To be ported to the main page[edit source]
EWB Sheffield's script[edit source]
The video is at http://web.archive.org/web/20110424135209/http://hexayurt.blip.tv:80/file/5012769 and the following is not meant to be a literal transcription, but a how-to text that's useful for builders. So the emphasis is not on literal but on clear, precise and concise sentences.
We should add metric to imperial measurement units, and maybe even euros, while we're at it. ;-)
This text will be ported to http://www.universalsubtitles.org so that it will become subtitles in English (for those who have trouble hearing or understanding that language, or who simply prefer to read-and-watch rather than listen-and-watch), and the basis for translated subtitles into as many languages as we cooperatively can (probably starting with Spanish, and aiming at 5 and then 40, BHAG).
Engineers Without Borders Sheffield Plywood Hexayurt How-to Video
Having 6 sides it's hard to get a sense of how big the hexayurt is. Our eyes are used to 4-sided buildings. Could I ask you a favour? Could you walk around the hexayurt? Thank you! We have some camping mats inside to give a sense of scale. How is that with 5 occupants? Very big! Very big for camping, not for living. With possessions. Fairly standard for 4 1/2 persons. One person for each wall. Central shared space. For cooking. Stove in the center with the smoke going up. In cold climates you'd put a layer of insulation on the inside. Stapled, probably.
Parts List All you'll need for $100 USD
12 sheets of OSB or Plywood 6 for the walls, 6 for the roof
Check that the boards are 1.2 by 2.4, because sometimes they are 1.2 by 2.5. Mark the diagonal.
(5) pieces of 2x4 8' lumber for (24) 120º and (12) 120º blocks
Template for the 150º block, using a pair of cutters as a compass. 150º = 60º + 60º + half of 60º. Accurate enough. If there's some error it will be smaller than the error when using the saw.
(200) 2" deck screws self-taping if possible
Walls first. I'm liking your door, looks like two eyes and a nose. That was not the plan; port-holes was the idea. We love the arch. No meassuring, just using a piece of string and a pen.
This is the profile of a block. Takes more cutting but uses less wood. This is the sholanken corner I mentioned before. 6" by 6" and cut the triangle off. So that the wall radius comes inside of the roof radius. One block at the top and one block at the bottom. A pile of spare blocks to hold the roof on.
These are the roof triangles. You screw one block on the inside of each one. They overlap by the thickness of one block. If the block is 2" by 4", it's 1.75 inches ???.
[5:24] They all have to be oriented in the same way in terms of left over right or right over left.
Once you have the roofs done we're going to do an awkward bit of cutting.
Trimming fo the roof triangles (an awkward little detail)
[5:51][not literal] We need the boards to overlap on each other at the very top of the hexayurt. So the narrowest angle of each half-panel piece has to be cut twice:
- First at the very end, to make it shorter.
- Then parallel to the edge of the other board, to make it narrower.
How the roof works (and the awkward detail explained)
[7:34] This is how the roof pieces will go.
Actually this is over like that. See how they catch? You take those corners in. Screw the wooden blocks in the inside.
[8:19] That's the overlap of the pieces, where each roof piece rests in the one besides it. That's what forms your roof strength. Each on over the one before.
Placing the 150º roof blocks
Roughly at half height, you measure the thickness of the block. and then you can screw it in a position like this.
So the other piece of the roof wedges right into that corner. Screw from the outside, this edge parallel to that edge.
[9:45] And then the other board will slide up against that and into place.
About to finish the roof
It's clearly not quite a house, but it's definitly better than a tent. The thing is if it was four times the price of a tent it really wouldn't be worth doing it. But at a quarter of the price of a tent it's actually quite a technology.
Did I hear some body just discovered the problem of the end? Some one's got to go inside, that is correct. Actually for safety reasons it's actually it's best for about 4 or 5 people inside so the roof can not fall on them.
Placing the last two roof blocks
[10:33] So for these two blocks you have to align it, so that the surface of the block aligns up smoothly with the roof. It's the opposite of insetting on that side: on one side you ???
And that way you can screw from the outside.
>>>>>>>>> I don't understand it (yet) <<<<<<<<<<<<
The tricky last roof triangle and lifting the roof on to the walls!
Let's drop this solar light in here. Solar panels on the back, light on the front. Now you can see what you're doing.
Does it have a disco mode?
