Past projects: Detroit Flyhouse Contortion Box

In an effort to really get this blog going again, I wanted to take a look at past projects of mine. First and foremost, my favorite for many reasons, the Detroit Flyhouse Contortion Box. This project was born out of a conversation with a friend of mine, Josh Bacon. Josh asked me something like, "Would you be interested in an unusual project? Next day, Josh put me into contact with Micha at Detroit Flyhouse, and next thing I knew, I was building a contortion box.

Photo Credit: Paul Della Mora

First things first, a visit to Detroit Flyhouse to meet Micha and Matt, and see what their wants and needs were. That's my head in the lower right, I was taking measurements and looking to see where the limitations of their current contortion box were at that time. Micha wanted improvements over the box pictured above, that would allow for a smoother transition into a box during a contortion act performance.

With new measurements, and Micha and Matt's ideas in mind, I went home and began sketching. 

And, this would turn out to be the sketch I referenced and scrawled umpteen notes and measurements on as I built the project, until it looked like an unintelligible jumble of numbers, decimal points, grease stains, a madman's roadmap.

Time to get started. A trip to Metal Mart USA, Production Tool Supply, and Lowes, and I was ready to start cutting material, but first things first: I needed a flat, level surface to start building on. I hadn't yet constructed a welding table, so I took a page from small aircraft fuselage building and built a wooden work surface from 2 pieces of strawboard. Formed from shredded straw, glue and sawdust, it comes out of the machinery  it's made on nearly perfectly flat, which makes it a great, cheap work surface to build something square. I clamped it, drilled and countersunk a few holes, and threw in some drywall screws, checked for level, done. 

After cutting the steel to size, the next step was checking measurements, and checking again.

Here, I am inscribing lines in the steel with a dial indicator height guage. The smooth surface of my wood project table allowed for basic use of this tool which is more at home on a trued granite surface table in a machine shop. If you look close you can see a perfectly horizontal line inscribed into the steel.

There is a method to the carbide scribe madness: In the above photo you can see a ruler and my sharpie marks. Once I figured out a cool measured design pattern for concentric circles in each piece...

I then took a hammer and punch and punched each hole location. A punch is a primitive but very functional way of locating a hole in metal. A drill follows a hole, plain and simple, and by creating a small start of a hole with a punch, the drill will locate to that start and follow it. 

You can see that process in the photo above. Here I am using a "center drill" which is the next step of drilling material to keep the desired final diameter on center. You'll see why this is important in a minute. Note the completed center-drilled part to the left, on the work-bench. 

all 12 pieces center-drilled. Approximately 112 holes. By the time I get to the finished dimension for each hole, I will have stayed up, working through the night, until 9:00 AM. 

This is why punching, then center-drilling each hole is important. At this stage of fabrication, I am using a hole saw to cut each hole to it's final diameter. The hole saw uses a 1/4 inch drill that follows my previously center-drilled holes, and keeps the hole saw from "walking" or otherwise sloppily hacking it's way through the material and creating an unsightly hole, which would detract from the desired look and reason for all of this work in the first place. 

Above photo shows progress at this point, and you can maybe see from this photo how things are lining up nicely. At this point, it gets nerve wracking, because each piece has so much time put into it, that making a mistake and ruining the the piece becomes a variable to avoid. 

Drill, drill, drill. Home stretch. The final holes to drill to complete the design are made with a 1/2 inch drill. The 2 x 4 clamped in the vise made a great wooden buck for the drill and hole saws to "crash" into after completing the cut, which is easier on your arm, and creates less of a burr. Basically, it's just easier. 

112 holes, finished. 9:00 AM. A night's work. I think it was a Sunday, and I went home and fell on my face for the rest of the day and slept, had to recharge for the J-O-B Monday.

Checking, and checking again, all measurements, for square, fit up, before the next phase: Welding.

The bottom of the contortion box, clamped and ready to be tack welded. This is important, because if things aren't as square and level as can be, you end up fighting the mistakes and buildup of tolerances later, when they aren't as easy to fix. 

Going up...

And up...

And up. Level and square as can be, which is important for the Lexan box which was being custom built for this project by Acrylic Specialties and Plastics whose initial response was, "You want to do what?" I'd end up with less than 1/16th of an inch tolerance to fit it inside the metal frame... Which is what I calculated for, but still was a challenge. 

Next, it was back to the drill press to create some "blocks" from 1 x 4 square tube for the casters to mount to. Doing this would give the box a bit more stability, as Micha wanted the stability and versatility to be able to perform on top of the box. The original plan called to mount them directly to the framework, but the mounting bolt heads would interfere with the Lexan inner box, and this made tightening or replacement just easier. 

Next up...

...was sculpting what would be the top edges of the box. I messed with ideas on this one, but a samurai-sword like curve seemed to be the best fit, since this project was now going to include swords as part of it's contortion box performance repertoire. 

The contortion box after some slice-o-matic action with an angle grinder and several cutting discs. 

Caster wheel mounting blocks getting clamped and welded in place...

A moment to stand back and look at progress. This is the contortion box right-side up. 

Meanwhile, it was time to take inventory of other parts of this project: The Hot Rod Red caster wheels...

...taking delivery of the $650.00 Lexan inner box, the heart of this project...

...and material for the swords.  

Time to build a top for this thing, as now, the design called for a three swords dropping through the top, and two through the side. 

Second verse...

...same as the first. 

At this point, it's been a lot of work. So, I took a trip down to Detroit Flyhouse to show Micha the progress, who, up until this point hadn't seen anything but a sketch, and, to put Micha in the inner Lexan box to sight in where the swords were going to go. It was satisfying to deliver results. Love me some Detroit Flyhouse!

Photo Credit: Paul Della Mora

Then, back to work.

I had to build a wooden buck to fit the inside of the Lexan contortion box, to support the surfaces as I drilled into them to create holes for the swords to go in and out of. I had to custom grind drills as well, to drill through the Lexan without chipping or cracking it. Or otherwise, I'd have $650.00 in scrap Lexan. Talk about stress... 

Here is the box mocked up with a piece of material going through one set of the holes I drilled. To locate the holes properly, I had to get Micha in the box, and then we used a laser pointer (Thank You Alison) to locate where we had an opening to run a sword through the box with Micha in it. 

Sword building time. 

The "blades" are 1/2  inch stock hand ground into their final form. The handles are rebar. 

And...

Finished! 

Photo Credit: John Wiley

The above and following photos of Micha using the box for the first time at a live performance at Winter Ball: A Detroit Fire Guild Formal Affair, in early 2011. 

Photo Credit: John Wiley

Photo Credit: John Wiley

Special thanks to Micha Adams and Matt Buss of Detroit Flyhouse, www.detroitflyhouse.com. Photographers: John Wiley, of photasticimages.net, Paul Della Mora, official Detroit Flyhouse photographer. Alison Nawrocki for the laser pointer, Josh Bacon, without whom this never would have happened, Elektra and Maureen Petrucci, William "Billy The Tile Guy" Olson, Kevin Roberts, www.addguy.com, Ron Davis of Acrylic Specialties And Plastics Madison Heights Michigan, Metal Mart USA Warren Michigan, Len @ Speedcult Detroit, speedcult.com, My Mom & Dad, and all friends who put up with me as I sorted out the particular needs of this project. Thank You.