Wood Times Blog

Cullman Derby Ramp - Part 4 - Starting Mechanism

2025-02-11T16:30:00.065-05:00

The next design task was a mechanism for starting races. Cars need to be held on the ramp, then simultaneously released to start. While Unalam has always fabricated some of the steel connections for our projects, I'm not sure we've ever needed to design and fabricate something with moving steel parts before. Our criteria were:

Start both ramps at the same time
Reliable starting function
Easy to assemble and disassemble with the rest of the ramp

A triggered latch system of some kind seemed like a possibility, but also potentially complicated and therefore unreliable. One of the examples we found was a direct handle release... where starting blocks and a handle are all welded to a single rotating pipe. This definitely seemed like it fulfilled all three criteria.

Blue starter handle, Red start blocks

To give maximum flexibility with vehicle sizes, we included 12" tall wood blocks for holding the cars in place. We also needed holes in the ramp for the start blocks to drop in to.

We needed the starting mechanism to be easy to assemble with the ramp, and it needed to stay in place left-right relative to the ramp. We designed custom steel brackets the assembly can easily be lifted in to, with rings on the pipe to keep it aligned in those brackets.

Starter Assembly

That completed our design of the Cullman Derby start ramp. We can't wait to see it in action!

The Complete Ramp

View from below

Cullman Derby Ramp - Part 3 - Support Structure

2025-02-04T16:30:00.001-05:00

With the ramp profile set, the next task was how to piece it together. The main criteria being:

Safe and maintain functionality
Easy for anyone to assemble
Able to disassemble for moving and storage
Keep weight low so parts can be moved by hand

The 4' wide plywood ramp would need intermediate support and a starting mechanism on the centerline, so (4) sloped beams would be needed on each ramp. A transverse beam at the top and a board to keep the upper and lower sheets of plywood aligned complete the ramp. Because the curved portion is so thin, it would be impossible to build it as curved glulam - so it is actually made as a separate straight piece of glulam cut to the curved profile.

Glulam members forming the ramp

Supporting that ramp we wanted to make as simple as possible... easy to assemble, stable, and hold the ramps together. This consisted of two support beams connected together.

Ramp with support beams

Both of the blue beams have notches for the ramp to fit into. The shorter of the blue beams is a single, continuous member supporting both ramps. The yellow beam connects the short and tall blue beams. The taller blue beam is quite large, so are separate for each ramp to keep the individual part weight down.

Because these ramps would be assembled and disassembled multiple times, we developed a new connection detail for attaching the ramp to the support frame with just (4) bolts per ramp:

Bracket on support beams for simple bolted ramp connection

That's the ramp structure complete, which was only a little outside the comfort zone of what we normally work on. (Nothing should move once it is put together.) But these ramps will require a starting mechanism... more on that next time.

Cullman Derby Ramp - Part 2 - The Slope

2025-01-28T16:30:00.001-05:00

As described in Part 1 of this series, we were really starting from scratch on the derby ramp design. The first and most important design decision for the project was to set the profile of the slope.

Slope Length - The original sketch we received indicated an 8' long ramp, which is a convenient plywood size. We quickly realized that with derby cars being somewhere between 4' and 6' long, 8' would be too short. So we set a ramp length not to exceed two sheets of plywood = 16' long.

Slope Height - What is the right height to balance speed and safety? Something in the 3' to 4' range felt right.

Slope Shape - The ramp could be a simple, straight slope. However, custom curved glulam is something Unalam is known for, and a straight ramp would have an abrupt transition to the roadway.

Initial Straight Profile

Possible Curved Profile

The Curved Profile would give a nice transition to the road, but it ends up reducing the effective starting height of the car while also putting it on quite a steep incline.

We settled on an intermediate profile which is straight with a short transition curve at the end.

Final Profile

Cullman Derby Ramp - Part 1 - The Beginning

2025-01-21T16:30:00.001-05:00

All of Unalam's projects start with an idea. Last Spring, the Mayor of Unadilla let us know that he had an idea to start a Cullman Derby Days event in our village, and he would like Unalam to build a starting ramp for the races.

He handed us a rough sketch with a few dimensions on it. Seemed simple enough, gives us a chance to support our community, and it's always nice to see more glulam visible around town.

Sometimes the simplest sounding projects can be full of interesting design problems and decisions - this ramp was certainly had those. We will be sharing some of those with you. Our first step was to find out what the standard dimensions of a Derby ramp are.

