Minifig gateway at KonTiki 2017

I've featured gateways built by Harmellia Gardens Air Scouts before, and this Lego-inspired gateway at KonTiki 2017 is their latest design. Harmellia are using a synthetic hawser-laid rope, which, unlike braided polyprop ropes, behaves in a similar way to traditional sisal cordage. the head of the structure is bent from smaller thatching laths, and car tyres make up the hands.

(more sculptures, including dinosaurs, superheroes, biplanes and birds, on the sculpture tag)

Elevated tent platforms at KonTiki 2017

In rainy weather (and KonTiki frequently brings rainy weather), it can be a good idea to get your tent up out of the mud. Bush Hill Scout Troop built this four-tier stepped tent platform for their campsite at KonTiki 2017. The two highest tiers had enough clearance underneath to be used as part of the campsite as well.

I wrote about a three-storey tent tower built by 1st Walmer Scout group in 2012 

 

Lego machines to make rope

Most pioneering projects (but by no means all) use rope or cordage, so understanding how rope is made is a useful part of pioneering. There are some simple ways of making rope, but these Lego projects by Nico71 take ropemaking to another level.

The yellow machine winds a 3-strand hawser-laid rope, using Lego Technic components. You can see how the Technic gears are used to guide the three colours of yarn out of the spools and wind them into a cord before they are wound in the other direciton to lay up against each other in a rope.
Nico71 says:

After my mechanical loom is 2012, I wanted to build more specific weaving and braiding machine. After months of research, I came back with a new idea based on rope maker : a braiding machine which can make of course rope but also wristband ! Then, I have started in April of 2013 to make some prototype of weaving and braiding machine and succeeded in making one truly functional in December of 2013.

The Red machine is more complicated- it makes a braided rather than a hawser-laid rope, and is also faster.

Nico71 provides free (simple) and paid (highly detailed) versions of the building instructions for both of these, as well as a Youtube channel with demos of these and many other Lego machines.

Suspended Tensegrity Cube by 1st Halfway House Scouts

Photo courtesy Shane Anderson

1st Halfway House, a Scout troop in Midrand, South Africa, recently built this tensegrity cube suspended between A-frames. The cube is supsended at 4 points- two underneath, and two at the top of the structure.

Photos courtesy Shane Anderson

Shane Anderson, ATS at 1st Halfway House, says:

The planned outcome of the project was to build and suspend a 10Ft Tensegrity cube between 2 x 15Ft A-Frames, (Bottom Support) and stabilised on the top by 2 x 20Ft A-Frames.

The project got of to a good start with the initial idea of building and stabilizing the cube with gadget sticks (staves) before adding the tensioning ropes, however that soon fell apart as the cube was being tensioned as the gadget sticks broke under the strain. Liam and his team then reverted to plan B, which was to stabilize with 6Ft pioneering poles.

The A-Frames where constructed by the Junior Scouts and when all was in place the cube was lifted using the 15Ft A-Frames and 2 x block and tackles while being kept upright by guy ropes.

If you look in the cosntruction photo above, you'll see the 'jig' of light lathes that was used to hold the cub in place while it was built. As Shane says, it's a good idea, but you'll need to use heavier poles to handle the strain.

Photo courtesy Shane Anderson

Here's the model used to plan for this project. Models are really useful tools for pioneering, because they help you plan the project, picking up some problems before building at 1:1 scale.

Congratulations to Liam and his team for building this structure!

Photo courtesy Shane Anderson

Congratulations to Liam and his team for building this structure!

Bamboo arches in Ghana- Haduwa Arts + Culture Institute

Photograph copyright Baerbel Mueller

This bamboo stage pavilion was built for The Haduwa Arts and Culture Institute in Ghana by [applied] Foreign Affairs, an architecture lab at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. A group of students built the project as part of their architecture classes, after researching the project in Austria and on site in Ghana.

Normally, when we build pioneered structures for Scouting, we use the bamboo the way we would any other pole- as a rigid, straight pole. This structure makes great use of the flexibility of bamboo to curve the arches, and also uses the idea of 'bundling' smaller poles together to make larger arches. While this structure might be much bigger than the normal Scout projects, there is an opportunity to learn from the way the students worked with bamboo in this project.