Final piece: you have to slide it in on one side, gently. It's a job for hand power, not for leg power; it's a precision operation. Slide it in! There you go, easy.
Now you need to move it up, push it up some. (That side will go over rather than under, but don't worry about that side yet.) Close enough!
Who's going to do the screws? There's someone pressing on the other side? Solid, nicely done!
Who's going to take a shot at the one up here? You're pretty light. More people, more people!
Can you guys inside lift the roof up a tiny bit, a few inches? Right!
Now we do the same thing again. Beautiful!
Now the magic:
- 3 people on every wall. You're each going to be lifting 10-15 pounds of weight because there are so many, so it's a very gentle lift, ok?
- Everybody inside gets ready too. We're going to lift it up but we're not going to move around any. Ready? Lift slowly and gently.
- Lift further so it's easier. Once you're at shoulder height it weighs less.
- Everybody who is free go inside.
- Very slowly begin to walk towards the hexayurt. Then pass the weight to the people inside. Then run down the other side of the building because you're going to take it when it comes at the back.
- Now we need more people on the outside. Lower very gently. Keep it aligned with the corners, mind your fingers.
Now we're going to add more screws to hold down the roof properly, but that's the process.
Placing the mid-wall roof-blocks
[18:51] This is a 120º block and it goes right under the section where the two pieces of the roof cross. You need to hold the block from below so that it's screwed tight.
Then from the inside you put in another screw, and that locks it into the roof.
First footing! (it's a Scottish thing)
[20:08] I can even put my hands up! Quite spacious. Thanks very much!
20 people inside and some additional notes
[20:34] For Burning Man people typically have so much equipement with them that they have to carry stuff on a truck.
How many people do we have in here now? 17 and we have some space in the middle. 19. Come on in, it's a hexayurt, not a clown-car.
A tonne of shelter for not much money.
You don't have to build them out of wood. You can use corrugated plastic, and if you work with corrugated plastic and tape it can be folding.
Hexayurt experience. Half the price of a relief tent, lasts 3 times as long, about the same size. 5 years, maybe 10? It's on every continent, now; test units only, though. Antartica? If you use a nice thick insulated panel, why not?
Mongolian yurts. Every culture has a shack or a hut which is about this size, to live in. The English had benders.
Gang carrying the finished hexayurt and the relocatable building idea
[22:57] We need 18 folks all the way around. Don't lift before we have 3 on each side. For the people who are at the corners, hold by the corners; everybody else hold by the middle.
We're going to go to that no-fire sign, see it? That's 5 feet. So at the count of 3, lift very slowly - 1, 2, 3 - and walk about 5 feet towards the no-fire sign. So this is the relocatable building thing. And stop, and down. Clap! Good!
So what you do is you screw some aditional bits of wood to it, to make it a frame to carry it by. Then you get 20 people to carry it on their shoulders and you just walk somebody's house to where they are going to live in next.
And that means you can build semipermanent structures that you can still relocate if you've got to move your camps. For example in Haiti you could build hexayurts and if you have to relocate 5 miles to a new centre, you can do it. It's a slow process but you have time and lots of manual labour on hand.
Thank you!
Back to parts
[24:41] This is just running it backwards. Beautiful work. Nice!
backup of Sheffield transcription[edit source]
https://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_Plywood is the page for the how-to text.
http://web.archive.org/web/20110424135209/http://hexayurt.blip.tv:80/file/5012769 is the video we're interested in. You may want to download the video to work at leisure. (Not sure if a blip account is needed for downloading.)
We'll do it in three steps, and we'll announce each here and through twitter:
STARTING TODAY (APRIL 13th) with #1
1) Below is a "transcription" or rather a how-to text. It's meant to be useful for builders. We won't literally transcribe every word or sound, but rather we'll write "clean" (clear, precise, concise) sentences. We should add metric to imperial measurement units. Maybe even euros, while we're at it. ;-)
Please lend a hand or two, depending on availability. And please tell others so they may help. (Reviewing and asking counts as help.)
2) Once the text is done, one person (could be me) will "port" it to @universalsubs. There, it will become subtitles for those who have trouble hearing or understanding the English. Or who simply prefer to read-and-watch, rather than listen-and-watch.
3) Later, the subtitles will become translations into as many languages as we cooperatively can. I'd suggest 40, starting at 5. I can help with Spanish.
So thank you in advance!
