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.

'Green' camp gadgets- recycled planters and plastic 'rope'

There were several interesting gateways at KonTiki 2014, and I'll post some more info about those in the coming weeks. Here are a few little gadgets from the campsite that won the camping side of the competition, 9th Benoni.


First up are these camp 'potplants' made from an old pair of shoes with succulents planted in them. They rest on an Ocean Plait mat, woven from scrap rope that has become too weak to use for pioneering.

The boundary ropes of the campsite were made from this recycled rope, woven/plaited from empty plastic shopping bags that the troop collected over the past few months. (That's not the competition gateway but a photo from a test camp held a few months ago)

Pioneering incidents

The 'incident hike' is a pioneering exercise for the whole patrol. The general idea is that a patrol of Scouts will hike along a predetermined route, in the wilderness, in camp or in town, and solve a series of 'incidents' or 'obstacles' along the way,using pioneering equipment carried with them, or provided at the scene. The incident hike is part of the Explorer advancement level in Scouts South Africa.

A well designed incident hike will have some variety, and the four categories in the sketch above are a good start to ensure you have variety.

Manipulate an object: this could mean moving a log through a slalom course using ropes only, or retrieving a bucket from the centre of a prohibited zone.

Cross a vertical obstacle: this might mean building a tripod to span over a wall, or prussiking up a tree to retrieve a clue.

Treat and transport a casualty: at first, pioneering might not seem applicable to a first aid situation, but you could use poles to improvise a stretcher or travois, or lasso the tow hitch of a car to retrieve it from under (fake) power lines, or improvise a tackle system to lift a heavy weight off a casualty

Cross a horizontal obstacle: the classic Scout obstacle is 'burning lava' but  if the chance presents itself to use a real stream,pond or culvert, grab it with both hands.

As for the equipment, you can either provide equipment at each base, or give the patrol a predetermined kit to carry eg. One stave and one rope per Scout. In any case, give some thought to whether the equipment can be used to solve the obstacle. A challenge is one thing, but giving a patrol a impossible task can be demoralizing. Of course, every now and then a patrol will surprise you and complete the task in a way you wouldn't ever have thought of.

The incident hike is a lot more entertaining if there is some theme holding it together: maybe relating to a movie, or a book. There could be a clue to retrieve at every incident that provides the destination of the next incident, or a mystery to unravel, like following the trail of a missing expedition.

The incident hike is pioneering in action, a series of exercises for the Patrol Leader to test themselves and their patrol, and is a fun way to work light pioneering or staving into a troop night meeting.

UPDATE: A reader on First Facebook Scout Group pointed out this book at Scouts Canada's The Dump about incident courses with some good ideas.

drawn on iPad Mini using Paper app and Just-Mobile AluPen

Bunny Park tensegrity cube

This structure is based on the 6 strut tensegrity icosahedron, and is a relative of the tensegrity gateway I posted here before.

A few tips:
- All ropes should be anchored as close to the end of the struts as possible. If you're using bamboo or cane, it's a good idea to make a notch in the end of the spar so you can hook the cord over this
-If you plan on building this at a larger scale, I suggest practicing on a few scale models first
-Follow the sequence above to build this most easily.
-Keep an eye on the number of connections from each end to the others - when you are finished there should be f ropes from each end of every poles, for 24 in total

I have named this after the Bunny Park, a park in Benoni, South Africa, where 15 teams tested this structure out in one metre bamboo canes, as part of  Pop Bolton, a Rover competition that was hosted by Phoenix Rover Crew in June 2013. At left is a photograph of one of the teams, from Prometheus Rover Crew, with their tensegrity cube.

A one page instruction sheet can be downloaded here. The SketchUp model is here.

Cartoon: multi-storey tent

From The April 3 1952 edition of The Scout, p 549. Drawn by Les Saward

Cartoon: camp gadgets

Drawn by Les Saward, from the May 22 1952 edition of The Scout

Obstacle course

Our Scout troop recently built an obstacle course for the Cub pack to use. Each patrol was assigned an obstacle to build, which made for a good troop meeting, and the Cub pack enjoyed using the obstacle course so much that they have asked us to leave it up for another week to use again. More photographs at Akela Joy's blog.

The obstacles were:

1. Over/under beams
2. Swing bridge
3. Tires
4. 'tunnels' - crawling through a flexible aircon duct
5. Swing rope
6. Cargo net
7. spider web - climb through a tangle of ropes
8. Zip line

The previous obstacle course built for the pack was blogged here.

