GALAXY (part 19) plus L'ism for Kids

Life has picked up the pace around here: both the GALAXY Project and Lichtenbergianism for Kids have entered phases where I’m actively producing, which is always a weird feeling for me. What next, adding the labyrinth fence art project to the mix?

With Lichtenbergianism for Kids, I was very surprised to find that I had laid everything out — practically finished, in other words. I’ve printed out the book in thumbnail form and spent yesterday morning going through and making what we laughingly call “final edits.”

Soon it will be time for my scenius to look it over and advise me.

Yesterday afternoon, I tackled the one part of GALAXY under my direct control: the wire stands for the EL wire loops. (Chief Engineer Turff is toiling away on the electrical stuff; we will be getting together with our small team of volunteers to tackle some of that stuff.)

Turff had tasked me with making sure that we had enough support for the large 15” loops so that they didn’t sag. I tweaked the original design a bit, and I think we’re good on that front.

The modified hook: It’s easier to install the loop, and although it’s also easier to knock the loop off, that’s an advantage: the loop simply comes off instead of getting snagged in the wire and breaking.

Doubling up on the wire stands, i.e., four hooks instead of two, seems to work.

So we have 196 rings, 34 of which are larges, so we will need 230 wire stands. Each stand is made of 36” of 12-gauge wire, so I needed 690 feet of wire, i.e., seven 100’ rolls.

It’s always fun working on something like this, where the whole SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION thing kicks in and you get to more efficient at a task that you will never do again. But I digress.

I had to unspool/stretch each roll of wire, then pull it up onto my wooden jig and cut it.

To keep myself sane, after each roll yielded 30–33 pieces I tied them into bundles of ten and added another little hashmark to my count.

By the time I had to stop, I had 190 pieces. If I had had only 30 more to make, I would have pushed on through, but 40 meant I had to straighten two more rolls of wire, so it was Cras melior est for me.

After I finish cutting the last 40 pieces, then it will be time to bend them into shape. I have mild feelings of panic about storing/transporting them, but I’m sure it will be fine.

Throughout, I had my trusty Assistive Feline™ inspecting the perimeter for chipmunks and/or lizards.