Earlier this month, Matt and Ben headed back to Batesville, Arkansas to perform scheduled maintenance on our White River piece. The mobile hangs over a hospital food court, so to minimize impact on operations, they worked through the night. (Two nights, actually!)
The mobile was lowered halfway, partly disassembled, and each shape was individually de-greased and polished. And now it's back to its original shiny, beautiful state!
We're headed off the recyclers today with this pile of scrap:
This pile of aluminum is the leftover scrap from the laser cutting process of our Ekko Workshop mobiles. These are the leftovers of about 1,500 mobiles!
Here are behind-the-scenes pictures of last week's installation at Oregon State University. This gives a little glimpse into the painstaking process behind installing a 40-foot mobile.
It's done! The mobile for Oregon State University! Matt and Ben started Friday evening and spent the first three hours just getting the hanging point secured. The ceiling was 53 feet tall. The tallest lift they could use in the space was 40 feet tall. It took some creative problem solving to narrow that 13-foot gap...
After that, it was smooth sailing. They finished at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning and headed straight to a celebratory breakfast. (Denny's has never tasted so good.)
2015 has gotten off to a good start. We just got back a pile of rings from the powder coater, which puts us on the home stretch for the Oregon State University project! Rest assured, nobody will be hula hooping these polished, powder-coated, perfectly packaged beauties. From here on out, they get the white glove treatment.
As a side note, when the trusty Subaru is too tiny for project materials, Matt and Ben opt for ZipCar pickup trucks. In this case, not even a pickup was large enough, so the guys built a platform to carefully transport the rings.
Whew. What a year! After looking over all the stuff we did in 2014, it's no wonder we're in serious need of some rest and relaxation! Maybe once the Oregon State University project is finished? Maybe?
Here are a few highlight:
We interrupt all this serious mobile making for a quick hula hoop break. (Using of a Furman Hall ring...)
Somebody call Mike Rowe, because this Furman Hall project could make a good Dirty Jobs episode. The mobile incorporates polished copper rings, and the process we're using requires us to polish aluminum, which will later be treated with a copper finish. Anyhow, the polishing process requires grinding away at aluminum, and it's been absolutely filthy.
As you can see below, Matt and Ben created a tent to try keeping the aluminum particles contained, but enough has escaped to layer aluminum dust across the entire shop. And Matt's poor shoes will never be the same.
But. At least the polished rings are looking lovely.
