Cover me, I'm going in...

[Roark]

That sick madness known as "Playa Fever" begins.

I am either going to turn 900 linear feet of 3/4 inch EMT into a very nice Frequency 4 (variant L3) dome.... or I'm making a rather precisely-measured pile of scrap metal.

The ceremonial drink has been had.
The chopsaw is calling to me.
The drumroll, if you please, Maestro....

[Sunbeam56]

The trumpet call please....

[FIGJAM]

Color code your struts for easy reassembly.

[Sunbeam56]

Building the jig. First sections - 992 millimeters.

[Sunbeam56]

First taste of success. 992 mm, plus or minus a whiff of smoke.

[Roark]

photo(4).JPG

The jig is up. Resistance is futile. Note obligatory beer. Note recycled Habitat For Humanity exterior door (1950's era, $10 and they helped me load it) as the jigs work surface.

First cut of 70 pieces are all 992 millimeters long. The jig nails it every time. I'm cutting three at once. I think it took longer to make the jig than it did to cut the cuts.

Figjam: You betcha. The struts will get temporarily marked on both ends with a Sharpie as they come out of the jig. Once they've been deburred, flattened, drilled, and radius'd, they'll get a coat of white paint overall and a 3-inch color band on each end to denote their type.

Neato techie bit: Unlike the 4V domes which have 6 different strut lengths with a 28% length variance, the L3 has only 5 different struts with a 17% variance. Less waste = more metal in the structure = stronger dome. And it's more perfectly spherical at the vertices which should make the cover fit better.

Need more beer.

[Sunbeam56]

Roark now has 3 out of 5 lengths of struts cut - littlerally hundreds of struts.
Not very photo-genic, tho.
GOAL: Assembly this weekend.
Unfortunately, he has jury duty tomorrow, so some delay may be encountered.

[burner von braun]

Good luck with the dome! Did you decide how you are going to cover it?

[Roark]

Good luck with the dome! Did you decide how you are going to cover it?

Thanks!

Initially, it will be recycled billboard material. I dont care about the look, just need to see if the math for the cover patterns is correct. Once we get that proven, the final product will be canvas duck, either 11 or 16 oz per yard.

I am learning that 250 struts is a LOT of metal to cut, debur, flatten, drill and paint. i spent the whole day cutting and deburring! I am likely sweating the details too much, but until I get a feel for the results I figured I better do it all just right.

[graidawg]

! I have a lovely set of scars across my knuckles from deburring when not wearing gloves. you probably realise this already but do wear gloves. thats going to be hell of a lot of material to carry to the playa. i hope you have enough hands to make assembly easy, if you need a hand i would suggest, as lazy at it seems, supervising the volounteers rather than trying to do it yourself - it works better that way and you can give directions better. also you can pass the beers around easier

[Roark]

! I have a lovely set of scars across my knuckles from deburring when not wearing gloves. you probably realise this already but do wear gloves. thats going to be hell of a lot of material to carry to the playa. i hope you have enough hands to make assembly easy, if you need a hand i would suggest, as lazy at it seems, supervising the volounteers rather than trying to do it yourself - it works better that way and you can give directions better. also you can pass the beers around easier

Sage advice indeed. I nicked myself pretty good yesterday and was reminded that human hide was never meant to argue with a grinder. The funny part was I had just removed my gloves and they were sitting just a foor away on the table. DUH, Roark!

Setup: i will be ably (and amply!) assisted by the Swedish Bikini Team and perhaps The Nephew Club. You are right: staging something like this solo would be a nightmare!

[graidawg]

[!

Setup: i will be ably (and amply!) assisted by the Swedish Bikini

pictures or it didn't happen!

[Roark]

Setup: I will be ably (and amply!) assisted by the Swedish Bikini Team

Pictures or it didn't happen!

Better yet: Get yer fuzzy tuckus over here for BM 2013 and you can play man-slave for Heidi, Inga, or The Twins. I'm sure after a long day of mistreatment at my hands they'll be ready for tea, sympathy, and a good backrub.

Picture it happening!

[uncle sticky]

I also recommend an arbor press for the ends, and a drill press. Oh, and use bolts that are longer than needed, makes assembly go faster if you have a bit of wiggle room.

