The theme to Burning Man this year was “Rites of Passage” which makes me think of a test of the human character. The theme lived up to its name.

The ship ran great in Portland. We actually drove it most of the way onto the trailer. We hooked the trailer onto our 1960’s Deuce-and-a-half and on Friday morning we set out for Black Rock City.

Our Tow vehicle, the Deuce belongs to a friend who loaned us the truck after he put over $10,000 into upgrades: new brakes, a new clutch, etc… We picked up the truck from the shop two days before leaving and it was about 2 miles from my house that the clutch went out.

There we were on the side of the freeway without a way to get the ship to Burning Man. One of our crew put up the money and we rented an F-450 from uHaul. This was $2000 we were not planning on spending but we had made it too far to stop now. (again, the donations and the shopping on the Store page help us a lot)

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With the new truck it was 26 hours later when we landed on the Playa with the ship. We had made it.

We got the ship off the trailer, the new engine started up fine but the hydraulics didn’t move us forward. This became the week long mystery. The ship drove onto the trailer fine but now it won’t go. We worked on it from Saturday until Friday with no idea what was wrong with it. We swapped and isolated all the control valves with no luck, we tested each motor and they all worked fine. We moved pressure gages all over, we were getting good pressure to the system, and it just wasn’t moving.

On Tuesday I put out a request on BMIR for help from a hydraulics expert. Over the next three days a few very qualified people came by including an Aviation-Hydraulics design engineer with 30 years experience. He spent a few hours going over everything then said the system was “simple and elegant” but he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. That made me feel a bit better, because the system is simple and I was feeling dumb for not being able to figure out what was wrong with it.

We had come all the way out here and we still had a beautiful Ship. I talked with the DMV and we were able to get the ship a tow and get her registered. We were still going to have the Fire Sails on the Playa.

We got the sexiest car on the Playa to give us a tow to the DMV, Christian Ristow hauled us out there with the Scoutch. This meant a whole lot to me because the Scoutch is one of my favorite vehicles on the Playa.

We got our Day, Night and Fire effects passes at the DMV on Friday Night. We spent some time in front of the DMV playing with the Fire for the First Time. The Fire was Awesome. I loved watching people press the Fire Sail buttons, their smiles, their little happy dances, it made it all worth it.

Chili from the DPW heavy lifters gave us a Tow out to the Flaming Lotus Girls big show. Even though we were being towed it felt good to be up on the deck on a moving ship.

Each year at Burning Man I try to recognize a few moments as they happen that make everything worth it, worth the work, the stress, the strain of a big project. This year I was actually able to capture one of those moments.

I was standing on the railing when I took this photo of old friends and new friends, the Fire sails were working and we had a great view of the fire. Seeing all these smiles made it all worth it.

We had some other mysterious mechanical problems later in the week but I had my moment that made it worth it and that was all I needed.

I am sorry we weren’t under our own power and weren’t able to give people rides. I know a lot of you made major contributions to see a running art car. I am sorry that I let you down. A crew member did point out that it takes car companies hundreds of people to design a new car that looks just like last years model, the fact that in such a short time we were able to design a new locomotion system, do all the mechanical engineering and get as far as we did was incredible, but I still wish you could have seen her driving.

Now that we are back we’ll get the rest of the KickStarter awards out. We need to do some major clean up of both the ship and the house/shop. Pay off some huge credit card bills. We’ll see what happens from there….

Thank you for your support, few people are as lucky to be able to work on a project like this. Thank you for allowing us to make this ship, thank you for your support.

Captain Andy

We were able to test the Fire this last weekend.

This is one of 8 fire nozzles that will go on the ship.

The nozzle is an experiment to get more of a flat sheet of Fire and not so much a giant ball. It worked well I am excited to
see it when we have all 8 of them together.

Thank you everyone. The new Engine showed up today. 27 little horse power, but enough to move a ship.

Jules, Sparks and Andy L were over for the un-crating.

We also made a small scale model of the mechanization that will raise and lower the Yards.

The red blocks are just to add a little weight for the testing. In a few hours we’ll begin building the full size armature.

The Wheels are coming along. We need to do a little clean up then off to the powder coaters.

So we’re now moving on all fronts, we got people working on hydraulics, engine, motor, fire, wheels…..

Last weekend we dropped the fence in the back yard, pulled the tarp off the ship, hooked her up to a F350 diesel, pulled her out into the street, set up the ramps and rolled her into the driveway.

We cleaned her up with soap, vinegar and water. Then started going over any repairs that we are going to have to make.

We celebrated with custom cup cakes and a BBQ

Sparks got the engine out. We are still trying to find a replacement. This engine had been through a whole lot before it died. We are going to call it a lost cause and find a new one.

This week we built a gate to make moving the ship in and out of storage a lot easier. I’m not sure how many times the fence could handle being chopped down then patched back up. With the gate almost done we are ready to work on the repairs and improvements.

I’ve been spending a lot of time looking for a job, if anyone needs a Structural Engineer, Project Manager, Welder, or Machinist in the Portland Oregon Area please let me know.

Despite my job search we have been busy on the ship.

We got a big break when I went to buy material for the wheel hubs. In the remnant pile at the Steel Yard I found circles already cut to the needed 14″ dia. This saved a whole lot of time and money since we are not paying for material we would have cut off. After buying steel for the hubs we cleaned the tubing that will make the spokes on the wheels. Each wheel will have 12 spokes made from 1-5/8″ steel tube.

We also cleaned the rust off 40 feet of 9″ wide 3/16″ thick steel plate to make the grousers for the new wheels.

The plate was sheared to 3.5″ widths down at my friend Martin’s Shop:

The plate was then folded using a CNC Break Press:

Then using a custom jig the curves were cut. The Curves are not symmetrical; the high point on the wheel is towards the inside directly below the point of rotation for the steering. This should make steering easier.

After torch cutting each grouser it take about 2 minutes of grinding on both the belt grinder and a angle grinder to finish them up so that they are ready to be welded.

Over the weekend I went up to Seattle to my Friend Larry’s shop to use his roller to roll the tubing that will make up the side walls of the new wheels. We have a lot of work to do before Maker Fair but I am hoping that we can finish one wheel to bring it with us. There is some Machining to do on the spokes then a whole lot of layout for welding, but I think we have a good chance of getting it done on time.

Thank you for your Tripod Purchases and donations . It is with your help that we can make this epic thing happen.
Thank You.