Construction details. All photographs copyright Baerbel Mueller

Project credits:
Client: Haduwa Arts and Culture Institute architecture and concept [Applied] Foreign Affairs, Department of Architecture, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Project Leader: Baerbel Mueller
Project Team: Christian Car, Joseph Hofmarcher, Ilias Klis, Joana Lazarova, Ewa Lenart, Ioana Petkova, Philipp Reinberg, with Antonella Amesberger, Clelia Baumgartner, Stephan Guhs, Frida Robles, Andrea axis
Guest lecturers - bamboo construction: Jörg Stamm, Construction: Franz Sam, Structural: Klaus Bollinger, roof: Manora Auersperg, Christoph Kaltenbrunner, Performance Arts: Daniel Aschwanden


More information:
Designboom article
Architektur journal (Deutsch with English translation)

Cardboard box rafts- Akela 2016

At the recent Akela 2016 camp, I was involved in running outdoor activities for the Pack Scouters, alongside the community service and crafts bases that were run. Alongside a tensegrity cube, I ran this challenge- to build a raft using staves, light cord, cardboard boxes and dustbin bags, and float a member of their team across a swimming pool (around 10 metres/ 30 feet).

Photographs courtesy Marissa Rakic

The idea is to build the cardboard boxes up, then seal them in plastic bags, and use these boouyancy 'blocks' tp build a raft. In practice, of the three teams who attempted it, only one got their 'sailor' safely across the pool. Here are the two unsuccessful teams at their moment of immersion:

The first team built a raft that had good, solid boxes, well tied together. However, they built a narrow raft which had very poor stability, and despite a few attempts, the raft was unable to remain upright.

The second team distributed the bouyancy more evenly, but one of their boxes failed around halfway through:

 The third team, pictured at the top of the post, managed to get across without any incident. I allocated 45 minutes for this, and all three teams had sufficient time, even allowing for around half the team being unfamiliar with raft building. I can recommend this as a patrol challenge if the weather is good. I would suggest having a full set of boxes for each team- in the event that a box gets wet, it is almost impossible to re-use.

Akela 2016 "Wolf" Hypar Gateway

I recently had the privilege to spend some time at the international Akela 2016 camp outside Pretoria, and this is the main gateway to the campsite - built by Harmellia Gardens Air Scouts.

The camp was held to celebrate the centenary of the establishment of Cubs, and the gateway was designed to resemble the head of a wolf- with a snout and two ears. The ears and snout are formed with sisal and eyehooks in hyperbolic paraboloid shapes. More information on how to set out the sisal to form the shapes is available here.

You can download the SketchUp 3d model here.

Bottlecutter2.0: making 'rope' from soft drink bottles

Image copyright Advocate Egerov

From Russia, via Youtube, comes this technique for converting a PET soft drink bottle into a strong 'tape' that can be used for lashings. Адвокат Егоров (Advocate Egerov) has two videos that explain how to build the Bottlecutter2.0 device to strip the bottles, and demonstrates how to use the strips to make lashings. Because PET shrinks when heated, he uses a hot air gun to 'frap' the lashings and tighten up the structures.

Image copyright Advocate Egerov

The first video (available with subtitles English subtitles) includes some basic lashings and instructions on making the machine to strip the bottle:

 While the second one goes through some detailed techniques and a rather elaborate willow branch chair:

Thanks to Clarke over at ScoutmasterCG for sharing this on one of his live chats- I recommend heading over there on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning (US time/afternoon European time)

'CatDrill' - quick pioneering with pre-drilled poles and light synthetic cord.

