Monster Man
By B-Rad, Doc, and Mich
B-Rad and DocMonster Man was created by Mitch, Doc and I after deciding a 2x4 man without Manzanita branches would look pretty scary standing there by itself. I had (ironically), 3 used GREEN 10' 4x4's I was planning on taking to Mexico (someday), which quickly became the focus of our attention.
We collectively searched BM.com for an image to copy since the tree idea was out and copied, enlarged and printed a the basic BM man logo onto a piece of paper. This was placed in the middle of my shop floor and the wood was laid out so the angles matched..."no, the head is up higher"....The arms need to be longer"...there was no measurements taken, only the angles of the arms and legs to match the printed logo...
Two 10' chunks made up the legs and the third one cut in half we fashioned into arms.
We built the torso from (green) recycled old A/C doors (still says "Union Carbide" on them), cut them to match the angles of the wood we laid out on the floor, screwed it all together and went outside to stand it up...
..."Geezuz...this thing is heavy"...as we muscled out the bay door....(grunting)..."stand it up against the front of the building"....
About this time the two chickens in the solarator were smelling pretty good and after close to 2hrs of being the focus of over 80 square feet of sunshine at 500F+ they were done to perfection.
...is sure didn't look that tall laying on the floor of my shop but once standing up...man..."this thing is HUGE!" Then came the engineering to make it stable, safe and playa rated. First thought: (always the easiest way out), "we can secure it with cables to keep it from blowing over". That idea was quickly discarded due to lack of space in front of Monster Man...peeps would be tripping over it...art cars passing by the cables...
no, cables wouldn't do. "Ok then, we have to fabricate a support system that attaches to the back using rigid pipes"...
Doc stood out in the parking lot and I carefully let the rope out until a "standing angle" looked good from the side..."that looks good there" came from Doc. We tied off the monster and fabricated two quick connect support arms off the CG of the torso for maximum support and wind loads. Once staked down at all four corners it should be playa rated.
We were running out of time and something had to be built and the "Tree" just had too many unknowns and missing parts. So that's the story of this year's "Monster Man". The cool thing: It will set up and be standing within 15 minutes...not including the rebar stakes. The other "good" news: MM was completely fashioned from recycled parts:
4x4's from a horse corral
Torso fabricated (thanks Doc and Mitch) from 40 year old A/C unit panels
Hang glider leading edges for rear struts and trick alloy hardware and
stainless steel cables as the support system.
Used pieces of pre-used structural steel for the feet fixtures and back support.
I'm bringing a 16' trailer so I can also bring a huge step ladder, always a nice option on the playa for many reasons. Bring LED light strings to adorn the monster as we will be on batteries during the night. I have yet to build the head so that will be a surprise...one that will be seen from ANYWHERE in BRC.
B Rad
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More photographs can be found in the Brad's album at the BurningTribe Gallery for 2007