Looking for help with a dome...

[Dato]

Falk, I definitely know the site. Probably found it through the same searches you did! I do have a linux box, just haven't gotten a chance to download and play with it yet.


....Crap, haven't thought about the burn in a couple of months, come check eplaya for the hell of it, and see this post. Now I'm all excited and whatnot. haha. I really should start working though. Between dome modifications, mutant drivables, and stage/sound set up, if I start now, I should be done sometime in August.

.....Of course, motivation will fade with the next beer, work will start in June, half the projects will get abandoned, and, after the august of hellish 20 hour days, I should be almost ready to go. Anyone know what I'm talking about? yeah? yeah? maybe?

[BitterDan]

Between dome modifications, mutant drivables, and stage/sound set up, if I start now, I should be done sometime in August.

Shit, if I knew it was gonna be this kind of party I would have stuck my dick in the mashed potatoes!

[likwid]

are you using any sort of flooring in your domes? or just playa

if you are:.. raised up?

if not: how do you deal with the possibility of rain?

[BitterDan]

We used carpet that we obtained from a certain pro football player when he remodeled. Bare playa would suck for us because we are always lounged out on the floor (not to mention our DJ equipment and musical instruments getting ruined). Our dome covers most of the area of the dome so rain was not a problem.

[Dato]

To expand on what BitterDan said, we used some nice thick, plush carpet (you can see it in the pic on the last page).

This has some advantages, and disadvantages. The adventage, of course is that the floor is comfy, and many a souls crashed out on it. As a matter of fact, I don't think anyone slept in their tents all week! It also keeps the dust way down, as the carpet sucks it up.

The disadventage is that by the end of the week, the carpet weighs a million pounds, and you have to bring it back home and throw it away, as it's not very usable for next year.

Since the dome is covered, rain from the top should not be an issue. However, rain seeping in from the side, and rain brought in on shoes would definitely pose a problem. The sides should be ok, as a bit of the carpet would soak, cake up, and turn into make-shift sandbags. :p Rain from shoes? Well, take your damn shoes off!

The year before, we just used a huge drop-cloth. Better than bare playa, but not nearly as comfy.

Friends of ours swear by the Office building type carpet, as they say it doesn't get as heavy after a week on the playa, but then again it's not nearly as comfy either.

This year? Who knows? The dome is likely to be used a club/dance area instead of living space, so carpet may not be the best choice. Linolium? Hard wood? Oh, shit, that would be way too fucking cool! hahaha

[BitterDan]

This year? Who knows? The dome is likely to be used a club/dance area instead of living space, so carpet may not be the best choice. Linolium? Hard wood? Oh, shit, that would be way too fucking cool! hahaha

Not to turn this thread into the Camp FuckIt brainstorming session but hardwood wouldn't work. Getting the sectional kind would be easier than the plank kind but the uneveness of the playa would not create a good surface for assembly. I think we are going with linoleum this year since it's going to be a dance club and not our sun shelter.

[falk]

Falk, I definitely know the site. Probably found it through the same searches you did!

Nope, no searches for me. I wrote it.

[Dato]

LOL!

*bow*

Well, that learned me! Well, Mr Falk, I can now thank you for both pointing me in the too much work direction of a one piece cover, as well as the too much work direction of a funcional door.

[djveteZe]

How protected are your instruments and DJ gear inside a fully covered dome? Great tips by the way, thanks! Was thinking of buying but am now leaning back toward building.

[Dato]

The equipment is farely well protected, although we did have to throw a tarp over the stuff once or twice during the really bad storms.

Truthfully though, I wouldn't bring something out there that you really don't want ruined. All the equipment you see there is "burning man" equipement.

As for building VS buying, building all the way. It's really not that difficult, much cheaper, and your get a certain sense of accomplishment when you finish. But I WILL warn you now (again). The cover is a sonofabitch.

[pinemom]

The cover is a sonofabitch.

ahmen!

[MikeVDS]

We've had great luck with parachutes as covers (on a 21' and 41' dome, we designed them around the parachute size we found.). Bring along clips to roll up the sides for a bit of a breeze. They may not be the very best thing you can do, but for the price and ease they are excellent.

[TheFunkHole]

I have an 18 foot PVC dome from Shelter Systems. Overall it is great. It withstood the winds of 2007, but nearly failed a couple of times. Then again I only had 4 guy lines, next year I will make sure to have 12 guy lines with the heavy duty bungie to let it play in the wind.