Catdrill 'lashing' details

'CatDrill' is an Italian technique for staving or lightweight pioneering, that involves preparing the staves to be used by drilling a small hole and notching the surface of the pole. Lightweight synthetic kernmantle rope is then used to tie the staves together, using stopper knots on the starting end of the rope, and simple slipped hitches to end the lashings. Their English website has a series of PDF documents that guide you through the basics, from preparing your poles, to the different types of lashings, and some basic projects. The original, Italian site has some more projects that are not yet translated into English, but the pictures speak for themselves.

image courtesy Scout Trento 1

According to the authors, they developed the technique for the following reasons:

CatDrill is born for solving the following problems:

• the price of the building material (wood) and the difficulties found to get it from the forester;
• the price of the rope;
• to avoid the hazard of moving heavy wooden poles (and the tools needed to work with them);
• to avoid ties, joints and toggle realized in the wrong way (we saw them too much times in pictures & co);
• to practice pioneering during our one or two days trip, doing it quickly and avoiding to use the ground both as a chair and as a table;
• to approach how a boy thinks, who wants to see concrete results as soon as possible.

1at Blairgowrie demonstrating Catdrill at Gauteng Region training workshop

Senior Scouts and Scouters from 1st Blairgowrie Scout Group recently introduced me to the technique and demonstrated it at a pioneering workshop at Arrowe Park towards the end of 2015. The technique saves time, produces strong structures and is worth investigating if you have some light staves/laths you can set aside for this technique.

There is a similar, more permanent technique called 'Froissartage' using carpentry jointing techniques which I have written about before.

Hat-tip to ScoutmasterCG and 1st Blairgowrie Scout Group.

Floating School in Lagos, Nigeria: Rafts in architecture

Image courtesy of NLE via their Makoko Floating School press kit.

Makoko is a floating slum neighbourhood in Lagos, Nigeria, built on stilts and rafts across the Lagos Lagoon. NLÉ is a Nigerian architecture firm who designed this floating school in 2013, to provide a teaching and learning space in this very crowded area. The solution wouldn't look out of place at KonTiki.

All images courtesy of NLE via their Makoko Floating School press kit.

While this project doesn't use lashings, it does make use of round laths, plastic drums and plywood, like a Kontiki raft. Here's some information from their press kit:

 The 220sq.m A-­‐frame or pyramid building is 10m high with a 10m x 10m base. It is an ideal shape for a floating object on water due to its relatively low center of gravity, which provides stability and balance even in heavy winds. It also has a total capacity to safely support a hundred adults, even in extreme weather conditions.

The building has three levels. The 1st level is an open play area for school breaks and assembly, which also serves as a community space during after hours. The 2nd level is an enclosed space for two to four classrooms, providing enough space for sixty to a hundred pupils. A staircase on the side connects the open play area, the classrooms and a semi enclosed workshop space on the 3rd level.

The simple yet innovative structure adheres to ideal standards of sustainable development with its inclusive technologies for renewable energy, waste reduction, water and sewage treatment as well as the promotion of low-­‐carbon transport. Furthermore a team of eight Makoko based builders constructed it using eco-­‐ friendly, locally sourced bamboo and wood procured from a local sawmill.

Construction began in September 2012 with floatation mock-­‐ups and testing. Recycled empty plastic barrels found abundantly in Lagos were used for the building’s buoyancy system, which consists of 16 wooden modules, each containing 16 barrels. The modules were assembled on the water, creating the platform that provides buoyancy for the building and its users. Once this was assembled, construction of the A-­‐frame followed and was completed by March 2013. Makoko Floating School is now in regular use by the community as a social, cultural and economic center and recently welcomed its first pupils who now use it as a primary school.

All images courtesy of NLE via their Makoko Floating School press kit.

Skylon Tower mk II- suspended tower by Bothasig Rover Crew

1st Bothasig Rover Crew previously built a suspended tower, which fell a little short of their own high expectations for it. Having conducted a thorough SWOT analysis of the construction, the crew headed out to Hawequas Scout Ranch to build an improved version.

After six hours' work for 16 Rovers and Senior Scouts, the new tower successfully stood suspended one meter off the ground. 

Here is an excerpt from the project report, discussing the overall objectives:

"Objectives  

In hindsight, our objectives could have been more precise in terms of how high we could raise the 

tower. Our objective was to simply outdo the Mk I tower in height raised and to do it without 

incident, which we did achieve with a raised height of 1m and no reported accidents. 

