[Spit-Project] We got to use our new portable hearththis weekend.

[Rosalyn Johnson]

The trick to making it sturdy is to angle the tripods properly at either end. Crimson told me this when I picked it up. It should not feel rickety at all when set up, though it does kind of flail about like an iron octopus during the process.

I will try to take some pictures of how my "ends" look. Essentially, once you have everything together, you lift each end of the fire pan gently, one at a time,  and sort of kick the two uprights that go through the fire pan so they angle forward somewhat. You don't want the "free" upright to be straight up and down, more at a slight angle. The resulting tripod base is not an equilateral triangle, but close to it.

I hope to see Crimson this weekend at a workshop and may ask him for a set up lesson. I can take some pictures then as well.

Miriam

-----Original Message-----
From: spit-project-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org [mailto:spit-project-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Michael Gunter
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 3:05 PM
To: Creating period spits
Subject: Re: [Spit-Project] We got to use our new portable hearththis weekend.


> Yes, setting it up takes a bit of practice (I'm still working on it).> Crimson can do it lickety-split, but I guess that's because he knows all> it's idiosynracies (sp?). One tip I found was to wear a pair of sturdy> gloves when assembling, so that you can get a firm grip on everything.
Oh I definately used gloves. Especially when I discovered the firebox had been laying in the sun for a couple of hours.
I think it will set up easier the next time. There was just a bit of confusion that first time and the little bits of working stuff in and figuring how to slide the firebox onto the posts and such.
> I used on mine on my concrete driveway, no need to pound it into the> ground at all. It was steady as a rock. 
 
Odd. It was kind of shakey and only really worked well if the end posts were pounded in. And the crossbar supports needed embedding as well, of course. Maybe I'll play with it some more and figure out the problem with it. I think it is a little rickety when setting up because it is all held together with the angled poles and cotter pins.
 
But, least anyone think otherwise, we are both very pleased with it and we got a lot of compliments on it by people passing through camp.
 
I'll ask Elizabeth to send in the pictures of the set up unit.
 
Gunthar
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