The Calm Before The Storm...

All,

Well with a definite date now set for surgery things are in wind down mode here.  The original date coincided with the Sydney Convention...but a few technical hitches and some moderate flooding here last week meant a fortnight delay which will now culminate with a chemically induced daytime nap mixed with the removal of some "iffy" bits on the 15th.  So much for having private health insurance...all that buys you is a free morning paper here at Goulburn Base Hospital!!!.    I attended a Pre-Op Clinic earlier in the week and while I am unsure of who invented this medical ritual...It was a pleasant 4 hours of poking, prodding and sometimes inane questioning all designed, I am sure, to satisfy some medical boffin's legal responsibilities...  I am no further informed as to my prognosis...with the only underlying concern being that the tumour could reveal the newly coined "Anna Bligh" disease something made patently clear by the surgeon... I have been there before and will just approach this episode same as before...So if I go MIA for a couple of weeks from the 15th and the emails go unanswered...I am not ignoring you intentionally.

Now back to some interesting stuff....We have progressed the first "trestle project" ( Codenamed "The Alan Parson's Project" for the Austin Powers fans out there ) to a point where most component refinements have been completed and we can move on to manufacture as soon as I return.  If things are a bit quiet here next week I may make a bit of headway but realistically nothing earthshattering will happen for about 3 weeks.

So what has changed you may ask....

The girder and base design have been modified to facilitate the easy addition of a proposed extension kit when available. 

A decision has been made to include pre lasered base jigs in the kits as I am certain the minimal extra cost will be offset by the ease and accuracy they will provide both while building, transporting and siting the finished structure.   These bases have been split and include interlocking...so either the original kit can be built or an extension added seemlessly. 

The girders have also been split and will allow a joint to be made via an overlap at the central corbel.  We have also decided to manufacture and include a jig for aligning and gluing of the girders and deck transoms.  The correct spacing of the girders is seen as crucial to the overall kit as other components rely on this fact. 

While talking transoms... a decision has been made to manufacture the transoms in pre-spaced "groups" with the joining webs spaced to be hidden underneath the running rails.  For those who want to add the transoms piece by piece...they can be easily separated. 

So that's the latest in trestle land at the moment.....Talk Soon...

Wings are almost ready...

Split Girders ( top ) and Pre-Spaced Transoms

Split Girder joint detail...

     

Interlocking base plates with pile holes...

Girder jig...