Here is the link………..the other thread got closed and I couldn’t reply to you.
http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/how-to/articles/inside-hobbit-house.aspx
I’m not flippin’ you off………just counting cubits
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Naw---- that's not the one I was thinking of.
It's interesting---- but it doesn't really speak to me.
I should look up the one I was thinking of-------- nut I would have to search back through a couple hundred issues, snort
stephen
I think I know the one you are thinking of...........it was on the back cover sometime in the last several years.
"When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking." — Sherlock Holmes, 1896
OBB,
Thanks for posting the link to that article and the photos. Kudos to architect Peter Archer and to all the people who built that place.
Got a book somewhere "Handmade houses" I think.
the complete guide to hippie houses, got it about 1970 or just before.
Same kind of stuff without the million dollars.
Joe H
I just marvel at the main door. Trying to imagine the forces involved on the one, single hinge.
I truly enjoy the many features in the design & craftsmanship shown throughout the building. The windows are another. Precision puzzles.
I'm not flippin' you off.........just counting cubits
I'm trying to imagine the squeal on that hinge after the hinge starts to wear.
Tu stultus esRebuilding my home in Cypress, CAAlso a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
I don't think a bunch of rambunctious little hobbits running in an out all day slamming that thing would help it much. <g>
Sure would be nice to have a quiet little get-away like that tucked into one's own countryside. Heck of a wine tasting, music listening, book reading hidey hole.
I'm not flippin' you off.........just counting cubits
I don't think a bunch of rambunctious little hobbits running in an out all day slamming that thing would help it much. <g>
Maybe that door has a hidden caster in it's base. That's the only way I can imagine that deal working very well, over time.
Reminds me of a phrase that was often heard, mumbled by a confused student leaving Geometry class, "the angle of the dangle is equal to the square of the air"...or something like that.
By the way they describe the difficulty of designing the hinge, I assume they put some bearings in it.I know if I were asked to design such a door I would spec using a pair of good quality roller bearings.For as often as the door is likely used, they would last forever.DC
Yep, roller bearings might be the answer, hardened too.
The thing about bearings as I understand them from engine mechanics, is that the larger surface contact there is the better the load is transferred. Roller bearings and ball bearings are used mainly to reduce friction, if I remember correctly.
That would suggest to me that a plain bearing or pin hinge would be a better solution, in this case. Maybe that's what you meant by "a pair of roller bearings".
I'm curious about how you'd mount the hinge. Going on the axiom "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link", it seems to me that there would need to be a hidden steel stucture in the door jamb, and probably a small steel frame in the door as well.
Edited 6/16/2009 1:58 pm by Hudson Valley Carpenter
Well, here's my thought process...I once mounted a pair of 10' tall x 5' wide x 2" thick barn doors on a pair (two per door) of sealed roller thrust bearing 16" strap hinges. These doors weighed 400lb each easy. The hinge pins holding them were probably 5/8" diameter max and maybe 5" long. The hinges were mounted through 1x fir siding into a 6x6 PT post of the barn using 4 4" lag bolts and into the door using 4 2" lag bolts. All done and the door swings open and closed as easy as any entry door on a house. Now look at that hobbit door. 3" thick x 5' diameter, made out of relatively light weight spanish cedar (A.K.A. luan) and resting on a single 8" - 9" long by 1-1/2" diameter hinge with double 5' long straps. My guess is that it weighs around 250-300lbs. The structure around the door is probably 8x8 timberframe like the rest of the house so no problem bolting into that. Looks to be 14 thru-bolts in the door. Most is just for looks, understandably. Like I said, a couple of roller bearings.Considering the size of their hinge, they probably have one bearing in the upper knuckle another in the lower knuckle a third in the center knuckle and a 1" hardened pin. With something like that, you could probably swing a car on a single hinge (a small car).You say you know engine mechanics; how well do you know automobiles? Think of how much weight the hub bearings of a car support compared to the surface area of the rollers.DC.....waiting for MY hobbit house commission to come along.
That all sounds reasonable to me, except that I'd imagine that door to be larger than five feet in diameter. Unless those are real Hobbits in there. :-)
I'd be fascinated to visit that house and see all the fine details.
I'd be interested to see the strap hinges you describe in person too, just to get a better grasp of the quality and how the roller bearings help to smooth out their operation.
