Friday, August 20, 2010

Tire Stack Dummy

I've always wanted to build a Kali/Escrima/Arnis "Tire Stacks Dummy" a year after I posted a research page about Arnis De Mano in Myspace. I still need to learn a lot about the art. It's considered to be the number two in the martial art tactical fighting method of the world few years back. I don't know about today. Whatever it is, this tire stack dummy works pretty well for any melee conditioning. Also works for baton training for cops, or security officers. Just like any punching bags, this is for using stick weapons from baton to rattan, wooden sword, wooden knife, as well as baseball bats. My total budget building this project is around fifty bucks. I got the tires for free.

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I started out with these four tires, but anded up using six tires instead.

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Eight brackets and two different kinds of screws from OSH. I also used other types of screws and brackets other than ones from the image.

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Seven of two by four's wood (six was used). Under three bucks each. Not really tough woods but durable enough to hold some tires, and for some heavy stick pounding. Better to make few mistakes the first time on cheaper woods than some expensive harder and heavier woods. I'll even use logs like the ones for wing-chun dummy.

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Made some measurements, and about to cut some woods with an old school saw.

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These two pares are done.

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It was taking me a bit longer to piece the pares together because the old man started singing karaoke songs that got me a little discourage. It was lame trying to stand the pares of woods together to piece. It was also Friday the 13'th of August, and I am not even superstitious.

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Then mother also grabbed the microphone.

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Got the stand done. And it's standing. Only six of the seven two by four's woods was used.

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Went back to OSH and bought some brace.

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Added few at the bottom also. These should make it a bit more sturdier.

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The tires are all in place.

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Added two straps for these tires as legs. One strap on top and one at the bottom.

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They hooked up like this.

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I also found this type of brackets from the house, and used it to brace areas like this here.

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How it looks with a rattan stick and a regular long stick.

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Now I gotta strap this rattan up. This rattan here is pretty light but really strong piece of stick. Which make it faster to use when it comes to swinging, and strong enough to break bones from one to multiple opponents. Just depends how you control the stick in your hands accurately. How fast and how strong without even thinking about it.

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I bought me a baseball padded hand grip, and few baseball tapes from Big 5. I thought it was also gonna decrease the noise when pounding the tires, but nope. Only good for getting a better hand grip of the rattan and to keep it from breaking. It all depends what type of stick you got, maybe you might not even need to tape them up. The rattan I have is strong as it is. There are stronger ones like Kamagong Stick, Bahi Stick, and Hickory Stick, and then the typical Rattan Stick (fire harden or not), even Polypropylene Stick all mainly used for Kali, Escrima, and Arnis practitioners. Metal pipes and baseball bats are also swinging weapons with lethal blows, but you don't save the same energy when it comes to rapid movements from different angles, as the other ones I listed.

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All strapped up, and all ready for pounding them tires.

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I still have to scrub the tires clean, and paint the woods with some enti-rain seal to it. Other than that, it's pretty much done. My first Tire Stack Dummy.

Friday the 13th man, I tried to deny it. In the next day, after building this project, my legs started to cramp. So never again to built one like it by sitting down on the lawn for hours. I took few pain relief medicines but that didn't work much. Several days after, the pain was still there, and then I used this chinese medicine that old people usually uses from the Philippines. And it's called Eagle Brand - Green Medicated Oil, it's green, and the pain just went away in minutes. I've had it mostly for stomach pain. This green with heavy medicated smell medicine brings back memory of an old neighbor back in PI, an elderly man used to robbed them around his knees in the late evening, while few kids gathered around his house watching kung-fu flicks.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

TENORI-ON - Video Session 080610

Here is the session video I did yesterday of the Tenori-On. Pretty awesome instrument as I am getting to know the gear little by little. I didn't change much of any of the sound samples here, most of it are bells and whistle sounds. So I went ahead and used what I knew from seeing other Tenori-On videos from YouTube and from the main Tenori-On website, where they show few demos on how to use it. I really like the different selections of operating the buttons when creating your tracks. It has Score Mode, Random Mode, Draw Mode, Bounce Mode, Push Mode, and Solo Mode. And I like them all. Much more to learn about this gear like layering and saving and what not. I am not really worried about sampling at the moment. Most of its built in samples are cool as it is for now. The only thing that sucks, is the recording part. When I try to record the tracks in real time through Logic Pro. That's when you know right away that sampling is one of the important key here. Everything else is cool. But as far as recording goes, either record them by a good quality microphone, or start with them cheaper or used but good condition compressors, limiters, and EQ racks, to maximized your recorded tracks. That's later project man. So far I am okay with the gear itself.

TENORI-ON - Unboxing

Well I finally have one. The Tenori-On. I heard is not as popular in sales from any music shop. But I still think it's worth having...

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The box.

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So far so good.

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Everything are here. Including few additional accessories like the cable and the case. The Manual is also here.

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Here it is. Kinda light. The buttons looks like a bunch of corn. It feels like part metal part plastic.

I just made a video earlier. My first session video. Just getting to know the instrument without any manual read. I'll post the video session on my next blog. And hopefully another one after that when I am more familiar to it.