Interstellar Pleasure Barge - Interstellar Pleasure Barge

First Lighting
8/8/2008 7:17 PM

Over the past couple days my brother and I built the structure for the folding roof and began covering it. It folds down on top of the railings and it works really well! Unfortunately, he made the roof an extra 18 inches longer than we had talked about so the fabric I bought came up a little short. I'll have to hunt down some more of that white vinyl before we can finish the roof.
And today I installed the first lights (of many). I will now continue to install as many lights as I possible can before the end of this coming weekend.
Also pictured is my garage/workshop. The Ryobi tablesaw in the foreground choose today to stop working. Good thing it's my birthday in a couple days. Maybe I can get my dad to buy me a new one!

roof

lights

Panels Nearly Done
7/31/2008 12:17 PM

I've got nearly all the base panels designed, constructed and mounted. There's a little niggardly work to do in the aft of the barge but, with luck, I should be able to knock that out in a day (provided it's a non-raining day).
I'm attending my brother's wedding this weekend and, upon my return, I will dedicate my remaining time to lighting and the control system. With some luck, I might be able to trick my (other) brother into building a roof for the barge.

nearly_all_panels

side_panels

Fore Panels
7/14/2008 9:22 PM

Last year I sided the barge in painted MDF panels but they warped like crazy when it rained and rained on me in the two weeks just before Burning Man. This year I'm trying something a little different: I'm using water-resistant Melamine-covered panels (which are paintable). I'm confident this will work better, anyway.
Update 7/14: added the hinged panel. I'm trying to figure out what to do about the bottom half of the front of the barge, now.

fore_angles-1

extra_panel-1

extra_panel

Interstellar Cargo Hauling Service
6/24/2008 11:59 AM
In an attempt to simultaneously save some money on the incredible amount of fossil-fuel required to transport the I.P.B. to Burning Man and assist my many wonderful friends and acquaintances in transporting their bikes, art projects, camping gear (&c.) to same I am trying an experiment this year: The Interstellar Cargo Hauling Service.
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No Art Car Parade This Year
6/12/2008 5:41 PM

I just discovered that, "due to lack of funding", there will be no formal art car parade this year. Jan E is still organizing a less formal Art Car Caravan but this doesn't do me any good since the IPB is not street legal: I can only run it as a "float" in a parade.
This is a shame. Last year's art car parade was huge. There were hundreds (thousands?) of people and many dozens of art cars. I was looking forward to an even larger parade this year.
On the up-side I no longer have a mid July deadline to worry about. I can focus all my attention to the mid-August deadline of Burning Man (assuming the pleasant and attractive staff of the BM DMV deem the IPB worthy of a license).

Benches
6/6/2008 12:00 AM

One of the many ideas I had last year was to build some permanent benches into the pleasure barge. So I did that! The tops come off to reveal some really handy storage space. I'll probably also squirrel away the sound system in there, too.
If you look carefully, you'll see 120vac outlets installed in the sides of the benches. That's right! I'm hard wiring 120v outlets all over the barge to make it easier to get power where I need it (if I, say, have a DJ or a live band on top). There's a 120v tail inside the van that be connected to (1) the massive power inverted attached to the van's battery, (b) the generator that will reside in the body of the van or, (iii) an external power source (while the van is stationary).

benches-2

Gear Shift Motor
3/18/2008 7:02 PM

So my idea is to position a 12v motor beneath the gear shift lever (which is on the steering column) pointing up. The shaft of the motor will be extended to a threaded rod. A nut (or equivalent) on the threaded rod will be attached to the gear shift lever. As the motor spins the nut will travel vertically, causing the lever to shift up and down thus changing the gear.
I have the motor and have been able to extend the shaft quite a long ways. Since any given point on the gear shift lever travels in an arc I need to compensate for this. While thinking about universal joints I noticed my old Tama double kick pedal (that I recently replaced with the superior IRON COBRA!!!). It has two U-joints and an extendable shaft: perfect! Now I just need to figure out (1) how to mount a 1/4" nut onto the gear shift lever and (2) how to defeat the "safety" mechanism that requires one to pull on the gear shift lever before one can shift into another gear.

Back from Burning man
The inaugural voyage of the Interstellar Pleasure Barge at Burning Man 2007 was a success! There were four separate adventures through out the final weekend (it took a couple days to get it built and licensed) and each was quite pleasant.