A Kitchen Sideboard

From THE SCOUT annual, August 19 1948 - page 27:

This novel "Kitchen Sideboard" was erected by the 37th Dumfriesshire (Methodist) Troop at their permanent camp site, but is not a permanent gadget. It can easily be made and used by any Troop, as it unpacks for transport. The boxes, which are tea-chests, can be used as packing cases, and be set up on a suitable framework and at a suitable height for use as a table-top. Shelves are fitted to slip in and out for packing, and the doors are hinged, which enables them to be used as lids.
The hinges are better fixed with machine screws, as wood screws proved useless in this case. Metal angle-plates were fitted to the corners of the boxes at the door-opening to provide strength, and both boxes were given a couple of coats of good paint.
With regard to the rest of theconstruction, I think the photograph speaks for itself - the main corner posts are embedded eight or nine inches, two supports are lashed back and front to support the boxes, and one top rail at each end. The back posts are madea suitable height to allow for the plate rack, and a couple of straining posts are set at an angle at the back, embedded and lashed to the main posts. These strainers may be used as brackets to support the overhang of the plate rack. The mug rack is made simply by lashing forked twigs at intervals. The whole framework should be made up to be a fairly tight fit for the boxes.   - A.J. Dawson

Pioneered Scout Exhibition Stand

Copyright Gavin Penkin

This exhibition stand at the annual Hobby-X expo at the Coca-Cola dome in Johannesburg was built by a team of Scouts and Rovers to promote Scouting in the province of Gauteng.  More about the stand from Gavin Penkin, the Assistant Provincial Commissioner for Marketing in Gauteng Scouts:

"After some rapid planning and assistance of many Scouts, Scouters and Rovers, we built a stand at the Hobby-X expo at the dome yesterday afternoon. The organisers made us remove the hessian as they say it is very flammable. We replaced it with canvas from the sides of army tents. ... The Scout stand is the highest in the expo, and of you come and visit the expo, just look up and you will see the stand. The white screen is showing Scout pictures all day and is visible down the main passage for about 100m. "

Copyright Gavin Penkin

Copyright Gavin Penkin

If you're in Gauteng, please try and make your way to the Dome in Northgate over the weekend (the expo closes on the 4th of March) to take a look and support the stand. For those who are a bit further away, this is a great widea for promoting Scouting, using a pioneered exhibit, and aimed at outdoors and handcrafts oriented visitors.

Pioneered Canoe Polo goals

Our local Sea Scout group, First Benoni, hosted the provincial Scout and Cub Canoe Polo contests this weekend. They built these nets using thatching laths. Because these nets will be used again, the joints are fastened with screws, but you could just as easily use lashings.

 Note the diagonal braces in the front view- one lies at the front of the frame, and one at the back. It is important that these run in opposite directions to make the goalposts rigid.

The SketchUp model can be downloaded here

Simple Friction Lock 'Bridge' - Instructions

I've written about friction lock projects before- like this table and this pole rack. This post a simplified friction locking pioneering bridge.

The purpose of this project is as an 'icebreaker' in a pioneering session - even Scouts who have no knotting experience can build one of these 'bridges', and feel that they have achieved something. A patrol will gain confidence from this exercise that will motivate them to learn lashings during the later parts of the training session.

This project requires 9 Scout staves or similar sized poles (bamboo may be too slippery), and the instructions show a sequence for the construction of the bridge (inspired by my favourite childhood toy, of course). Click on the image to enlarge it, and print the enlarged image. Step 5 is the critical one: your Scouts should pay careful attention to the placement of the two transverse poles, making sure they go over and under the correct poles.

Using only these instructions, all of the patrols in our troop were able to build one of these bridges. The fastest was built in about 2 minutes (admittedly this patrol had built one before) but I would allow 10 minutes for Scouts who have no prior experience. Here is the first patrol finished, with a Scout testing the sturdiness of the structure (please excuse my grainy camera-phone photograph):

Best project for beginner's pioneering?

I received an e-mail this week asking for advice on the best simple project for people who have never done any pioneering before. I suggested an A-frame, because it is a simple, stable structure that is quick to build and can be used for many fun activities.

But I'm interested to hear what other people think. What have YOU used for a first project?

Rugby World Cup 2007 Final

GO BOKKE!

Sliding Door Gateway

This gateway was designed by the Patrol Leader who designed the portcullis gateway featured as one of the first projects on this blog.

The theme for Kontiki this year was 007, and the gateway was intended to be the door to a James Bond-style villain's lair. The three panels are made from corrugated plastic sheeting stitched onto a pioneered framework. A pair of guide poles at the(the drawing on the left shows how the two guide poles are placed on either side of the upright column), and another pair of guide poles sits at the bottom, guide the central panel, which is the door. We had originally planned to use a castor discarded from a remote controlled model aeroplane but were unable to fasten the wheel to the frame properly. A steel bench with the legs folded away proved to be a good flat surface for the door to slide along.

To be able to slide smoothly, the door needed to have no pole butts projecting out the bottom. The designer eventually arrived at a very tidy solution to the problem: A 'bent' or '7' tent peg (these are standard tent pegs for guylines in South Africa) is used in the corner, and the two poles that meet are round lashed to the tentpeg with sisal. If you don't have this type of tent peg available, then a length of quarter inch (8mm) steel rebar with a right angle bent in it is a good substitute.