One of my neighbors had a 20 foot dome from shelter systems, which failed 3 or so times during the week, but they always managed to get it right back up using spare pvc pipes after a couple of them broke.

They say the 18' and 30' are best for BM because they are more setup for high winds. I did see several 18' and 30' domes at BM and never saw any of those specific domes failing in the storms.

The 18 footer take 2-3 people about 30-45 minutes to erect and about 5-10 minutes to take apart, so it's very playa friendly. Bring spare tubes and make sure to use guy lines, otherwise I could see having trouble with wind.

I used a 20'x20' tarp on the ground and 3 nice oriental rugs to cover the floor. I had 2 queen size inflatable mattresses on the ground and still room to walk around and have a bar area/lounge.

I covered it with 3 16'x20' sheets of shade cloth, and need to work on the shade cloth design more. It kept the dome fairly cool in the day. It did get hot inside but not unbearable.

The whole thing costs about $1,000 all said and done. Not inexpensive, but it's relatively small, light, and easy to assemble for weekend trips, festivals, and BM.

[falk]

I sent something like this off to Emma a few days ago, but I thought it was worth mentioning here.

Geodesic domes are a lot of fun, they look cool, and they're the ideal structure to withstand conditions on the playa. However, they're horribly inneficient uses of space. A 32' 4V dome weighs 750 lbs, requires 250 struts of varying sizes, takes at least a day to assemble, and only provides 800 square feet of floor space. I would never build one just for a shade structure. If you're looking for an awesome performance space, especially one with high ceilings, then a geodesic dome is the way to go. If you're just looking for a shade structure that's easy to put up, I suggest visiting your local canopy supply store.

I should warn you: whether you borrow, build, or buy, these things are a HUGE amount of work to put together. I was able to put mine together in eight hours with a crew of six, but we were working in ideal conditions back home. Out on the playa, a lot of things will go wrong. Dust storms will come up and either make it too hard to work, or tear the covers off while you try to put them on. It will get too hot to work. Volunteers won't show up when they said they would. Volunteers will get bored and wander off to see the sights (remember, you're asking them to miss a day of Burning Man to put this up). The tools will be locked in someone's trunk and they can't be found. There's always something that will go wrong.

I was never able to put my dome up in less than 2.5 days out on the Playa. A lot of that may be because I'm a terrible organizer and/or slave driver.

If you can't get at least six people to help you, and to promise to stick around all day building it, even if the weather sucks, I'd recommend going with monkey huts, costco carports, or pre-fab canopies.

[muchas_cabras]

I started cutting the struts today for a 24' 3v dome and thought I'd share my set-up. It's a 72" piece of 6" 16 gauge metal stud bolted to an electric chopsaw with an adjustable stop block mounted to the end. I can cut up to 5 pieces of conduit at a time, without having to do ANY measuring or marking. It works really well, I was able to burn through a stack of 30 pcs of 3/4" EMT (60 struts) in about 12 minutes.

pics:

[BitterDan]

Nice rig!

[mdmf007]

looks like a good jig - you get the end squashing one built yet?

[Teo del Fuego]

how about a progress report, emma?

[falk]

Here is what I would do instead: Buy large canvas tarps. For a 32' dome like mine you would want five 20'x25' tarps. Lay them out flat and mark them up with coardboard templates like the ones shown in my web page. You can then convert them into spherical sections by just sewing a few darts into them. It would be 1/10 the work and you'll get better covers.

Hmmm; I'll have to draw a diagram of this somehow.

And here it is: http://geodome.sourceforge.net/example.html#better_way

In another couple weeks, I'll have another diagram up that shows how to do a more complex shape.

[aranryan]

Hey Falk! Great PDF that you have there. I was wondering what weight of canvas you used? I'm looking at some canvas drop cloths that are 8oz and 12 oz. I'm leaning more towards the lighter weight but just wanted to check and see what the preferred type was.

I think based on how many people design their dome off the Oasis Dome, future domes could be graded on the "Falk Rating". How a dome compares to the original Oasis Dome will determine it's "Falkability". And when it doesn't measure up, we can say "Falk You!"

[falk]

I used whatever was on sale at the local fabric warehouse. I think it was 10 oz canvas.

Heavier would have been better; the canvas wore through in a couple places where it rubbed against bolt heads, and all the gromets tore out of one panel during a windstorm while we were trying to set it up last year.

Lesson learned: Reinforce the edges where the gromets go, especially the top and bottom and *especially* the corners.

Another lesson learned: don't try to set up in the wind, even if you are behind schedule.