@lucasgonzalez
--- Comments:
(plan: first add titles for each section, then write as outline, then turn into a proper how-to - good?)
--- Engineers Without Borders Sheffield Plywood Hexayurt How-to Video
Having 6 sides it's hard to get a sense of how big the hexayurt is. Our eyes are used to 4-sided buildings. Could I ask you a favour? Could you walk around the hexayurt? ... Thank you! We have some camping mats inside to give a sense of scale. How is that with 5 occupants? Very big! Very big for camping, not for living. With possessions. Fairly standard for 4 1/2 persons. One person for each wall. Central shared space. For cooking. Stove in the center with the smoke going up. In cold climates you'd put a layer of insulation on the inside. Stapled, probably.
Parts List All you'll need for $100 USD
12 sheets of OSB or Plywood 6 for the walls, 6 for the roof
Check that the boards are 1.2 by 2.4, because sometimes they are 1.2 by 2.5. Mark the diagonal.
(5) pieces of 2x4 8' lumber for (24) 120º and (12) 120º blocks
Template for the 150º block, using a pair of cutters as a compass. 150º = 60º + 60º + half of 60º. If there's some error it will be smaller than the error when using the saw.
(200) 2" deck screws self-taping if possible
Walls first. I'm liking your door, looks like two eyes and a nose. That was not the plan; port-holes was the idea. We love the arch. No meassuring, just using a piece of string and a pen.
This is the profile of a block. Takes more cutting but uses less wood. This is the sholanken corner I mentioned before. 6" by 6" and cut the triangle off. So that the wall radius comes inside of the roof radius. One block at the top and one block at the bottom. A pile of spare blocks to hold the roof on.
These are the roof triangles. You screw one block on the inside of each one. They overlap by the thickness of one block.
LucasG 14:11, 13 April 2011 (PDT) for backup purpose
A written step-by-step how-to[edit source]
You need:
- 12 plywood or OSB panels. Each is 4-foot by 8 foot, 0.5 inch thick.
- 4 2 inch by 4 inch.
- A tool to cut the wood with.
- Screws and something to screw them with.
Prepare the pieces:
- Cut off the final 4 inches of 6 panels. These will be the walls.
- Cut the remaining 6 panels in half, diagonally. You're left with 12 triangles.
- Trim off the narrowest corner of the triangles. Explained at 5min51 of the Engineers Without Borders (Sheffield, UK) video.
- Cut (number needed) blocks from the 2x4, (some number) in 120 degree angles and (some number) in 150 angles.
Build the walls:
- Have a team put the pieces in place and use the 120-degree (or is it 150-degrees?) blocks to join them together.
Build the roof:
- ...
Mount the roof:
- Is it better to mount the roof pieces as you build the roof?
- ...
Anything else from here?
- Make it waterproof.
- Screw to other hexayurts to make the whole group better resistent to hurricanes? Or maybe put sand sacks around each hexayurt? Or both?
Are there alternatives and extensions to all this?
- Better ways to join the walls?
- Better ways to mount the roof?
- Better ways to make this water-proof?
- Better ways to make them hurricane resistant?
- Is earthquake resistance an issue with these light structures?
- Could stuff be added to hexayurts?
- At the end of a hexaurt's life-cycle, panels can be reused, or they can be used as fuel for (good) stoves. What's the best way to cut them into appropriate-size pieces?
- ...
To be ported to the Translation page or left at the Talk page[edit source]
Translate into other languages[edit source]
Looking into dotsub.com which btw is what ted.com uses. The srt is useable anyway, and the video is public domain, if you want to give it a try. I'll have a go at it within the next 24 hours, not sure when.
If you want to translate this video into other languages, help yourself to the subtitles you prefer (either English or Spanish):
- You should copy that to a plain text file and give it a ".srt" extension.
- Use that file as a starting point for your translation. You only need to translate, because the timing is already there for you. Saves a lot of work!
- Then create an account in overstream.net or other video-hosting place, and import the .srt file. (Or I can do it for you as time allows.)
- Then add the link to your translation above, so that we'll know it's done.
- It would also be good if you could leave your new .srt file below. This helps yet other translators, and maybe people can improve yours if they spot mistakes!
Automatic translation tools:
- The language would have to be simplified. Automatic translators don't do a good job with broken sentences! And simplifying the language means we have a better how-to anyway, so let's do that (see above).
