Water distiller prototype 4 leg assembly

Sunny today and mildly warm, slight breeze, excellent day to test the solar water distiller prototype #4. Which I have done, and got an excellent result, but also discovered a fatal flaw in the design. But firstly, the legs. This is a continuation from this post:

https://bkhome.org/news/201911/distiller-prototype-4-assembly.html

As mentioned, I have some 6mm thick marine plywood, and wanted to use that rather than make yet another trip to Bunnings. I cut out two end pieces, and two bracing pieces, that simply slot together:

I have some 10x10mm aluminium channel that was put to good use, stuck on the bottom of the ply, where it sits on the ground, to give it some durability. The assembly is rigid, and the panel angle is 30.5 degrees. A practical note: those bracing pieces can pack between the two legs and the glass, so the whole thing becomes one piece for transport.

I am really not so sure about the long-term durability of 6mm ply though. And then there is the above-mentioned "fatal flaw", which is going to require a rebuild with different materials -- see the next post.

So, prototype #5 is already being planned. For the record though, here is one of my construction planning sketches. This was not intended to be published, and is very rough, however, if someone comes along reading this post one day and wants to experiment with something similar, these measurements might be useful:

...ha ha, yes, I am using old "tractor feed" paper. Shows my vintage! 

The above sketch shows the top and bottom slots for the glass panes as 3mm, but actually I used a Diablo 1/8 inch router bit, which is 3.2mm. Also, the sketch shows the slots as 6mm in from the wood edges, but when I cut it, it was 5mm. 

EDIT 2019-11-15:
Might as well throw in this sketch of the folding legs. This also is a very rough sketch, was not intended for publishing:

...I used 6mm marine ply. The two vertical pieces had slots cut in them, and the bracing pieces slotted into them. 

Tags: nomad