W.E.R.C. Pregame - Preparation for Competition March/April 2001

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The first step in the fabrication of the connectors was to obtain a 14 by 14-inch cross-section by gluing two 7-inch thick parallel strand lumber (PSL) beams together and clamping. A two-part resoursenol-based wood-bonding adhesive was used.	3 lengths of 10 feet, one of 8 feet.	Everyone was pretty much high from the glue, except for me (I always miss out). Here's Scotty amazed that things are actually going our way. Many obstacles presented themselves in our path throughout the competition.	Next, the beams were sent to Charleston, West Virginia, where Sunset Structures, Ltd. was nice enough to cut the connectors using their Hundegger 4-axis milling machine.
Needless to say, this machine was a beast.	Another shot of the honey.	Scott and I had to make the trip down to Charleston to pick up the connectors after they had been milled. In order to transport them all we had to take of the toolbox. Scott had to crawl through to unlatch it.	I couldn't resist the photo opp. We were in for a not-so-pleasant surprise when we got down there. As it turned out, the machine could not drill all the holes we thought it could. That left us a total of 72 more to drill over one weekend. We had no idea how we were going to do it. A conventional drill press would not work.