So, one of the topics that came up during the Renn Faire post mortem was how do we make the renn fair more fun? A lot of good ideas came up, like different kids activities, make the inside of the tent look less like a tent, and maybe interacting with more groups, but the one that seemed to ignite the most imagination was to do the long talked about scaffolding behind the castle facade…
Several limits are being established to help keep this project in check.
don’t significantly increase the time or number of people it takes to put up the castle
minimize how much more space the extension takes, and if possible, have portions be useable for other events (ie fit in the back of a hatchback) or general uses at the makerspace
have more people supporting the build (ie, have more people involved with the fiberglass layup and welding)
That being said, this is a quick CAD model of what I gathered from ideas that were ‘spit balled’ for turning the castle into an adultsized jungle gym.
Yeah… definitely something we’d want to hide the access to. Definitely need to see if the fair is cool with us doing something like this for insurance reasons.
They climb on the big catapults and stuff like that, so I would think it would be ok, but definitely better to know beforehand. Even without the scaffold, it looks cooler with the deeper entrance.
You now what would be kinda cool is like a dunk tank or maybe just a place where somebody could have their friend sit on a throne or something and they get to launch a couple water balloons at them.
…a bit off topic, but would it be pedal powered, or goat powered?
Also, sounds like we’re getting a cautious thumbs up on starting into this build by the event organizers. Some of the caution is due to this possibly giving someone else a greenlight to start building their own structure.
Saw these and thought of the castle. Something with little pieces of blowing ribbon or whatever it is that looks like fire would be kind of cool on the front of the castle.
Made some progress on molds for the castle. Frames are 3d printed, faces are foam on this one to save some cost in materials (was going to be 12kg of material otherwise)
If anyone has wanted to try your hand at distressing a surface, here’s your chance to take it out on some rather viscous and nasty Grey foam (i heard it call your mom a bad name). Find a rock, punch it, or thwack it with a shoe and see what gives you a rock like finish.
Plan is to start throwing down some tinfoil and laying down a bunch of fiberglass on sunday, so feel free to get that creativity out on the foam before hand.
Made some progress, we’ll try to lay up the panel at noon tomorrow. Turns out a torch is a quick, but possibly toxic smelling way to turn Styrofoam into something that looks stone like.
Plies are cut and the panel is wrapped in tinfoil, so hopefully the layup will go quick.
Turns out the 2 part resin is still highly UV reactive and some of it starting cooking in my dump gun mid spray (large chunks came out instead of a spray). Normally, the resin will take 3hrs to cure, this stuff was definitely cured quicker than you can get a pizza delivered.
So… unfortunately I think that means future layups will have to be done in my shop since there is no way to do that indoors at the makerspace, and i’m hesitant about doing this kind of work under the tent and somehow keeping things dark enough not to pre-cook the resin.
We didn’t layup the entire panel, and even though it looks the right shape, it’s super flimsy.
I’m curious about your plans for the walkway. That thing is heavy! Part of the reason for the castle redo was to make it light enough to move and setup easier. That platform will require it’s own frame to support it. I wouldn’t put that weight on the 3/4” square tube frame.
Yeah, we’re gonna have to come up with a 2x2 frame… i’d like to cut that walkways half, but it’d still be 100 lbs and then have extra structure in the middle to keep it from bending.
Managed to get 1 of the wall panels laid up and mostly peeled this weekend.
Unfortunately, i’m now trying to scrounge up more fiberglass (might have a line on getting 50 yards locally) as well as a repair part for my dump gun (nozzle snapped while trying to disassemble it for cleaning).
So at least we have 1 wall panel good to go… with 1 1/2months until fair.
The nozzle snapped off in the cast aluminum housing. I could go out and machine a new nozzle from brass, but this is one where it’s cheaper and slightly quicker to just order the replacement nozzle.
Also, got the giant duck printed for the ‘paint a brick’ portion of our kids projects. I did talk with the people that do the duck hunt scavenger hunt and had a couple ideas of what to do with it after the event that I could use some people to weigh in on.
We hold onto it and start hiding giant rubber ducks around fair.
we try to auction it off during a maker market to try and raise funds for the Wichita branch of the Ronald McDonald House
More fiberglass came in today. So the ply kits for the next 2 walls are prepped and ready to go.
Each panel is 7ft tall and 4ft wide. The actual layup after the tinfoil work takes about 2 solid hrs. That’s on top of taking 3hrs tonight to cut the ply kits and tinfoil the panel.
I’m hoping to get the next one done on Thursday, and the 4th on Saturday. My next goal would be to make a mold for the arch way, but I think what ever I get done this weekend is going to be it for fair.
And then maybe a tinfoil peeling party next week… mixed with a metalworking night, and then a paint night… maybe not in consecutive order, but in pretty quick succession…
The build book for the castle is definitely going to be a bit thicker for this fair.
