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:
Time to add the unreasonable number of big, dosage cheap Chinese-made LED floods and strobes … Continue reading Lights!
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. Continue reading Roof shade – the sewing begins in earnest
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 … Continue reading Shade canopies for the keyboards
“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 … Continue reading Merry-go-round broke down
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 … Continue reading Wiring port – get the juice out