Open Shop

[manofthemullet.livejournal.com]

Mac opens up the shop class for his students.

"If you guys want to continue working on your projects for the pumpkin fling tomorrow, you can. If you're done you can go ahead and work on any personal project you might have."

Comments

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

*comes in, fully decked out in jumpsuit and tools, now full prepared to start building the pumpkin ballista from the parts Anders and she had scrounger up*

*She assembles it over the course of about six hours, with the winch powered crank for the string and little pumpkin basket, properly reinforcing the arms, and the bendy twisty bits, and such*

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge gets out a torch and starts to weld the sheet-metal into something vaguely cannon-shaped, with a piston at the bottom. He stops every once and a while to tinker with the broken coffee machine until it is working properly.

He attaches the now-fixed coffee machine to the cannon, puts a bag of flour in the tube, and presses the "brew" button.

Two minutes later, there's a "ding!" noise as the coffee finishes brewing and the bag of flour shoots out of the cannon... and flies an entire two feet.

Bridge eyes it critically and reaches for the cup of coffee. He takes a sip and makes a face.

"Decaf..."

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

[[ooc: *loves on Bridge. Also ded of laugh*]]

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

*shows up just in time to watch Cally finish off the ballista, and shoves his hands into his pockets*

Started without me, huh?

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

((ooc: i could not resist! of course decaf coffee isn't gonna power anything worth a damn ;))

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

*fiddles with the wrench in her hand, and bites her lip*

I, erm... got carried away.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

About an hour after Cally showed up, Bridge wanders over.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any coffee grounds on hand, would you?" He asks.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

*grins* 's okay. I love watching you at work. Plus, you look really great in that jumpsuit.

Can I at least, like, tighten a screw or something so I can say I helped? *winks*

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Not on me, sorry. Let me double-check. *starts checking her pockets. All of them. It takes a minute or two*

Nope, no coffee grounds. Maybe try sneaking into the journalism classroom? Or the cafeteria?

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Oh Bridge, I love you so.]

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

*offers the wrench, and points at a lugnut*

Probably stronger than me, anyways. You could prolly tighten all of 'em a bit more. *smile*

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

*grins and kisses Cally's cheek* Cool. I can do that. Just make sure I'm not overdoing it, 'kay?

*meanders cheerfully around the pumpkin ballista with the wrench, tightening lugnuts and humming to himself*

There. I feel useful. *bright smile*

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Good, cause you were totally, completely, and utterly neccessary. *kisses Anders on the cheek* It've all fallen apart without your help, I swear.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Aww. Thanks, coach. *hugs Cally* So should we test it out?

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Probably... but I don't have anything properly pumpkin like to load into the little loading cup. *scratches her forehead*

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge comes back a short while later with a one pound bag of French Roast.

He measures out the coffee grounds, starts up the coffee maker, and grins triumphantly when the bag of flour shoots out the cannon and explodes against the opposite wall.

"Victory!" He crows before realising... damnit. Maybe a bag of flour wasn't the best thing to use as test ammunition. He sighs and gets to work cleaning up the mess.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I think I have some in my room, actually. Watch my project while I'm gone?"

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Right... Oh, hey, we haven't done this yet. *sticks up her right pinky* Pinky-Swear that I'll watch it, honest.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Oh. Hrm.

*wanders around a little bit, and finds a large trash bag, and a blown-out tire*

Well, we could put rocks and stuff in the trash bag, or maybe cut the tire down and use that?

. . . I dunno.

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Go with the bag idea, I think. We got all the scrap from building the ballista, so, we can throw all that in there, and duct-tape it down to a sturdy pumpkin size.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

*lights up at the mention of the duct tape* Cool!

*fills up the trash bag, carefully picking through bits of scrap to find stuff that will approximate the right weight, and meticulously making a core of the heavier materials*

'kay . . . now just gotta tape it down . . .

*sits down on the ground, poking his tongue out in concentration, and wraps the whole thing into a pumpkin-sized ball, holding it under one arm and wrestling to unroll the duct tape around it with his free hand*

*manages to get fairly well taped-up himself in the process*

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

You, erm, sure you got that? I can help you, if you want. But I don't wanna butt in, if you got it taken care of.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Coolness." Bridge says, and does the pinky-swear before bouncing off to go get the coffee.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Um . . . *sheepish grin* I could use some help getting my arm un-taped from the bag?

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

*watches Bridge's contraption very carefully. Sure, it looks harmless, but there is always the fear of unexpected cotton candy or butterflies*

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

*smiles, and walks over and begins helping untangle Anders from the ball*

Got it, champ. *takes the opportunity to sneak in a kiss, just 'cause*

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"It didn't do anything unexpected while I was gone, did it?" Bridge asks after returning (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fandomhigh/342437.html?thread=16396453#t16396453).

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Thanks, coach. *grins and hugs Cally with his not-taped-up arm*

'kay, I guess we should test this thing . . . *puts the pseudo-pumpkin into the ballista, then walks over to the winch and starts cranking*

[death-n-binky.livejournal.com]

*DEATH has the sleeves of his robe tied up around his neck, displaying his arms up to mid-humerus. After a day of methodical searching, he finally finds all of his needed items, except the trash bin. Funny that. No trash bins in the trash-heap.

Still, he thinks this will work.

DEATH ties the pumking to the five gallon-water bottle with the belt. He sticks the sparklers on either side of the pumpkin. He then leaves a note next to the t-shirt and gas-can with instructions to fill the water jug partially with gasoline, stopper it up with the t-shirt, also soaked in gasoline, light the sparklers and, finally, light the t-shirt.