Friction Locking Pioneering Pole Store

A good principle for storing pioneering poles is to keep them off the ground- this prevents them rotting (and keeps the snakes and scorpions out of them, depending on the climate). Normally in camp this means propping them up on scrap lengths of timber. I went out to Gilbanken this weekend where the Tshwane (Pretoria) Region were holding their annual Field Day and spotted this very elegant friction-locking pole store:

Related to this table , this store is simply two pairs of crossed 'legs' with the pole supports running between them. In the drawing above, the poles stored on the rack are transparent to show the actual structure; to see the rack without any poles at all click here.

(I have to admit that I am unable to give complete credit for this design: I wrote down "8th Pretoria St.Alban's" in my notebook, only to discover that there is an 8th Pretoria St.Andrew's troop and a 6th Pretoria St. Alban's troop. I'd appreciate it if someone can correct me here)

Zen garden

This Zen Garden was part of our campsite for Kontiki 2004, where the theme was Japan. It's not quite the real thing, but is an acceptable substitute for a Scout camp.
This sand garden is made with a sheet of heavy duty plastic (DPM from a builder's yard), pegged down at the edges and edged with cane. The sand was poured in and raked out. At the end of the weekend, it is simple to fold the edges of the sheet back, and then gather the sand up to pour back into a barrel and take back to the Scout hall.

Here is a detail of the rake, which our troop scouter made.
In case you are wondering, this also has a very practical application: we use a very similar setup when we need a large area of sand to demonstrate tracking skills- reading of footprints, taking of plaster casts and setting up of sand stories are all possible.

Small camp table

This table was built by one of our patrols (Eagles) as a kitchen prep table. All timber was freshly cut invasive vegetation from the campsite. Although all of the poles were very light, the table nevertheless comfortably supported my (not insubstantial) weight. A quick, simple table, we have since used the design for several camps and outings.

Update: At around the same time I published this post, Clarke at Scoutmaster blog hit the button on his computer and published drawings of this Kitchen Table.

Friction-lock table- one-rope pioneering

More reporting from Kontiki- Marc spotted this table at Kontiki, which has been built quite ingeniously. Friction locks the whole table together. There is one rope stopping the entire thing from spreading out and falling apart, running across the table (from left to right,under the table top). No lashings are used at all in this construction.

The original table was made (I think) by 1st Greenside scout troop- if you can confirm this or correct it, please leave a comment for me here. From the photo, I am unable to tell whether the legs are splayed out or parallel to each other, in the drawings above I have made them splayed so that they lock the table-top down.

I imagine that it would be built like this: lay out 4 parallel poles (the ones pointing towards the screen in the drawing and photograph) and tie together (with clove hitches on each pole).
Lift the 2 centre poles you have just tied, place the two cross-poles under these but over the outside poles.
Place table top in centre of table.
Lift table (by the two outside tied poles) and hold up (2 scouts) while the legs are inserted.

Once again, I'd love to hear from the builders of this table, and know how they actually did it.

2 experiments

This post is my first blueprint on the blog - an experimental project that I HAVE NOT BUILT- I'm putting it out there for you to try. If it works, please let me know. But be aware that you might need to tweak this a bit before it works.

These 2 projects were ideas in response to an e-mail I got from a scout called Shannie. The challenge was to design a gadget that could be used to hold a tin of boiling water as well as perform another function, and have a moving part. The equipment allowed was 6 1.5m dowels, 4 0.5m dowels and sisal. So here you go Shannie, hope they are useful ideas!


The first idea uses a long beam holding multiple tins of water. At one end it is supported by a 0.5m tripod and at the other end it is lashed onto the leg of a taller tripod that has a gas lamp or paraffin lantern inside, and is wrapped with a hessian/plastic bag on the outside to form a lantern. The problem with this design is that there isn't really a movable part- I suppose you could trade this off against the fact that you have space to boil several tins of water.


So... I got thinking about the way construction cranes work, and came up with the idea of using a central 'mast' which has booms hanging off it. the boom is made with a 1.5m lath and a 0.5m lath sheared onto the end to make a "fork" that fits onto the mast. The top of the boom is tied back to the mast with sisal. The mast is guyed to the ground as well.

You can see that the 4 booms are supporting 2 tins of water, one over the fire, as well as a gas lamp and ... a pot plant? (ok, the pot plant was in my component library so I dropped it in). You could easily use this to hang a camp fridge or your mess kits.

Let me point out where I think you might have problems if you try to build this one: You might need to be a bit creative about how you stop the base of the boom sliding down the mast- perhaps tying it onto the mast wit ha constrictor or playing with the tension the holds the 'fork' on. You might also need to be clever about how you attach the guylines.

Good luck, and please let me know if you try either of these and they work (...actually- let me know if they don't work, as well).