Other people have made these, so we assumed we could find guidelines somewhere. Surprisingly, we couldn't find any solid information on this, so we would need to start ourselves from scratch.

Our starting point for the ramp

All we know is it basically looks like a triangle, and we'll need to fill in all the blanks from there...

Glulam Goes

2023-12-01T13:00:00.001-05:00

As the winter weather starts sweeping through most of the country we have to find things to keep ourselves busy indoors, especially kids. Kidcity Children's Museum in Middletown, CT is a great option. Not only do they have a "Fishery", "Space Age Road Trip", they also have a Midieval style village under our glulam beams.

The glulam goes well with The Half Pint pub. Definitely worth a trip on a dreary winter day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2023-11-22T12:45:00.003-05:00

Unalam wants to wish all of our wonderful customers a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving! We are grateful for your business, partnership and collaboration throughout the years. Because of you we get to make some amazing things!

Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA

Already Unwrapping

2023-11-10T13:00:00.001-05:00

It's not Christmas yet, but there is still some unwrapping underway!

This indoor tennis pavilion was installed fully wrapped, except for the connections. It is important to cut openings in the bottom of the wrap to allow any water which might get inside to drain. Some installers will leave all of the wrapping on the beams during installation and some take it off. Either way, you want to make sure you are consistent with all members so they all get the same amount of UV exposure.

Here is the building during the decking installation and unwrapping of the glulam beams and arches.

Preserving the Preserve

2023-11-03T13:00:00.001-04:00

Who says a bridge has to be straight? This pedestrian bridge for Settlement Quarry Preserve in Stonington, ME sure isn't. The bridge deck panels below aren't curved just for fun. (Even though it looks very fun.)

These panels are curved to go around the trees. It was important to the client and design team to avoid removing as many trees as possible, so you go around them! Blog star Keith is leading the way on the fabrication

You can see the templates on top of the panel that we use to set our forms and cross check our fabrication. Measure twice, cut once or not at all in the case of this bridge.

"Everything to Build Anything"

2023-10-27T13:00:00.003-04:00

Unalam has a pretty long history. It was founded in 1892 as a lumber and feed mill and has evolved into the custom glulam manufacturer it is today. All done by the same family in the same village, Unadilla.

During our evolution we manufactured silos and started the Unadilla Silo Company. Wooden silos were a huge business for us for many years. Here is an article from The Unadilla Times in 1910 discussing the beginning of the business.

Selling to farmers led to our venture into glulam. This way we could sell the farmers a silo and a barn. We also dipped our toe into other structures and ventures. The adverts below are from the publication celebrating the 75th anniversary of The Unadilla Times, in 1930.

While we can't supply "everything" these days we still can build anything.

Cars and Beers

2023-10-20T13:00:00.001-04:00

Next time you're in Western New York do yourself a favor and stop by Hamburg Brewing Company in Hamburg, NY. Yup, you guessed it, it's a Unalam building!

This was originally built in 1990 as the Russo Antique Car Garage. Lucky for us Hamburg Brewing was able to move in and use the space to serve their delicious beers!

Do you know of a Unalam building that has been repurposed? Share you photos with us: info@unalam.com!

Double the Curves, Double the Fun!

2023-10-13T13:00:00.001-04:00

We are currently working on some fun bridges! This particular one has a double curve in it.

Here are the curved curbs on their forms in the glue room. The bridge deck will follow the same profile.

Here the 60' + template is placed over the glued beams. We makes a full scale template of every curved beam (and most straight beams too). This helps us set the forms in the glue room to the right profile to ensure you get the beams our ordered!

A Little Office History

2023-10-06T13:00:00.001-04:00

Every once in a while someone contacts us to find out some information on a silo or barn built decades ago. This week someone contacted us for some information and that sent us digging. During our excavation of old records we found some interesting old photos and articles. Above is a cut out from an old newspaper showing an even older photo of our office. Yes, we have been in the same office for over 100 years! The caption reads, "Unadilla Silo Co. as it looked many years ago."

Here is a photo of, presumably, some previous employees on the front steps of the office with a silo model. The back of the photo lists the names; Emily Carpenter, Ed (something illegible), and Helen Cutler. Funny story, our secretary's husband was neighbors with Emily Carpenter when he was growing up here in Unadilla.

While the faces of who works here have changed, not much else has! Same family owners, same village, even the same office building in our 130 year + history.

