Stuart Ablett
Member
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- 15,917
- Location
- Tokyo Japan
Some of you might know that I work with a great NPO here called PlayGround of Hope (PHoH), they build playgrounds like this one.....
.... for communities in need that are still suffering from the earthquake north of here, or in that above example for an orphanage just outside of Tokyo.
When I first started to work with them it was apparent that their hearts were in the right place, but there was not one tradesman among them. Smart hardworking people, you bet but they were lacking in real world trades experience. The playground above used to take them 5+ days to build that is a team of about 6 core members with maybe two of the five days with local volunteers maybe 20 to 30 people helping out.
These systems are very modular, thus all the distanced are set to be repeatable, one of the first jigs I built for them was a simple jig for making the two sides of each tower, it is just a simple board with three places that one of the 4x4 posts fits into, they were painted red so they are called the "Red Jigs"
Here you can see them putting the facia board in place this is MUCH easier to do with the red jig holding the 4x4s in the right place.
They used to do this with a tape measure and eyeballing it.
The tool tote is something else I got them onto, they were losing a lot of nuts and bolts as well as some tools all the time because they had no handy way to keep them from falling in the dirt.
Once the two sides are built they stand them up and then put another red jig between them and now they have a tower.
They leave the reg jigs in place right up until they are done, and this keeps everything straight and square.
They are going to have two build teams this summer so they need more red jigs.
They want 12 per team, and the original team has only 9 red jigs, so I'm making a total of 15 red jigs.
Here is the empty jig with all the parts behind it ready to go.
The jig with one red jig just freshly popped out of the red jig jig.
I glue everything and then shoot it with brads to hold it until the glue dries.
This seems enough, as they have not broken one jig in the past year.
Here is a finished jig standing in front of the other parts to make the next 14 jigs.
When I finish them I'll chop off that slightly long piece on the one end, then a light sanding and they will be ready for paint, and yes they will all be painted red.
Just a little look as the stuff I get up to.
Cheers!
.... for communities in need that are still suffering from the earthquake north of here, or in that above example for an orphanage just outside of Tokyo.
When I first started to work with them it was apparent that their hearts were in the right place, but there was not one tradesman among them. Smart hardworking people, you bet but they were lacking in real world trades experience. The playground above used to take them 5+ days to build that is a team of about 6 core members with maybe two of the five days with local volunteers maybe 20 to 30 people helping out.
These systems are very modular, thus all the distanced are set to be repeatable, one of the first jigs I built for them was a simple jig for making the two sides of each tower, it is just a simple board with three places that one of the 4x4 posts fits into, they were painted red so they are called the "Red Jigs"
Here you can see them putting the facia board in place this is MUCH easier to do with the red jig holding the 4x4s in the right place.
They used to do this with a tape measure and eyeballing it.
The tool tote is something else I got them onto, they were losing a lot of nuts and bolts as well as some tools all the time because they had no handy way to keep them from falling in the dirt.
Once the two sides are built they stand them up and then put another red jig between them and now they have a tower.
They leave the reg jigs in place right up until they are done, and this keeps everything straight and square.
They are going to have two build teams this summer so they need more red jigs.
They want 12 per team, and the original team has only 9 red jigs, so I'm making a total of 15 red jigs.
Here is the empty jig with all the parts behind it ready to go.
The jig with one red jig just freshly popped out of the red jig jig.
I glue everything and then shoot it with brads to hold it until the glue dries.
This seems enough, as they have not broken one jig in the past year.
Here is a finished jig standing in front of the other parts to make the next 14 jigs.
When I finish them I'll chop off that slightly long piece on the one end, then a light sanding and they will be ready for paint, and yes they will all be painted red.
Just a little look as the stuff I get up to.
Cheers!