Tree Tower Project Update #1

We have been working nonstop on the Cox Arboretum MetroPark Tree Tower project for the past two weeks.  There has been a lot of wood machined and a lot of things built.  In fact, one day we machined so much wood we had to empty our dust collection bin over 12 times!!  While that may not seem like much, we typically only empty the bin 2-3 times a week!

I am going to try to take you through a couple of the bigger processes we have been doing  and show you some of the things taking shape here in our shop.

The first project is the curved staircase at the bottom of the tree tower.   In the following pictures you will see the beginning stages of that staircase being built. 

We started off by building the stringers.  As you can see, we framed a wall with the appropriate radii and then applied glue to seven layers of wood that would make up the stringer. 

After the glue was applied, four of us clamped the wood to our shop built jig and let it sit and cure overnight. 

When the first glue up was done, we did two more glue ups, creating the three stringers needed to support the first stairway. 

When the glue was cured, the treads and risers were drawn out on the stringer.

After the drawing was completed, the stringer was cut to be able to accept the treads and risers.

The second thing that we were able to finish was the observation deck that is located at the top of the tree tower. 

In the last tree tower blog post, I showed a picture of a large layout on the floor of our shop.  We used this layout to build the observation deck.  Below you will see the transformation that took place from the building of the framing to the finished observation deck.

Thanks for checking out our blog post!  Please come back again soon as we will continue to update you on the progress of the Cox Arboretum MetroPark Tree Tower.