30' Dome or Canvas Structure Needed

phoenix from the playa · Post by **phoenix from the playa** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:30 am

Our project requires a 30' dome or tarp structure of equivalent size. We can assist in it's erection & strike. We've a budget. This dome will be used by Combat Paper Project where we will be inviting the citizens of Black Rock City to bring combat, or any cloth that holds emotional significance, to be milled, pressed and made into paper for YOUR art. Or fires!

Thanks.

pinemom · Post by **pinemom** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 10:50 am

We ended up building ours from scratch.
Not to bad on the finacials, concidering what your building.
I would try craigslist maybe to see if any theme camps are stopping, and selling off their stuff...try all states even!
Might be a good try ?????

If you do decide to build one...there is one hell of a good engineer that used to hang on these threads...named Stargeezer...he did the whole mathmatic make up of ours for us!
He's awesome!

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:18 pm

www.efalk.org/OasisDome/
www.desertdomes.com
www.ozarkdome.com

I prefer surplus parachutes with these holding em in place for shade.
http://www.shelter-systems.com/gripclips/products.html

For more rugged duty covering I use sailcloth and coat the bottom and sides with bedliner for waterproofing.

wedeliver · Post by **wedeliver** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 1:11 pm

phoenix from the playa wrote:Our project requires a 30' dome or tarp structure of equivalent size. We can assist in it's erection & strike. We've a budget. This dome will be used by Combat Paper Project where we will be inviting the citizens of Black Rock City to bring combat, or any cloth that holds emotional significance, to be milled, pressed and made into paper for YOUR art. Or fires!

Thanks.

If I understand, you want someone to build a 30' Dome on Playa and you "can assist"? Is that right? (left) (ok moving forward, but where did this big elephant come from)

I recall your previous posts on your camp and your cloth paper project and I think it sounds great.

Last year on Tribe there was a very large dome for sale, complete, but you would have to build it yourself. If I recall it was in Portland Oregon.

would you like me to look for that information?

Have you thought about taking your project to an existing theme camp? Where you got all those hot bodies who work so well together!

phoenix from the playa · Post by **phoenix from the playa** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 1:23 pm

Thanks Wedeliver.

Correct assumptions. We can assist in the construction & striking of the dome. At this point, we are only aware of several people who will comprise our camp & uncertain as to aptitude. Certain leadership is critical. Who will be on this team will be determined during the next couple of months.

We cannot possibly afford to purchase our own dome for this singular experience, although I'm certain I could find plenty of use for it as I'm a long term Burner. But, *I* can't afford a purchase either. Renting seems to be the way to go and something for which we can budget and fund raise.

We haven't thought about taking this to an existing Theme Camp. That's a good idea. Would require lots of conversation about which one, etc. We do not wish to be anyplace near Sound Zones & for logistical reasons, might want to be as close to Center Camp as possible.

And certainly, any number of Hot Bodies involved in our support efforts would be greatly appreciated, incredibly loved and well fed.

Offer Accepted: Please look for any information about Domes, Hot Bodies, etc, you feel would be helpful. Thanks again for your efforts. Phoenix on behalf of Bay Area Combat Paper Project Core Team.

Toolmaker · Post by **Toolmaker** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 12:06 pm

Since you have budget issues look here..

http://www.geocities.com/potatotrap/tech/bluetarp.htm

Pay special attention to the tensegrity and PVC dome type structures.

The pvc domes can be made for less than 300 with a parachute covering.

StevenGoodman · Post by **StevenGoodman** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 1:24 pm

If it doesn't have to be pretty, use three Carports? 20'x30' of usable space, and they are easy to setup.

Martini Steve

NoAngel · Post by **NoAngel** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 8:36 am

If you don't have any luck finding one you can rent / borrow, building a dome is actually really easy and very cost effective. I doubt you can rent one of the professionally built domes for less than you can build one for ($400 to $750 including coverings etc).

Desertdomes.com and the others mentioned above have great links and advice. Tribe also has some good geo-dome resources.

Erecting it on playa just takes a little people-power. I don't think it takes more than a couple hours to put up our 24' 3V-5/8 with about 8 people lifting and a couple running around bolting etc...

phoenix from the playa · Post by **phoenix from the playa** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 8:53 am

Thanks for all the suggestions. Will be checking each of them out. We have also thought of the car port option.

We've still high hopes of finding someone with a dome or structure(s) who wishes to be part of our project.

Thanks again for the ideas, keep em coming.

cheers & peace, Phoenix Phrom The Playa

falk · Post by **falk** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 4:09 pm

NoAngel wrote:If you don't have any luck finding one you can rent / borrow, building a dome is actually really easy and very cost effective. I doubt you can rent one of the professionally built domes for less than you can build one for ($400 to $750 including coverings etc).

Umm, not quite. A 30' dome requires about 1300 feet of struts, which were about $.50/foot last time I priced it. Call it $650 for the steel alone.