Considerations in achieving the objectives 

In the planning phase, it is possible to roughly predict the final height raised based on factors such 

as: 

• The height of the apex of the tripods in conjunction with the distance of the apex from the 

centre tower. These two factors have the greatest influence of the final height raised, and 

the remaining factors will merely maximise the geometric potential of the layout. 

o The higher the tripod apexes, the greater the potential is of the tower to be raised. 

Also, the greater portion of the pulling effort will be translated into a vertical 

component of force to pull the tower up (as opposed to the horizontal component, 

which is destructive in this case and should be kept to a minimal). 

o As with the previous explanation of the height of the apex, the same applies with 

the horizontal distance of the tripod apex to the centre tower. The closer the apex is 

to the centre tower, the greater the vertical component of the effort in the system. 

• The block and tackle ratios should be considered and based on the size of the structure, and 

the size/strength of your team.  

o We used a 3-2 pulley system, and had two people pulling on each of the 4 tackles. 

o This simply diagram should illustrate what kind of mechanical advantage (MA) you 

can obtain from each system. 

  

To work out the MA, you have to count the number of 

lines between the blocks and exclude the running end 

from the count. 

o The greater the MA, the better, but this will obviously 

be limited by the resources available to you. 

o We used a 3-2 pulley system which gave us a MA of 

5:1

• The man power is a consideration and should be maximised, especially if you are resources 

are limited with regards to the pulley system. With this construction, it is possible to have 

the team sub-divided to work on various components simultaneously.  

o If the size of the team is large enough, you can have people placing anchors, building 

the tripods, building the crow’s nest all at the same time. 

o When erecting the central pole, we had 40% of the team hauling on one guy line, 

50% lifting and supporting the centre tower, and 10% holding the opposing guy line 

to prevent any over shooting of the tower. 

o When raising the tower, we had two people per tackle and one person per guy line. 

Then we needed extra people to lock the block and tackles and to secure the guy 

lines. 

o We had between 9 and 10 people to build the structure, and 12 people to raise the 

structure. More would have been better because we had to let one person on one of 

the tackles to let go and run to lock the black and tackle, then tie off the line to the 

anchor, then those two from that anchor could assist everyone else, which is not 

ideal. "

Kontiki raft mass calculator

Gauteng KonTiki is coming up next weekend, and the Gauteng Scout Water Activities Advisory  Council, along with Puddle Pirates Rover Crew, has developed this Excel spreadsheet which helps calculate the mass of a raft, and ultimately calculate how deep a raft sits in the water. It takes into account the weight of poles, ropes, barrels, decking boards, equipment and crew to arrive at the total load which it then compares against the buoyancy provided by the barrels.

This tool is being offered for download at the KonTiki website for use by entrants to KonTiki, but hsould be useful to any Scout raft designers. Note that KonTiki is held on sheltered, still, inland waters, so the buoyancy is calculated with that in mind.

The tool is metric, but for rough estimation purposes for Imperial units, 1kg = approximately 2 pounds, and 100mm = almost exactly 4 inches.

Release notes from the website:

Alan Ford has arranged this tool as a safety measure to ensure that the raft being built will have sufficient buoyancy provided for by barrels, before being launched. This will aid you and also ensure that the raft is sufficiently manoeuvrable should you need to be towed by a rescue vessel.  
If you have any questions or would like Alan to review it, please e-mail it to alanford@global.co.za when you have populated the final version or bring it to Kontiki on a memory stick, Alan will go through it at the event.

Dissipate - tensegrity tower at AfrikaBurn 2015 festival

Dissipate is a project being planned by a group of architects and engineers (including a few former Scouts) for the upcoming AfrikaBurn Burning Man regional event near Cape Town, South Africa.

The tower consists of an hourglass tower with a tensegrity on top of it, gradually 'dissipating' into the sky. Here's the team's own description of the project:
 Dissipate represents the impermanence of life; how structures, whether physical or notional, tend to move, transform, morph and eventually deconstruct and dissipate.
We will be constructing the primary structure using traditional pioneering technology (poles and ropes). The artwork's main structure consists of two intersecting tripods (each approximately 4 meters in height). This structure is then clad in a series of angled planks that get spaces wider apart as they reach the top at which point the structure changes into a tensegrity (structure consisting of compression members held in space by tension wires) to give the illusion of planks dissolving into space.
The structure physically celebrates structure and the morphing from a primal and very basic structural system into a new and complex structural system.
 You can keep up with the project on Twitter and Facebook. Right now, they're in the last few days of their fundraising drive, so head over to their site and see what they're offering as rewards.

