XyloVan doesn’t usually do requests – we like to show up where we think people will have fun with us. But Jim Hodgson, a Burner alum, asked us to park at the Down Syndrome of L.A. Buddy Walk last weekend, and it turned out to be a nice experience. We gave a lot of kids smiles – probably the polar/thematic/social/atmospheric opposite of the playa. Here are a few snaps:
We got it all rigged. It took the four of us about half an hour to get it all monkeyed together, website like this but by god, it stands – at least it still is as I write this, two nights later in peak winds of 18 mph – and the whole thing hangs together structurally as if it could stand more. How much more remains to be seen.
I think I’ll need bigger rope, in the long run – no telling how much damage the rope will take from the ringbolts it’s passing through. I wonder if I should run it through pulleys there, like tall ships do.
It just needs to be realigned around the shoulders, and it’s missing a couple of gussets at the ends, and perhaps a sewn-in draw-bar for the canopy end.
What holds this crazy rig together? Why, abortion gussets, of course.
Fold a nine-inch wide strip of fabric (at 60″) into a strip four layers thick, seam its long edges, and then cut it into strips about six inches long.
Then seam the cut edges and voila – a little stack of stout reinforcements …
… to be sewn into place to keep the fabric all in one piece while still letting the air flow through.
Step one, ailment attempt to throw together an enormous framework of PVC pipe to arc over the van like some demented logo for caffeinated high-fructose corn syrup ‘n’ gutbombs.
Valiantly attempt to model it.
Then, when that fails, toss the PVC aside and acquire some 1″ steel conduit and connectors for a new frame, which you injure yourself building.
Then start sewing. (more photos after the jump. Read more
It’s hot on the playa.
Relentlessly, discount often stupidly, this hot. So we’re putting some shade over the keyboards.
We trudged around the Garment District the other day, case haggled with shopkeepers and for $3 a yard, walked away with this very light, opaque and strong synthetic fabric that feels something like raw silk and matches the van’s trim in color … Read more
“It runs like a fuckin’ champ!”
That’s been the constant refrain, page all the way from purchase through our adventure to Maker Faire and dozens of trips in between. XyloVan has new tires and brakes, search a rebuilt Holley carb, and a well-tuned Detroit monster of a motor, and by god, it’s the most mechanically sound thing I’ve ever spent $1500 on.
Well, not tonight … Read more
It took a load of fussing and trimming, patient shoving and cursing, but we finally got the last of the headliner panels fitted and installed.
The map motif came out a little wrinkly (don’t believe anything Polycrylic tells you on the instructions) but it does give one a serene view upward of all the United States that we’ve ever visited – plus a few more.
I started out thinking, buy information pills “Oh, I’ll just run wires for all the external light and sound equipment in through one of the windows whenever we set up.”
Then I got a load of the number of wires and connectors this would entail – 16 two-pole wires just from the four speaker booms and the lights mounted there, alone – and came up with a better idea … Read more
To carry two sets of speakers (one port and the other starboard), I’m installing pipes of 3/4-inch galvanized steel conduit onto the roof rack, by means of these custom-built brackets …
Standard conduit clamps grip the brackets to the big honkin’ roof rack and the pipes slip through these to be screwed down …
If the xylophones are XyloVan’s skeleton and soul, then the sound system is its gonads.
To add some mystique to the aluminum’s natural resonance, we’re hooking up a cheap Pep Boys amplifier to the auxiliary power system, flying a quartet of cheap bookshelf speakers on outrigger booms (about which more later) and feeding them mike signals via a Behringer Xenyx digital-delay mixer. We haven’t quite figured out the microphones yet (well – more about that later).
But we have to install the components somewhere slightly out of the way yet still accessible so I can futz and troubleshoot from one location if anything goes south with the sound or lighting …
Read more
After weeks (okay, months) of building instruments, doing bodywork, making mallets and generally getting XyloVan into shape, it’s finally time to give it a pulse. How? Auxiliary big-ass battery.
The battery’s going to have to power the amplification system and the lights while we’re out roving the playa – or more importantly while we’re parked and people are playing for hours on end.
First thing you need is a really, really, really long battery cable. There’s no room for this huge deep-cycle marine battery in the engine compartment or anywhere near it.
The longest battery jumper cables made are only 20 feet, so I have to splice a couple of them together and somehow route them from the main battery in the engine bay, down beneath the truck, around the engine mount and driveshaft and exhaust pipes – and rearward to a place somewhere under the second row of bench seats because that’s where the auxiliary battery will be. And that means weather- and abrasion-proofing the cables – and that means cutting up some old inner tubes to serve as conduit and insulation …
Read moreWhy so quiet? We’ve been … busy.
We’ll get back with you shortly, with plenty of information on our progress. Thanks for staying tuned.
Ah, the Topanga Days parade. It runs the gamut, from the sublime (the Topanga Earth Mothers group, right) to the hippy-dippy, yin-yang-diculous.
We were to take off last in the parade, and pulled in and set up next to this Lamborghini with the disco-cold-sweat paint job …
Read more
You all showed us how to play today.
You toddled up and whacked away with sticks, silly grins on your 2-year-old faces. You strode up as if approaching the concert vibraphone you played in band, delicately picking out notes to tunes you haven’t played in 20 years. You hammered and drummed, pulling rhythmic tribal fugues out of the raw metal. You wheeled your disabled son up to Keyboard 1, watched his face light up, helped him hold a mallet and tap out a tune.
You played, in every sense of the word.
Thanks so much to all the folks at Maker Faire who enjoyed the van. You really touched us and showed us more joy than you can imagine.
We wanted to give a huge shout-out here to all the good people who helped us bring this project together:
If you enjoyed the van, drop a comment below – if you have photos or more/better video, add some links!
Here are some more videos and photos from Sunday:
Well, not quite all systems.
There’s still the auxiliary battery, the amplifier, the mixer, the speaker system, two resonators, the interior headliner needs replacing, the sun canopies haven’t been sewn, and the whole thing has to be wired and lit for the playa.
But when you bang on the thing it rings.And that’s what we set out to do in time for Maker Faire …
Read more
Passed another major milestone tonight.
We are now – but for a wee bit of bungie-ing – ready for the long trek to Maker Faire.
I spent much of the evening getting Keyboards 2 and 3 (right) properly aligned against the side of the van.
I had to measure and cut support stanchions from 2-inch recycled aluminum tubing (thanks again, IMS), and then mount bottom brackets onto the van. This involves drilling holes in the body and attaching the SpeedRail support brackets to it with an ungodly number of pan washers and other hardware so they won’t tear through the metal with all the weight and stress …
After nearly three months of cutting and grinding, fiddling and drilling, cursing and screwing and painting, the magic moment is here.
Time to mount the xylophones on the van.
Here’s video (videos lost when we quit Facebook) of @alienrobot and me mounting Keyboard 2 which is the lower-octave and rear-most of the two keyboards I built for the passenger side of the van:
And here’s what Keyboard 1 looked like as friend Steve Finkel and I mounted it on the driver’s side …