[Sunbeam56]

THx. Roark has 190/250 struts cut and de-burred.
He should have the remainder tonight.
Then the smashing and drilling, and de-burring again.
This is a LOT of work!!!

[Roark]

I also recommend an arbor press for the ends, and a drill press. Oh, and use bolts that are longer than needed, makes assembly go faster if you have a bit of wiggle room.

Hiya Unc!

Tonight I finished cutting, marking, deburring and prepping the 250 struts. This is starting to feel like WORK! Someone remind me why I didn't just go with a Frequency 3 dome?

No arbor press here. I have a 20-ton hydraulic shop press. Tomorrow I will build the jig for the press and get to smashing the ends. I got the press because I potentially want to use 1 inch EMT for the "big" dome (30+ feet). I just didn't think an arbor press would deal with that big of stock. And if I really get the bug, I may be making a few more of these. We will see...

BTW: I have a drill press. Just have to build a jig for it. (Friday's project).

My chopsaw hasn't had this much fun since I quit building race cars!

[Sunbeam56]

And color coded, too.

[Sunbeam56]

Roark is temporarily sidelined by an excess of workload (he has a brutal boss) and what appears to be a torn rotator cuff (which he refuses to have treated).
More progress tomorrow.
Cuz you know... he's gonna ignore the Boss, and ignore the shoulder, and do what he wants... which is to build a dome.

[Roark]

Roark is temporarily sidelined by an excess of workload (he has a brutal boss) and what appears to be a torn rotator cuff (which he refuses to have treated).
More progress tomorrow.
Cuz you know... he's gonna ignore the Boss, and ignore the shoulder, and do what he wants... which is to build a dome.

It's just a scratch, Boss. And the night isn't over. Once the meds kick-in, I may retire to the garage for some hydraulic-press therapy.

Surgery is for wussies... Real Men put on their UtiliKilt and Git 'Er Dun!!!!! (Only 219 days until The Man burns...)

[TT120]

That dome aint gonna build itself!

pour some beer in the wound, wrap it with duct tape and get back to work!

[Roark]

That dome aint gonna build itself!

pour some beer in the wound, wrap it with duct tape and get back to work!

SIR! Yes Sir, Sir!

Dome boot camp. It aint for sissys...

[ygmir]

That dome aint gonna build itself!

pour some beer in the wound, wrap it with duct tape and get back to work!

SIR! Yes Sir, Sir!

Dome boot camp. It aint for sissys...

*cheering Roark on*

[trilobyte]

Great work! For what it's worth, you may also want to consider posting in the Work In Progress thread.

[theCryptofishist]

Roark is temporarily sidelined by an excess of workload (he has a brutal boss) and what appears to be a torn rotator cuff (which he refuses to have treated).
More progress tomorrow.
Cuz you know... he's gonna ignore the Boss, and ignore the shoulder, and do what he wants... which is to build a dome.

It's just a scratch, Boss. And the night isn't over. Once the meds kick-in, I may retire to the garage for some hydraulic-press therapy.

Surgery is for wussies... Real Men put on their UtiliKilt and Git 'Er Dun!!!!! (Only 219 days until The Man burns...)

Okay, both of you subscribe to that macho no injuries/illness unless I'm dead. I guess it means that someone's around to perform amateur surgery...

[FIGJAM]

Radical self reliance!!!

[Sunbeam56]

So Roark has started mashing ends.
He had to build a jig first.
He has extraordinarily exact results.

[Roark]

After engineering the fine tolerances on the brassiere for your avatar, I figured I had a reputation to uphold.

[FIGJAM]

Just don't make an ash of yourself!

[graidawg]

am i the only one that thinks "mashing ends" is something yggi should keep away from.

[Roark]

This morning I looked at my hands and decided this must be a successful manly-man project. I decided it was time to wear gloves again. To the store.

BTW: I finally figured-out why Sunbeam was so "go-go-Roark!" on this project. Turns-out she has her eye on using this prototype eventually as a plant-dome-thingie. She tipped her hand when she wandered through my garage with a tape measure, muttering about Platyceriums, heat, light, CO2 and misting systems. She denied it of course, but then I found a well-fondled issue of "Greenhouse Design Digest" hidden beneath a placemat on her table, and the cat was out of the bag.

I am SO abused. Sigh.