- Some say two tools could be used, so that they will check each other out.
- It's best if humans can do the job!
- That said: http://www.microsofttranslator.com/ + any other tool that you know of?
Help fix translations[edit source]
The English transcription is not perfect:
- In the final third of the video, the timing is not perfect and there are words I (LucasG) can't hear too well.
- Also, the English is translated back from the Spanish (reverse engineered so to speak), so it's not exacly as the original.
If you can help, I'd appreciate it. Write your comments on this page. Thank you!
Translations (.SRT files)[edit source]
English[edit source]
1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,378 https://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_Plywood has file to help other translators, or leave comments there!
2 00:00:03,121 --> 00:00:08,713 This is the Hexayurt that we built at the Engineers Without Borders annual gathering and Practical Action camp.
2 00:00:09,682 --> 00:00:14,625 Here you see the details of construction of a plywood hexayurt.
3 00:00:14,625 --> 00:00:23,353 It's a 150 degrees angle cut in a piece of 2 x 4 and screwed from the outside.
4 00:00:23,453 --> 00:00:33,262 Here's the other size of block which we use, look down here, it's 120 degrees. It holds walls together.
5 00:00:33,726 --> 00:00:46,757 And let's go outside. Outside there's a 120 degrees block which joins the wall with the roof.
6 00:00:46,787 --> 00:00:49,787 And there are 150 blocks which join the roof pieces together.
7 00:00:50,329 --> 00:00:59,157 And outside you can see who pieces overlap. Can you see the overlapping?
8 00:00:59,157 --> 00:01:06,956 Overlapping means we use a screw through two layers of plywood and into the block.
9 00:01:07,081 --> 00:01:08,249 So we overlap the edges.
10 00:01:08,243 --> 00:01:11,243 And we overlap this edge too.
11 00:01:11,352 --> 00:01:14,352 This is far from being a perfect way to make it waterproof.
12 00:01:14,496 --> 00:01:18,266 But you can do it without adding any additional component or adding any deep complexity to the system.
13 00:01:18,340 --> 00:01:23,401 For this to work we must cut the wall pieces a bit shorter than we would do normally.
14 00:01:23,756 --> 00:01:26,756 So these instead of being 8 foot long are cut to 7 feet and 4 inches,
15 00:01:27,176 --> 00:01:33,092 which gives you additional space needed to make sure the roof is underneath (?) the wall
16 00:01:33,593 --> 00:01:39,996 you make this with 12 OSB panels and 4 pieces of 4x8 (I think it's 2x4) and a bunch of screws
17 00:01:40,945 --> 00:01:42,743 back inside
18 00:01:43,282 --> 00:01:46,282 see what I mean ... (...) ...
19 00:01:48,607 --> 00:01:51,607 just at the top there's a detail
20 00:01:53,303 --> 00:01:58,245 see how we trimmed the pieces to make a hole
21 00:01:58,658 --> 00:02:05,797 see this angle here? we simply trimmed a small piece off the side of the plywood, from one side and from the other so they fit together to (...)
22 00:02:06,521 --> 00:02:09,521 so each piece of plywood ...
23 00:02:10,145 --> 00:02:13,145 overlaps over the next on and then we trim them so they fit together this way
24 00:02:13,404 --> 00:02:16,404 it's a bit tricky and we'd like to do a (...) properly later
25 00:02:16,721 --> 00:02:19,721 but this is the basics of a plywood hexayurt
26 00:02:22,653 --> 00:02:25,653 thank you
27 00:02:26,307 --> 00:02:29,307 i hope you can figure out the details on your own
28 00:02:30,936 --> 00:02:33,936 150 to hold the roof
29 00:02:34,052 --> 00:02:37,052 120 to join the wall to the roof
30 00:02:37,178 --> 00:02:44,647 you can see the screws that go through the roof and go into those blocks (...)
31 00:02:44,647 --> 00:02:46,904 and that's all there is to it
32 00:02:47,017 --> 00:02:48,606 the walls are full panels with 6 inches cut off one side
33 00:02:48,732 --> 00:02:50,928 the pieces for the roof are half a panel, overlapped
34 00:02:51,463 --> 00:02:53,587 an that's the plywood hexayurt
35 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:54,804 hexayurt.com
Spanish[edit source]
1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,378 https://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_Plywood has file to help other translators, or leave comments there!