I could believe you could build a 30' dome for $1000 if you used cheap cover material.

pinemom · Post by **pinemom** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:56 am

geeze, lemme think....

*260 sticks of 3/4 inch emt
$4.50 @ = 1170.00 plus tax.
*approximately 300 ft x 12 ft wide shade clothe Bulk. (twice cause we made it BIGGER)
apprx. $600.00 plus tax
*400+ bolts and nuts
140.00 plus tax
*12 cans of spray paint to keep the struts identifiable
$24.00 plus tax

approx. $2050.00
Cutting to precision, smashing and drilling holes in emt
Designing and sewing over 300ftx24ft of shade clothe to fit over
2 huge 3V domes.....PRICELESS!

I would think a couple of carports @ 189.99 plus tax might be far easier/cheaper then trying the Dome thingy!
And they go up in no time at all!

Takes months of hard hard work!
A huge ass amount of room to haul out to BRC and setting them up is a huge undertaking that claims up a large amount of time & peeps playa side.

Storage over 11 months when you get home!

pinemom · Post by **pinemom** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:07 am

hahaha good thing I cant add!

gyre · Post by **gyre** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:44 pm

The arched structures seem much more practical, in a quonset hut shape.

How about using resin impregnated cardboard tubes?
Heavier but very strong.
If you aren't too far away it makes sense.

They had an innovative housing fair years ago and many were made of carpet tubing.
When the fair was over, they didn't fall down.
Then they couldn't pull them down.
They finally had to send in heavy equipment to knock them down.

NoAngel · Post by **NoAngel** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:13 pm

So my estimate might have been a little optimistic... Emt has gotten a bit more expensive.

24' 3V 5/8:
830' 3/4" EMT @ .50 = $415.00
100 - 3/8x2 bolts w/nut @ .37 = $37.00
3 - cans paint $20.00
7- 16'x20' Tarp @ 20.00 = $140.00
4 - Grommet kits @ 4.00 = $16.00

Total cost: $628.00

32' 4V:
1250' 3/4" EMT @ .50 = $625
100 - 3/8x2 bolts w/nut @ .37 = $37.00
5 - cans paint $30.00
9- 20'x30' Tarp @ 30.00 = $270.00
5 - Grommet kits @ 4.00 = $20.00

Total Cost: $982.00

Either way the space created by a dome is far better than a grouping of carports and it's still not a big deal (Trust me. We tried it this year). Fabrication just requires a few boxes of beer, a couple pizzas, and tape measure or two, a few borrowed sledge hammers, grinder, and a drill. Not months. Just a few friends.

The skin is actually the hardest part BTW.

Erection on playa really isn't a big deal either. Here's a video to prove my point:

oneeyeddick · Post by **oneeyeddick** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:46 pm

Place an ad on craigslist asking to purchace someone elses carport frames that have no cloth left on them from years of abuse.

You should be able to get them pretty cheap +/- $40-$50ish each.

Buy two of them.

buy a used parachute / less than $100.

place two carport frames(assembled) about 10-15 feet away from each other and stretch the parachute over them, and then stand a 16 foot 2x4 in the center with a towel wadded around it to prevent tearing.

Secure the center pole to the four inside corners of the carport with rope.

Bring an extra 16 foot 2x4 in case you fuck up the first one.

I am not good at math either but I think that is less than $26,562.00 total, and a lot easier to set up than any dome.

stargeezer · Post by **stargeezer** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 10:17 pm

pinemom wrote:We ended up building ours from scratch.
Not to bad on the finacials, concidering what your building.
I would try craigslist maybe to see if any theme camps are stopping, and selling off their stuff...try all states even!
Might be a good try ?????

If you do decide to build one...there is one hell of a good engineer that used to hang on these threads...named Stargeezer...he did the whole mathmatic make up of ours for us!
He's awesome!

I have been away for a while, just got back and saw this one. Thanks for the compliment Pinemom, I did enjoy helping.

If there is still interest in building a large dome, I would be glad to run some numbers. Rather than go for a specific size, I like to play with the numbers a bit to maximize size and minimize scrap. Let me know the frequency and preferred size you would like, and I will run them through my number cruncher.

stargeezer · Post by **stargeezer** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:11 pm

I just ran some numbers and it looks like the most efficient dome in the 30' range would be a 4V slightly less than 31.5' and would require 170 10' sticks of EMT. If you want more details, let me know.

bx1 · Post by **bx1** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 10:09 am

NoAngel wrote:Erecting it on playa just takes a little people-power. I don't think it takes more than a couple hours to put up our 24' 3V-5/8 with about 8 people lifting and a couple running around bolting etc...

I've helped put together domes the same size with just 4 people relatively easily. This year we are actually doing a 24' 3V 5/8 dome ourselves. Still debating over the covering though, parachutes aren't completely weather proof.

30' Dome or Canvas Structure Needed

30' Dome or Canvas Structure Needed

Re: 30' Dome or Canvas Structure Needed