An Average Day

2023-09-29T13:00:00.001-04:00

Here are a couple of shot of our plant on a more "ho hum" day of work. We don't have anything super crazy going on, but as you can see we still have a little bit of crazy going on.

Here we have the Glue Room guys gluing up a Tudor Arch for an indoor pool. It takes quite the crew to get curves and arches done.

Here we have the Finishing Department working on plugging the gap in these combination lay up beams for a heavy timber framer. Sometimes we work with heavy timber framers when the size or a curved member can't easily be found or fabricated. In this case we're supplying 11-1/2" x 23-1/2" beams in treated Southern Yellow Pine.

In another finishing bay we have beams over 4' deep being stained for an indoor waterpark. Can't wait to visit this site when it's done!

It's Not Wood, But It's Still Good

2023-09-22T13:00:00.001-04:00

Our dear friend, Martin Puryear, is at it again! This time he is installing a permanent piece at one of New York State's wonderful sculpture parks: Storm King. This one won't be made of our beloved glulam, but we are still excited to see his new work.

As reported by the New York Times, this brick structure calls back to Nubian structures and his African heritage. Martin has been a great inspiration to us at Unalam and we can't wait to view this new piece in its permanent home. To learn more about the piece and Martin you can read The New York Times' piece: Brick By Brick, A Sculpture at Storm King, By Way of Africa

"Listening to the Structure"

2023-09-15T13:00:00.001-04:00

Here is a fascinating article about Groton Hill Music Center in Groton, MA by David Odeh, PE. of Odeh Engineers: Groton Hill Article.

The article discussed the how they incorporated our glulam into building and into the acoustical design for the world class concert and recital halls. It also goes into detail on how the shape of the space moves the sound to each part of the concert hall. It required a complex analysis of the material in conjunction with the shape to ensure optimal acoustical quality for each concert goer.

While Odeh Engineers did the overall engineer for superstructure design we were tasked with designing all of the unique and sometimes complicated connections. Unalam is very proud to be a part of such an amazing project with an amazing team!

Adding to History

2023-09-01T13:00:00.001-04:00

Occasionally we get to add our products and touch to historical sites. We have manufactured masts for historic ships, billets for shipwrights to carve and shape for tugboat repair, and beams to help shore up existing historic structures. In this case, we get to add a whole new building to a historic site.

Hildene is former home of Robert Todd Lincoln in Manchester, VT - the only child of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln to survive to maturity. And they are expanding! On top of the 14 historic buildings, formal gardens, observatory, and solar powered goat-dairy they are adding an event hall.

Our previous post "Taking the Plunge" showed how we fabricate the concealed connections for the columns. Now we can show you the pre-fit for the flat top trusses to accommodate the hip roof.

Using our overhead hoist system and some trusty saw horses we're able to put the parts together. We do this to make sure the steel and glulam fabrication line up and to avoid any field modifications. You can see that the steel on the trusses will be fully exposed side plates that will be finished once fully installed on site.

The steel plates here will connect 5 different beams, so it's important we get it right!

Flip-Flop

2023-08-25T13:00:00.001-04:00

Here at Unalam we can make some pretty big beams. A lot of people wonder how we move and flip the beams around. Yes, we have to flip the beams in order to complete fabrication and finishing on the other side. Below, Dan and Keith are leading a coordinated effort to flip beams that are 8-1/2" wide, 60" deep, 72' long and weighing almost 8,500 lbs.

Our overhead hoist system is crucial for us to maneuver the beams around our plant. But, it still takes a special touch and caution in order to flip the beams safely and without incurring any damage to the beams.

They have to adjust the the straps at different phases of the flip. Once turned over it will be put back on the saw horses in order to finish the beam.

Plugging Away

2023-08-18T13:00:00.001-04:00

Most of the glulam we manufacture and post about is Southern Yellow Pine. Using Southern Yellow Pine on the East Coast has some economical advantages, but we do offer Douglas Fir as well. Douglas Fir can require a bit more attention during the finishing process. In order to meet the AITC standard for Architectural Grade glulam we need to follow some rules.

While the natural appearance of the grain is allowed, loose knots and voids over 3/4" require us to either fill them with wood-toned filler or a clear wooden plug that matches the grain. We opt for the clear wooden plug as it looks better, stains the same, and can move naturally with the wood over time. Douglas Fir requires quite a bit of plugging because of the number of knots in the material.

Above you can see the blue plugs in this Douglas Fir arch. They are painted blue so we don't miss one when finishing the beam. Dan, star of previous blog posts, will go back over the plugs and hand plane them down to match the textural finish of the arch so when staining or sealing you won't notice them.

