Tuesday, April 30, 2013

WORKSHOP READY FOR THE NEXT TASKS

We found some time to organize the new tools from WIHA and we have to say, organisation is key. We discussed also these nice organisation foam blocks which cut outs for each tool, but to be honest and nice this is, it requires too much space and volume, for a mobile workshop not ideal ...so a little bit messy, but still easy to find. We are looking to our building weeks at the end of May.

 

 

 

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

BOUT EXCURSION TO POLY NED

Every year the student associaton Bout organizes a trip to a company, for the bucky lab students its always a welcome opportunity to have a look behind the scenes. This time we went to Poly Ned, one of Netherlands leading experts in textile architecture. Poly Ned is located in the north of the Netherlands in Steenwijk, so a 2 hour bus trip brought us there.

We got a warm welcome from the two owners of the company that is developing, planning and executing nearly everthing that is related to textile architecture. They not only cover whole football fields with airdomes but are also busy with textile ceilings, facade mebranes and larger roofs for sport fields or even museum which they showed us in a presentation. 

With just under 20 people of staff, they are able to manage astonishing structures worldwide. We were able to have a look into their engineering office and in their workfloor. They asked us not to take pictures, so here just a few to give you an impression. It was a nice day and we get a bit smarter, and of course have a good contact if we need something special in their field of work.

Thanks for having us and also to Bout for the organisation ! 





Monday, April 22, 2013

WIHA TOOLS SUPPORTS BUCKY LAB



The careful reader might already recognized a new Logo on the right side WIHA Premium Tools ....Yes we already wrote about it earlier and we are proud to announce that Wiha the german tool company is now supporting the bucky lab.
Wiha send us a nice package for the start, but more important will also teach us how to use these and what makes them the finest tool on the market.

Next to their broad line of screwdrivers Wiha also produces pliers of all sizes and types. We really like their new type of ergonomic pliers that are bend to reduce fatique in your wrist while working with them, looks a little bit strange, but man, that feels good. We will post a test later, when we had some quality time with them.

The best of all is their excellent range of bits, using powertools most of our time we always had trouble with
broken bits due to the fact that our local dealer handed over some bit sets that seems to be made out of iron instead of steel...So no more hussle with these tiny but so crucial parts. To be honest they even make more tools, some of them we even dont know their name, but we are still learning ....

We will make some room for the new tools in our boxes and are looking forward to use them extensively in May when we build the prototypes of this semester.

Thanks to Wiha for their great support !


Friday, April 12, 2013

GERRIE HOBBELMAN STOPS AFTER 40 YEARS

Today, we said goodbye to Gerrie Hobbelmann, who was a long time fellow of the bucky lab. Together with Andrew Bordard he supported the bucky lab from the chair Structural Mechanics. Gerrie worked for 40 years in the faculty and was always passioned about his work. Hew was docent of the year and a master in giving lectures in his course. A short lecture was also his gift to the many guests of today, which was honored with standing ovations. If learning is always as much fun as what we have seen today, you should not hesitate to slide into the rows again...

We wish Gerrie all the best, we will miss you.

 

 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

INTECTURE BLOG STARTED



You may already noticed that our Dr. Bucky Lab is also busy in a second chair - architectural engineering under the lead of Prof. Thijs Asselbergs to be exactly.

While the bucky lab is the first semesters course and focused on the design of smaller components and products the studio from the architectural engineering course serves till the 4th and last semester of the architectural education. Positioned within the section of Building Technology together with the chairs from Product Development ( thats the home of the Bucky Lab ) and and Design of Constrcution ( including the Facade Master Program and home of the Facade Research Group ) its the only chair that is able to provide an architectural degree for its graduation project.

Within the Chair and the newly renamed studio INTECTURE we are focusing on the Integration of Technology in Architecture - powered by Innovation. The students develop architectural designs influenced by a fascination and will include a detailed piece of  Technology in their work. At the end you can say the Intecture Studio might become the big brother of the Bucky Lab. Maybe there is also a way to develop your bucky concept further into a fully grown up idea of an architectural design for your graduation project.

So if you are already joining the architectural engineering track, or beeing interested in it, the new blog will be your place to keep you up with infos whats going on there in the higher semesters.

