Anyone have an extra starplate?

[pamplemusique]

In the course of collecting supplies and test building starpods for the playa this past weekend, one of our starplates (http://www.strombergschickens.com/produ ... y-supplies) has been lost. Given that they come in sets of just the right number for a pod, you would think that we would have taken extra special care to keep track of those plates. We're a group of half-virgins and one or two-timers, so while we're doing our best to plan and prepare everything in advance, testing out our planned structures and whatnot, we're making plenty of mistakes as we go and learning from them as best we can. Since the plate has been lost and there's no undoing that, we are now short one starplate from what we need to hold the structure together. Before ordering a whole additional set (at $85, that's pretty pricey for a replacement), I thought I'd send out a note to the community to see if anyone has an old starplate or two lying about from building pods in years past.

Let me know if you can help!

[capjbadger]

Funny, I just built a new dome today out of those. Great little things...

I was digging around a month or so ago trying to find cheaper prices on them. Mine have a sticker on them that says the original maker. You may be able to buy a single from them.

I'll see if I can find the site again...

-Badger

[capjbadger]

They're made by USP. The model is CH5
http://www.menards.com/main/store/20090 ... pec/ch.pdf

Still looking for a seller in your area.

-Badger

[capjbadger]

Failing all that, you could also make a GT6Z work:
http://domekits.info/preview_007.htm

-Badger

[capjbadger]

Only place i can find them (and you have to buy in the store) is Menards. They're all around the Great Lakes area. The closest store looks like:

MASSILLON
3725 ERIE STREET SOUTH
MASSILLON, OH
44646

465 miles one way.
If you have a friend in the area, maybe they can buy it for you and ship it to you.
http://www.menards.com/main/storeLocator.html

Or contact USP and ask them where the heck you can get one (CH5):
http://www.uspconnectors.com/index.shtml

-Badger

[pamplemusique]

Hey Badger,

Thanks for the suggestion! It looks like Menards is the way to go. I was able to find someone in IL to offer to go to Menards, so hopefully we'll be all set.

If you were just building one, do you have any suggestions for covering them? Our original plan was to use industrial velcro to attach Tyvek panels. We'd be able to do all same-size/dimension panels since it's a 1V dome. However it turns out that industrial velcro is ridiculously expensive. How are you covering your starpod?

Cheers!

[Ugly Dougly]

If you're handy, maybe you can erect the whole dome with what you got, and when you get to the last spot where you'd normally need a starplate, substitute or make something new.
To my mind, the peak would be an easy place to improvise. You wouldn't have to add the wall members for this kloodge, so the peak would be easier to get to.

[Simile]

Call Stromberg's and let them know you've lost/damaged/misplaced one and see if they'll sell you a single one.

I love my starplate structures.

[capjbadger]

Hey Badger,

Thanks for the suggestion! It looks like Menards is the way to go. I was able to find someone in IL to offer to go to Menards, so hopefully we'll be all set.

If you were just building one, do you have any suggestions for covering them? Our original plan was to use industrial velcro to attach Tyvek panels. We'd be able to do all same-size/dimension panels since it's a 1V dome. However it turns out that industrial velcro is ridiculously expensive. How are you covering your starpod?

Cheers!

What you are building (forgive me if you already know all this ) is an Icosahedron (minus the bottom).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icosahedron
The nice thing is to cover the sides, you don't have to cut out a bunch of triangles. The "Tilt out/Point up" and "Tilt in/Point down" triangles even out to a flat rectangle of cloth. The top 5 triangles are the only "odd" bit as far as covering it.

(Ignore those bottom triangles)
It may help to print this out and play with it before you start cutting cloth.

If you do it right, you'd only need 3 pieces of cloth (1 for the side, 2 for the roof). I'm stiching it all together as one cover and then just slipping it over the whole thing (easier said than done of course. My struts are 8'8" )

-Badger

[Ugly Dougly]

I would put aluminum tarp on the roof and shadecloth on the walls.

[Simile]

For cover, here are my two structures from 2010. One is shade and the other is living. I love how easy they come together on the playa, and I enjoy making slight customized features each year. It's a work in progress...

[pamplemusique]

Thanks again to everybody who offered their suggestions. Since we're trying to be cost efficient, we ended up going with recycled billboard vinyl tarps (pretty heavy, 20 mil) to cover our starpods. The walls are one solid piece, but we cut the triangles for the roofs out so we can pull the roof over and connect along the top of the wall rather than having to connect the seams of each piece up the wall. We didn't quite finish in our last build weekend as we got rained out, but even without having sealed the roof to the wall (we got it up and over the top of the starpod, but it was raining too heavily for any adhesive to stick) the structure was pretty rainproof. We also tested out some hammocks strung between the joints and found them to be sturdy.

Our last remaining issue is how best to connect the pieces of tarp together. Right now we've just gorilla taped everything. From what I can tell, it's incredibly strong stuff. However, do you have any idea how that will hold up in playa heat? I'm a little worried that it will melt, but can't think of another adhesive to replace it. This would be both for holding the triangles of the roof together (these are already attached with gorilla tape and will be ready to go when we get to the playa) and for attaching the roof to the walls (the one thing we would have to do on-playa from a covering perspective).

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[Ugly Dougly]

There's a kind of duct tape made specifically for high temps. Google is your friend.

[pamplemusique]

Thanks uglydougly. I wasn't sure about the adhesive or tensile strength of the high temp duct tape, since it's possible that though it wouldn't melt, it might simply not hold up to playa winds. Any experience using it to hold structures together, particularly attaching vinyl to vinyl?