DEATH surveys his work carefully.*

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Okay... *cable wire pulls back and locks into position*

Ready to go. Step back and... *hits the release mechanism, and the pumpkin is flung rather hard. Not very accurate, not very high, but pretty hard. The wire takes a bit of a beating from the release, but it holds*

Well, it works. Good enough for me. *nod*

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Nope. *smile* Looks like you got one heckuva cannon, there. Good job.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

*peers at the wire*

Well, we might wanna reinforce that before tomorrow. How exactly are we getting graded on this? 'cause if it's accuracy we might not do so well. On the other hand, we might do great if it depends on how smashy the pumpkin gets.

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

*scratches her forehead* It should be good for another launch. As for grades, I think... I don't remember. *laughs*

Worst. TA. Ever.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Nah. *hugs Cally and doesn't let go* Thought you said you wouldn't be doing grade-type stuff anyway.

And you're not the worst TA ever, hell, you just started, right? Give it time. Plus there's no way there's another TA at this school as cute and sexy as you. And that makes you the best ever. *grins and rubs noses*

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I barely know what I'm doing, that's all. Who knows what'll happen when I get behind the controls of the Danger Shop. Though the phrase "Wacky Hijinks" comes to mind.

But thanks for the vote of confidence, Champ. *rubs noses back*

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, coach, you'll do fine. I have total faith in you. Just give it a week or two, I'm sure Mac will totally understand if it takes you a little time to adjust. And hey, if you manage to get us "accidentally" trapped in a private room for an entire class period, I wouldn't complain.

*enjoys a moment of snuggling with Cally, and eyes Bridge's contraption* Oh, he didn't get it to run on coffee . . . and yet he did. See how not surprised I am?

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

I have learned to be completely unsurprised by anything Bridge makes. I'm just amazed the thing actually works as a cannon, and doesn't, like, broadcast super secret mind control rays or something.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

*pauses for a moment and eyes the cannon, now with new improved minor trepidation*

Not that we know of, anyway . . .

Gotta admit, though, he does things with a very buttery unique style.

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Very, very buttery *fingerwiggle* unique. The uniquest, I'd say.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Yep. And that is why he is a vital part of ABC OT3. *nods and kisses Cally's nose* You got plans tonight? I've gotta go train with Kara pretty soon.

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Nope. None at all, actually. *shrug* Guess I can go read 'til you're done, or something. *smile*

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Okay. Promise I won't completely wear myself out tonight. *nods firmly, kisses Cally, and hugs her again* Whatcha gonna read? Since you threw that last book in the trash and all, I mean.

[sogothcally.livejournal.com]

Oh, frak me, I forgot.

...Erm, guess I got my school books, I guess. *shrug*

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

*looks at Cally and just grins*

Later.

You could go hang out in the common room or something until I'm done? Just so people know we are actually and in fact two separate entities. *grins again* 'cause I don't have much to read except schoolbooks and, um, Pyramid playbooks.

[apocalypsesoon.livejournal.com]

John attacks the day and his project with a sledgehammer gusto.

Using a floor jack, he manages to force the leg of the cherry picker back through the floor and then pulled the whole thing off. Examining the floor of the trailer, he decided that destruction was the way to go and spent the next half hour smashing shit up removing the plywood floor of the trailer. Measuring the legs on the cherry picker, he cuts some tube steel to reinforce the bed and welds in more cross braces, and welds in crossbracing to those. Removing the wheels, he uses some longer bolts to bolt the cherry picker to the reinforced floor. And, just because he felt like it, welded some gusset pieces from the reinforced floor to the cherry picker legs.

Moving on, he looked around and found a couple tubes of RTV. He began bolting the steel pipes together so that he had two 6 foot sections, bolted together with RTV gaskets. He took some more measurements, and fabricated a housing for his crackpipe and began welding up that part of the cage. Taking a piece of 1/4" steel plate, he cut a hole in the middle the same diameter as the inside pipe diameter with 4 tabs for mounting brackets at the outside corners and holes at the pipe flanges.

John takes some measurements AGAIN and fabs up some quick supports for the center flange and attatches them to the cherry picker arm. Wrestling the front section of the pipe in place, John drops it into the cradle and slides it down so that it meets the center flange mounty thing. He tests the fit, and ends up redrilling one of the holes because it's too far off center. He slathers up another RTV gasket and bolts the front part of the cannon to the center flange and bolts it down. He then bends up some more tubing to create a top cage to support the front of the cannon.

Having done all that, John takes another piece of plate, drills the mounting holes for the pipes and the 4 corners, and drills a hole in the center, which he taps and threads for a fairly large size air hose. He Teflon tapes a long fitting, screws it in, and puts a fender washer and a nut on it so it can't just strip the threads in case of blowback. He makes a gasket out of an old corkboard, with a hole cut in the center for the air fitting.

He bends up some more tube steel, makes some measuremens yes, in tht order and makes a cage for the bottom of the cannon, attatched just above the pivot point of the cherrypicker so as to balance the beast. Sorta. The RTV between the upper cannon and the flange has set, so he unscrews the nuts and threads them into the upper part of the lower cannon after slashing THAT side with RTV and bolts it snug.

And with that, it's pretty much ready. He spends a few minutes fabricating a storage rack for the air filled welding tanks, attaches the hoses and tightens them up, and does a dry run with the air fitting flange loosely bolted in. It works.

He tightens the bolts slightly, and tags the whole thing with some red and yellow spray paint while wearing his gas mask finally got a use out of it and lets the bright orange ungainly thing dry. He pulls it out of the way and notices that one of the tires on the trailer is flat.

John curses. He's done for the day, dammit.