In your example of the load absorbed by the hub bearings, it's also necessary to factor in the ability of the suspension and the tire to reduce pin point loads.
I just guessed that door was about 5' in diameter by comparing it to the shield, the fireplace, and by the way they describe it being a PIA to use.
The strap hinges I used were actually reclaimed from an industrial walk-in freezer in an old sanitarium (the owner also had hinges from the sanitarium's walk-in autoclave but the freezer hinges were polished chrome and looked nicer). Sorta looked like this but a litttle more art deco:
View Image
FWIW: The use of thrust bearing butt hinges is pretty commonplace with large high end residential wood doors and with steel doors in the commercial/industrial sector. I think Home Depot and Lowes even sells them.
DC
Thanks for describing those hinges and for the photo. Now that I know they're commonly available, I'll put it on my list of things to investigate.
Maybe that door has a hidden caster in it's base. That's the only way I can imagine that deal working very well, over time.
I would try something Gandalphian (sp?) and do a sort of meg-lev thing--big magnet in the bottom of the door and a strip of magnets in an arc in the floor. Probably rip your car keys through your pocket every time you walked out the door though! And no little Hobbitsian horsies. I know--make it an electromagnet that just goes on when the door is opened.
Edited 6/16/2009 7:31 pm ET by Danno
I would try something Gandalphian (sp?) and do a sort of meg-lev thing--big magnet in the bottom of the door and a strip of magnets in an arc in the floor. Probably rip your car keys through your pocket every time you walked out the door though! And no little Hobbitsian horsies. I know--make it an electromagnet that just goes on when the door is opened.
I like that meg-lev idea a lot better than a caster. Another possibility might be to hinge it from the top center and contrive a cable and pulley arrangement, with a weight on the opposite end.
I once built a full scale 2X12 attic staircase, hinged to disappear into the hall ceiling. I used eye bolts lagged into the bottom/low end of the stringers, cables from the eye bolts to/through pulleys bolted to the roof, with a five gallon bucket at the end of each cable. I added just enough sand to each bucket to lift the staircase and hold it against the stops.
Edited 6/17/2009 10:26 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
sounds like you are pretty inventive!You may like some of the "inventions" my grandfather built to make life easier for my grandmother (she has polio and has no use of her legs).One of his older creations was a step in the garage that lifted her. She used to be able to get around on crutches, so in the garage there was a step in the stairs that would lift her from flush in the garage floor to the top where she could enter and exit the house. He also built a lifting step on their motor home.Although she used crutches for most of her life, she was eventually banned to a wheelchair [electric cart] by her doctors. So, grandpa built ramps and got her a van with a lift and although the van was custom, he customized it more. Grandma also drove a car for most of her life using a foot block and a hand brake she could shift in the seat to accelerate/decelerate.My favorite invention of my grandfather's was his self sliding glass door. Using a counterweight system like you describe, he ran a cable from the top corner of the door, around a pulley and down into the basement where he hung the appropriate amount of old sash weights and steel nuts to make the door close itself. Then he ran a cable from the bottom corner, around another pulley, and down into the basement to a small electric winch that opened the door. The winch was even DC powered and hooked to a 12V battery that is hooked to a 2A trickle charger so that if the power went out, the door still worked. The switches for the door were common toggle switches mounted on the wall inside and out. It works great.He's had many other ideas through the years but those are some of his best.DC
Thanks for sharing your grandfather's inventions. I'm even more impressed by the love he clearly had for his wife. May we all be so blessed, to use our creativity to serve another with love.
I really admire ingenuity so I enjoyed the challege presented by that staircase. Although the sand-in-bucket cable-pulley arrangement seemed like an original idea to me at the time, it had actually been part of my memory from many years before.
It was only after I saw the whole thing in action that I remembered having seen something very similar in stage productions, filmed for TV. They used ropes and pulleys with cloth bags filled with sand to "fly" set pieces, most painted scenery, up and down while the curtain was closed between scenes or acts.
I believe that the method is centuries old, probably as old as the pulley.
I'm making myself a note to Google "deadfalls" and "snares", to see what other ingenious ideas our ancestors used to hunt or to protect. Lots of ingenuity from the time before the industrial age.
Edited 6/17/2009 10:45 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter