of me enjoyed the backing track of me playing the Star of Munster over and over and over…
All too soon it was time to pack up and leave – my daughter was to stay on for a couple of days as she was a volunteer so we left the camp site up. I took my leave of many good friends and and new – until the next festival! it was adieu and back to the day job. Great festival – well worth it if you are in Canberra over Easter
Wongawilli Band
Cheers
Jerry
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