A fresh and yound team is waiting for your ideas and ready to serve your curiousity.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

HOME SWEET HOME

Today the mobile workshop came back from Waddinxveen, it was packed perfectly and all the parts came home without a scratch.

We cant wait to start the building weeks in May ...

 

 

Monday, April 8, 2013

SCREWING IN TIGHT CORNERS

We used some tricky tools to connect the modules of the toolhouse, have a look !

 

 

TOOLHOUSE COMPLETE

The dust had settled and we packed the bucky lab last Saturday ready to be shipped. We took the time to take a few pictures also from the finished toolhouse. Its still hard to believe that we have done this in just 4 days.

We would like to say a very special thank you to the experts from festool, who made this intro week something very special, if the result of a weeks work which is normally just for the purpose to show the students whats inside the box and how to use our tools becomes something like this which will be also used for the next years as a demonstration pavillion its even more satisfying.

A special thank also to Heco Schrauben, our new partner for the bucky lab. They not only send a complete sortiment of screws for the mobile workshop but they also sponsored all the screws we needed for this project. As as you may know planning is one thing the reality looks mostly different ...so it was a pleasure to have the whole sortiment at our disposal for every task and detail that was not clear before. Even festool was impressed about the sortiment in our Raaco Boxxer Cases.

Here a set of pictures of the pavillion, what follows is the balcony, a nice staircase and some kitchen furnitures to give a wide overview of the purpose of festools set of machines.
















Saturday, April 6, 2013

USING A DRILL JIG

If you have to drill holes in a perfect distance from each other, a drill jig with a reference pin will make the job easier.

We build this one for the toolhouse balcony fence.

 

Friday, April 5, 2013

TOOLHOUSE DAY 4 - CHAMPAGNE AND BITTERBALLEN

Its unbelieveable we have done it !

After just four days ( 3 1/3 to be honest, due to the fact that we had a lot of theory on the first day ) we have finished the FESTOOL TOOLHOUSE. With enthusiasm, passion, the eye for detail and the best tools in the world we made the impossible possible.

After every meeting our student assistant Coen Kampinga had with festools chief of training Frans van Dijk in the last month he came back with more and more ideas and details of the toolshouse. What started as a small idea to build something to visualize the use of festools tools in a more practical related way ended in a full pavillion to demonstrate all kind of crafts and circumstances. "Use as many tools as possible, we would like to show on every corner something different you are able to master with our assortiment", was the eager and challenging demand of our bucky lab partner.

Having such a big project we all visualized that it would be tricky to complete it just within 4 days. The idea of the toolshouse included already to invite other schools to build part of the house later, so we agreed to start with the skelett and see how far we are able to come...Coen skipped the idea directly and throwed 80 plans on the table and had prepared the whole thing in a way it was easy to build in modules and in steps piece by piece. Due to his perfect preparation, the unstoppable effort of the students and the excellent support of knowledge and tools from festool the project was possible in this short time. Thanks especially to Frans and Koen !

While most of the team was busy in the demo room to assemble the toolhouse, adding some paint, and finishing all the different details, including even a roof window, a few were busy preparing the last bits and pieces and send them down. We even have a new box for our sewing machine and for our scrap wood !

Dr. Bucky Lab and Frans were busy to mill handrail profiles for the balcony and had to admit by themself that on paper it looked easier in first place ...but at the end, it looked perfectly and even the T-Lock closing piece that will sit as a crone on top of the house to make the whole pavillion like a homage on festools systainer transport boxes was finished in an blinck of an eye and some rough 24 grid sanding job ( 24 grid ...thats havy stuff, the street outside is smoother !)

At 17.00 its was done, the workshop already cleaned, the boxes nearly packed and we took the time to have a group picture in front of our masterpiece. After some grateful words and compliments from Frans and Marcel we had a borrel ( the dutch word for a small gathering with snacks and drinks..to be honest it was a party !) with bitterballen and other goodies out of the deep fryer and a bottle of champagne to celebrate their success.

The day ended bucky lab style with forklift training and some fun in the warehouse, but have a look, we dont want to tell too much ...Today was crazy Friday, so we handed over the camera to the students, here the best of it and our appologies of a different view today, details will follow the next days :

Just beeing called from Coen ...yes the pictures will follow ...there are so much ...! 
finally here they are ...