Garden snail orgy

Rainy season's starting... time to make little snails.  There were dozens of them, all crawling over each other.  Some were paired off.  I had to carry a bunch of stuff through this area and kept stepping on them.  Why do all this out in the open instead of under the protection of nearby plants.

Ephemerisle - cheap-ass platform.

Two of the art projects I'm considering involve building small platforms that can support a person.  I had an idea of how to do a small platform very cheaply.  Here's how it turned out:

For $5 you can get a (supposedly) 14-gallon* storage bin which, based on some quick math can displace 116 pounds.  So I got 4 of them (displace 464 pounds!) and a sheet of plywood.  Now I can make this all sturdy if I wanted to with side wood pieces and strap ties, but for a quick test I can just use friction fit.

Step 1: bins


Step 2: Add plywood sheet:
 

Well, so it held one person, but was not able to hold 2.  (our combined weight was probably around 360).  So perhaps the gallon size on the package was wrong. 

Also, the failure mode for this cheap-ass approach is not good.  If the platform dunks, water gets in the bins, which makes the whole thing less buoyant.  So either I waterproof the tops of the the bins somehow (with the cheap-ass approach, saran wrap or heavy-duty plastic bags come to mind) or I move to an airtight fill like small barrels. 

Oh, and while I first had the bins taped together for ease of adding the plywood sheet, it was *far* more stable when I moved the bins a couple of inches to the corners.  There must be some *literal* tipping point beyond which the structure becomes unstable with a particular load.

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*heh.  I just did the math.  They're only 11 gallons.  I should take them back to Home Depot and complain.  :-)

Ephemerisle - party island test

I also tested out a cheap inflatable platform for Ephemerisle. 

The Coleman Party Island is (at $50) one of the cheapest floating platforms of significant size. 

However, it has a hole in the middle, which apparently is a feature allowing overheated sunbathers to dip their feet.  I see it as a bug... I want to use the platform as a dry lounge. 

So it was time to try out my strategy. 

Floating inflatable + soft thing to prevent inflatable from popping + hard thing to solidify platform and cover up hole

Ths inflatable is all on one air bladder so there's a lot of shifting around as you move.

 

It held 2 people standing up fairly easily, but there weren't more people on hand to try larger groups.  The documentation claims you can have 8, but I'm guessing 4 is a good max. 



Some modifications I'm going to make:

1.  I'm going to put a tarp over the main area to prevent water from getting in.
2. Instead of foam tiles, I'm going to take sheets of plywood and find some foam edging I can put over the sharp bits
3.  I'm going to find a beach ball type thing I can use to fill the middle. 

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I think with the right modifications this can be the sort of thing that can be used as a lounge or even a campsite for 2 (or 3 cozy) people. 

Ephemerisle - Ripple Theater project

I did a test last night of the Ripple Theater concept -- using a few beams of light to create an enclosed space with really interesting patterns based on the light reflecting off water



I got some nice patterns off of a 60W halogen spot and even better patterns off of a video projector.  It's hard to photograph them well though.  The nice thing about a projector is that the pattern of the ripples is distorting a literal picture... and you can do some awesome stuff by manipulating the picture and the water.  The pictures don't really do it justice. 

 
 

Also...



This was totally a disaster waiting to happen.  I was holding the projector in one hand and the camera in the other to take photos.  I had my iphone in my back pocket and headphones on so I could listen to other music to get the whiny, angsty Taylor Swift song out of my head.  It had been stuck in my head all day despite the fact I don't watch TV and that the Kanye West thing was clearly staged as a PR stunt.

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So I think there are two directions I can take this project.  One is to focus on using a video projector and a single screen to create really beautiful and complex visuals.  The other is to do something more like the original concept with simple lights and multiple screens.  

If I did do the projector approach, I'd probably put the projector on the roof of the houseboat.  This way, I wouldn't have to build a platform for the projector, and that would be really nice.   

Applied physics... electrocution in water

Given that a number of the projects I'm considering involve putting 120v electricity in proximity to water, I'm wondering how concerned I should be. 

I don't intend for extension cords to get wet, but in a bad scenario (storm, high winds etc) it's conceivable it might happen. Presumably if I have a fuse of the right size it would cut off the current immediately.  The question is how big should the fuse be?  Should I take a multimeter and extension cord and measure the resistance when I dunk it in fresh and salt water?  

Not me:  I have a brain.  Or maybe they did the math first too.