2 00:00:03,121 --> 00:00:08,713 Este es el Hexayurt que construimos en la reunión anual de Ingenieros Sin Fronteras y campamento de Acción Práctica.
3 00:00:09,682 --> 00:00:14,625 Aquí ves los detalles de la construcción de un Hexayurt de conglomerado.
4 00:00:14,625 --> 00:00:23,353 Es un ángulo de 150 grados cortado en una pieza de 2x4 pulgadas y atornillado desde fuera.
5 00:00:23,453 --> 00:00:33,262 Aquí está el otro tamaño de bloque que usamos, mira ahí abajo, de 120 grados, que sostiene unas paredes con otras.
6 00:00:33,726 --> 00:00:46,757 Y vamos fuera. Fuera hay un bloque de 120 grados que une la pared con el techo.
7 00:00:46,787 --> 00:00:49,787 Y hay piezas de 150 grados que unen las piezas del techo entre sí.
8 00:00:50,329 --> 00:00:59,157 Y por fuera puedes ver cómo las tablas se superponen unas con otras. ¿Puedes ver la superposición?
9 00:00:59,157 --> 00:01:06,956 La superposición significa que ponemos un tornillo a través de dos capas de conglomerado, directamente hasta el bloque.
10 00:01:07,081 --> 00:01:08,249 Así que superponemos los bordes.
11 00:01:08,243 --> 00:01:11,243 Y superponemos este borde también.
12 00:01:11,352 --> 00:01:14,352 Esto está lejos de ser una manera perfecta de lograr que sea estanco al agua.
13 00:01:14,496 --> 00:01:18,266 Pero ocurre que puedes hacerlo sin añadir ningún componente adicional ni añadir ninguna complejidad profunda al sistema.
14 00:01:18,340 --> 00:01:23,401 Para que funcione, tienes que cortar las piezas de las paredes un poco más cortas que como las cortarías normalmente,
15 00:01:23,756 --> 00:01:26,756 así que éstas en lugar de tener 8 pies de largo, tienen 7 pies y 4 pulgadas,
16
00:01:27,176 --> 00:01:33,092
y eso te da el espacio adicional que necesitas para asegurarte de que el techo está por debajo [?] de la pared
17 00:01:33,593 --> 00:01:39,996 fabricas esto con 12 piezas de OSB y 4 piezas de 4x8 y un puñado de tornillos
18 00:01:40,945 --> 00:01:42,743 volvemos al interior
19 00:01:43,282 --> 00:01:46,282 mira lo que quiero decir ... [...] ...
20 00:01:48,607 --> 00:01:51,607 justo en la parte más alta hay un detalle
21 00:01:53,303 --> 00:01:58,245 mira cómo hemos recortado las piezas para hacer un agujero
22 00:01:58,658 --> 00:02:05,797 ¿ves este ángulo de aquí? simplemente cortamos una pequeña pieza del borde del tablón, de un lado y del otro, de manera que encajan uno con otro para [...]
23 00:02:06,521 --> 00:02:09,521 así que cada pieza de madera ...
24 00:02:10,145 --> 00:02:13,145 cruzas cada pieza de madera sobre la otra y luego las recortas para que encajen una con la otra de esta manera
25 00:02:13,404 --> 00:02:16,404 tiene un poco de truco y pensamos hacer un [...] bien hecho más tarde
26 00:02:16,721 --> 00:02:19,721 pero eso es lo básico de un hexayurt de conglomerado
27 00:02:22,653 --> 00:02:25,653 gracias
28 00:02:26,307 --> 00:02:29,307 espero que puedas "figure out" los detalles por tu cuenta
29 00:02:30,936 --> 00:02:33,936 los de 150 sostienen el techo
30 00:02:34,052 --> 00:02:37,052 los de 120 unen la pared al techo
31 00:02:37,178 --> 00:02:44,647 puedes ver los tornillos que atraviesan el techo y se meten en esos bloques [...]
32 00:02:44,647 --> 00:02:46,904 y eso es todo lo que hay
33 00:02:47,017 --> 00:02:48,606 las paredes son paneles completos con 6 pulgadas recortadas de un lado
34 00:02:48,732 --> 00:02:50,928 las piezas del techo son medio panel superpuestas
35 00:02:51,463 --> 00:02:53,587 y ese es el hexayurt de conglomerado
36 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:54,804 hexayurt.com