Obstacle Course by Carpe Diem Scout group in Arendonk, Belgium

Scouts Carpe Diem Arendonk in Belgium built this obstacle course structure outside, around and over their Scout hall. This timelapse shows the construction process:

While these photos from their Facebook page show the structure in use:

Pioneering at Pukkelpop festival

image courtesy Universiteit Hasselt

This pioneered structure at Pukkelpop 2014 in Belgium was seen by thousands of people during the annual music festival. Designed by Jakob Ghisjebrechts, it was built with the help of Gouw Limberg, a regional Scouting organization in Belgium

design model. Image courtesy Universiteit Hasselt

The pavilion was designed as part of the first year architecture programme at Universiteit Hasselt, and was the winning entry by student Jakob Ghijsebrechts. The pavilion was home to Salon Fou, a hair salon for people at Pukkelpop to get a festival haircut. You can listen to an interview with Jakob (in Flemish) on Youtube here.

image courtesy Universiteit Hasselt

(I've already told you that speaking Dutch or Flemish is good for your pioneering skills)

Pioneering from Mosta Venture Crew, Malta

Sean from Mosta Venture Scout Unit in Malta shared these photographs of various projects, including a raft, a ferris wheel, a carousel and a suspended platform in a valley.The suspended camping platform was made using abseiling ropes and a small hiking tent.

Sean says:

Our group, the Mosta Scout group is currently the largest one and we always shown a lot of interest in pioneering. All the above structures were of the first sort here in malta. The suspended camp was built by the rover crew, and the others by my section, the venture unit. For the suspended camp we used abseiling ropes, constructed a platform and then we pitched a hike tent on it. Recently I became a council member in the national scout youth council, and one of my ideas is that All the scout groups around Malta build a luna park, all with pioneering.

Mosta Venture Unit also has a Youtube channel, including the following rotating abseiling tower:

All photographs courtesy Mosta Scout Group.

Scoutsorama Tower - Belgian climbing wall/slide/observation tower

It's come up on Ropes and Poles before that being able to speak Flemish is a good way to improve your pioneering. This project showed up in my Facebook feed courtesy of Ploeg Technieken and I thought I'd share it with the English speaking Scouting world.

Here's a video of the construction process, including a timelapse and details of the planning process, using models, and the construction process, which included using a small backhoe to dig foundation trenches.

This tower was built by the 92ste Aartselaar - Reet group in Belgium as part of their Annual Scoutsorama camp. It included a viewing deck on top, a climbing wall including cargo nets and plywood sections with moulded grips, and a 'slide' designed to be ridden in a sled.

All images courtesy 92ste Aartselaar - Reet Scouts

Floating 'Scouts SA' Billboard at Gilwell, Johannesburg

All photos courtesy Terence Vrugtman

Gilwell, Florida, is the home of Scout training in Johannesburg, and also home to the Orion Rover Crew, who led 160 Scouts from 8 troops in the West Rand District in building this raft spelling out 'Scouts SA' at Florida Lake for BP Sunday this year. Orion's Isengard Tower was featured on this blog before, and this time around Terence Vrugtman and Byron Van Gool enlisted Discovery Scouts, Protea Ridge, 1st Horison, 1st Eagles, Florida Lake Sea Scouts, 1st Strubens Valley, and Kagiso Scouts to put this project together in 7 hours.

This project acted as the annual pioneering competition for the district, and is a great example of how groups can work together to create something visually striking in a short time. Each of the eight rafts was constructed independently, with the letters being assembled once ready. Modular projects like this can be put together with simple co-ordination.

Here are the instructions that were issued to the troops:

• The Project! To, as a troop build a standing single letter of the “SCOUTS SA” Logo that can float on water to form part of the District Project. 

