Wikihouse Joints

Hey all, I have been working on building a Wikihouse since I last at the chance to build one with the Shopbot and Sketchup team last October. You can read about it here.

I am experimenting with different materials, namely 23/32" thick OSB because it appears to be structurally strong, and it's really cheap.

The other day I cut out some test joints so I can give them to my engineer friend to run some test on:

I did them on a Handibot and you can see them here

So how cool would it be if a bunch of Handibot owners got together and built a small house on site?

This is interesting. But it also makes me think that using the HandiBot for long straight cuts is really inefficient. It seems like combining the HandiBot for detail and curves with a track saw for straight runs might go fast enough to be worth the hassle.

I could really use a little wikihouse and I am going to ponder this. Great lateral thinking!

double ought,
couldn't agree more, I am loving the hb but if I was doing a large project and some of the tiles had nothing but straight lines in them I'd skip that tile and connect the lines with my panel saw and a straight edge.


0,0 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is interesting. But it also makes me think
> that using the HandiBot for long straight cuts is
> really inefficient. It seems like combining the
> HandiBot for detail and curves with a track saw
> for straight runs might go fast enough to be worth
> the hassle.
>
> I could really use a little wikihouse and I am
> going to ponder this. Great lateral thinking!

I had a thought about doing the big panels on a table saw or a big panel saw... The only problem is that the panels are full of slots that have to be located perfectly so that they interlock with the framing members. I am still experimenting but I am wondering that even though it would be quicker to cut out the panels on a table saw, setting up jigs would be more time consuming then just cutting out the panels... Luckily the tiles that have the straight cuts barely take any time at all.

I am open to any ideas though...

^^^ voice of experience...

Exactly who is the voice of experience here? Exactly 0 people on planet Earth have cut a Wikihouse with a Handibot

Seriously though, I think I could rig up something so I could locate those slots fairly quick... I keep thinking about that, then I feel like that a more "production" line type setup might be easier and produce more consistent results.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2014 10:08PM by Eric Schimelpfenig.

The way I'd do it is to make a regular profile layout and then eliminate most of the long straight line segments between direction changes. So, for example, if you had a rectangular panel with slots in it, you leave the panel corners and the slots. The slots' distances to the corners would stay unchanged, and the corners would show where the straight cuts need to happen.

Alternatively the wiki house profiles could be redesigned to be quickly cut on a panel saw and then have connector and other openings milled 'on the fly' by a HandiBot.

The latter is what I was thinking... I am going to run some time tests and see what that would really save in terms of time...