Summer Isn't Over Yet!

2023-08-11T13:00:00.001-04:00

The return to school is looming, but it isn't here yet! Winding Trails in Farmington, CT still has plenty of summer activities on their calendar. They have sailing classes where you can gaze at the custom boathouse we made for them in 2016.

After doing your Tiny Triathlon or Flag Football you can catch your breath under one of our several Pitch and Taper Pavilions named after the local wild life.

While we typically do CCA.6 treated columns for our Pitch and Taper Pavilions, Winding Trails opted to use tube steel. The glulam looks pretty sharp in contrast with the red painted columns and trim.

Taking the Plunge

2023-08-04T13:00:00.001-04:00

We have talked about fully concealed connections in the past, but haven't really shown how it's done. Today is your lucky day! Keith, star of previous posts, was working on some concealed connections with countersunk hardware and kerf cuts.

First the bolt holes were drilled, then the area where the bolt head and washer will be concealed is countersunk (drilled partial depth and slightly larger than a washer). These bolts won't only be countersunk, but they will be plugged as well. This requires carefully selecting the bolt length and counterbore depth, so that the plugs can be installed without hitting the bolt end. We'll ship sold, 5/8" plugs made of the same material and finished to match for installation at the site.

On the end grain of this beam you can see a thin rectangle marked out. That is where the knife plate will go during assembly. How do you cut through the middle of a beam you ask. Just like this!

A special plunge saw (essentially a small chainsaw) is clamped on the beam and and slowly pushed into the end.

Keith will push the saw in to a certain depth, pull it back out, adjust slightly, and repeat until the entire area is done.

For the Birds

2023-07-28T13:00:00.001-04:00

The new contact station in Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine has something for everyone, even the birds!

During the planning and design process it was important to all involved to create a structure that intrudes as little as possible on the land and ecosystem. This included using as little concrete and steel as possible; using our glulam and other lumber for the main framing, passive utilities, and honoring the history and customs of the Wabanki people native to the area.

One newer aspect of eco-conscious design is using bird safe glass. A shocking amount of birds die each year from collisions with glass and pose a threat to bird populations. This article below details the use and importance of the glass:

https://maineaudubon.org/news/new-katahdin-woods-and-waters-nm-contact-station-is-beautiful-and-bird-safe

Unalam is proud to be a part of projects that are, as Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, says "friendly with the earth."

A Band in a Shell

2023-07-21T13:00:00.001-04:00

Summer concert series are in full swing across our area, and Bainbridge, NY is no exception. This summer series kicked off July 18th with The Mopar Cams under a Unalam bandshell at General Clinton Park.

Each Tuesday a different band will play at the bandshell in Bainbridge, rain or shine! There was a pretty good storm during the set and the band played on!

Miss Porter's Pool

2023-07-07T13:00:00.001-04:00

On a recent trip to Connecticut to give some Unalam AIA Lunch and Learns we were able to visit a few past projects. In 2006 we manufactured trusses for an 82' span natatorium at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, CT.

These trusses sit over a 25 yard, 8 lane pool, and can house up to 200 spectators. Athletics was an important aspect of the school's founding in 1843 and remains one today. Miss Porter's School boasts of alumni such as Jackie Onassis, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Mamie Gummer, although I don't think any of them would have swam in this pool...

Happy 4th from Unalam!

2023-06-30T13:00:00.001-04:00

Unalam wants to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July! We hope your celebrations are safe and have as much bunting as this covered bridge!

Smith Bridge in Plymouth, NH has a history that goes back to 1786. It was built after the American Revolution, and a few years before the ratification of the Constitution. In 1850 it was replaced with a covered bridge which unfortunately burned down in 1993.

In 2000 work began to replace the bridge. The design is pretty interesting. It uses a truss style that was original to the 1850 bridge that sandwiches glulam arches for additional strength. We don't know how many covered bridges are rated for highway traffic, but Unalam has built two so far: the Smith Bridge and the Groton Street Bridge in Pepperell, MA.

Style Over Substance

2023-06-23T13:00:00.001-04:00

Occasionally we do a project where our material is purely decorative. It doesn't come up often, but it is a creative solution to reshape an existing space. At Pho Vietnam Restaurant in Danbury, CT they have done just that.

The restaurant expanded to a second location and used our curved beams to convert the interior into a unique dining experience. Sometimes we are chosen for our style over substance!