• The Concept What are we doing? As a troop, you need to build a floating, self-standing letter of the “SCOUTS SA” Logo. You will be marked on: Project accuracy, general pioneering skill, on-spot knot testing, uniformity, spirit, model building and the final product. Use the below diagrams, rules and guidelines to build your letter (Troop Scouter has it) as best as possible to make this awesome project come to life. 
•  Base Guidelines and Rules Build a floating base that: 

1. Must have 4 drums, 
2.  Must be as close to 2.5m Wide as possible (Don’t destroy your troop equipment), 
3. Must be 3m Long, 
4. Must be a rectangular frame, 
5. Must have diagonal supports, 
6. Can have additional supports, 
7. Can have decking, not needed, 
8. Must have the ability to support your letter, 
9. Will have lashings necessary to support the structure, Letter Guidelines and Rules Construct a letter that: 

Must be made from ropes and poles/staves
Must be 3m High/long
Must be as close to 2.5m Wide as possible (Don’t destroy your troop equipment)
Must be 3D and have a depth of .05m (Measured from inside pole to inside pole)
Should be as close to the font as above in the concept image
Must have a hessian front to support the letter features
Should be as close to “letter shape” as possible (Hessian might be the key)

• General

1.    All aspects of the project must be built on the day
2. Only Scouts (11yrs – 18yrs) may build. Adults may support and guide
3. You must follow and stick to the times provided in the programme
4. Judging will be done by the Scouters and Rovers of the West Rand District
5. Scores will be vetted by the DC

Kon Tiki Goes Green - greening your raft

The biggest annual Scouting event in my province is Kon Tiki, a weekend rafting competition. The theme this year is 'Kon Tiki goes Green' so I'm kicking the year off by looking at the various components of the raft and how you can reduce, re-use and recycle the various components.

It would be a great ideal to have every component of your raft made from a salvaged or recycled item, but where that isn't possible, it's still important to look after the new items so that they last as long as possible. Reducing the number of things we throw away is an important part of going green. I would note that I'm not a judge at Kon Tiki, and this list hasn't been approved by the judges, these are just suggestions to get your gears turning about ways of reducing the environmental impact of your raft.

• Decorations - recycled decorations, decorations that are biodegradable and decorations that serve more than one function (eg. a coloured sheet that serves as decoration AND shelter at the same time) are a good idea.
• Poles - Bamboo has a lower environmental impact than solid timber, but has a shorter lifespan. Re-using pioneering poles for many years is a good way to reduce their impact- and a good way to extend the life of poles is by maintaining them well, giving a good coat of creosote or varnish, and ensuring the ends don't split.
• Barrels - Again, reducing the impact of barrels by maintaining them so they can be used for many years is a good strategy. There is also the chance to go avoid conventional drums altogether and make a raft out of plastic bottles - it has been done (very successfully) at previous Kon Tikis by 1st Honeydew.
• Lashing ropes - An adventurous troop might look into making their own rope.
• Food- Apart from cooking your food using a haybox or a solar cooker, what about cooking with vegetables from your garden? There is still time for tomatoes and beans planted this month to be ready for Kon Tiki

'Meal-salting' Machine

51 years ago this week, this letter appeared in the 'Scout' newspaper (24th November 1962)"

"Dear Editor,
during this years Summer Camp in North Devon our Troop held, as an item in the Patrol Competition, a Crazy Gadget Contest. The crazy gadget had to work as well as being as crazy as possible. The winner of the contest was a 'meal salting' machine, This i constructed from things found around the site and in the farmyard (see photograph).

To work it, one had to, after seating oneself in the provided 'operator's seat', pour water into the funnel, using the mug and water in the billy. One had to turn the tap and allow the water to wun down the pipe and into the billy at the bottom. When this billy had sufficient water in it, it floated a cork which tipped a tube which contained salt. The amount of salt tipped on to the plate can be controled very finely by turning the tap at the top of the pipe.

I would be very interested to hear if any other Troops have similar contests and whether anyone else has cosntructed a similar crazy gadget.
PL John W. Chope
130th Birmingham (1st King's Heath)"