Geodesic Dome

[FontanaHorseman]

What is the weight of all the poles and do you have a carry bag to hold all of it?

How long does it take to set up?

Awesome project! Got a Venture Crew in the making and this will be a fun starter project!

[FLRider]

That's impressive! Very good work on that one. Thank you for sharing it with the rest of us!

[lubbockhammockguy]

That thing is freaking awesome, except for all the maple leafs

[AScott]

Maybe I missed it, but what did the Venturers use to flatten the ends?

That's an awesome looking dome. I think I've just figured out how I'm going to make my brew shed when the time comes...

[UncleMJM]

Yep, I probably need one of those.

[DivaB]

That is one heck of a nice project that you all put together!! Just wonderful. Now you guys will be able to hang absolutely anywhere

[Bluenose Climbers]

Thanks to Highland Horde for being our first Dome guest and bringing his hammock and camera to capture our first hang in the Dome.

Details:

Frequency 2 Geodesic dome
Diameter of Dome 20.6' Height of dome 10.3'
Circumference of 66'
35 "A" struts 6'6"
30 "B" Struts 5' 9 1/8"
Struts are made of 1 5/8" in-line chain link fence posts and are sold in 6' 6" lengths. (The corner posts are 2")
The struts have a wall thickness of .065 or schedule 5 metal.

The Dome frame weighs approx 440 lbs. The entire dome fits in my Chev Blazer including Dome frame, cover, Patrol box, tables, Stoves, Lanterns, hammocks, ect. Everything we needed fit in the Blazer including my son and I.

We could have built the frame from 1" EMT conduit but the EMT is sold in 10' lengths so a lot of waste and expense. A Dome with 1" EMT would weigh 250 lbs. The in-line posts were much larger but were cheaper and made our Dome OVER KILL for hammocking. We can, as you see, not only hang in the Dome we can CLIMB it.

We knew from experience we need at least 10' hub to hub to hang our hammocks. We had planned to have 6' 9" and 6' struts but found the 6' 6" in-line posts so changed our dome a little smaller than planned. The smaller dome worked but the extra 6" would have given us more room each. Our dome did work, just made us hang a little closer together. Good thing we are a close group.

To cut the struts we used a metal chop saw. To flatten the struts we used a 6 ton shop press. To drill the 3/8" holes we used a drill press and Titanium drill bits. We made a jig to bend the 18 deg. bend in the strut ends. When we unloaded the frame after camp we painted the ends green for the "A" and yellow for the "B" struts. We needed to paint the struts to prevent rust where we we cut and drilled off the galvanized finish. The colour coding will make assembly easier.

This was the second time we assembled the Dome. Our first time was in snow/rain and took about an hour and a half. This time we took less than an hour even doing it in the dark in another rain/snow. We should have the assembly down to 30 min. with some practice and colour coded struts.

The Venturers had a great time learning all about Geodesic Domes, learning to use power tools, learning all the geometry, physics, and metalergy. They were fools at times, experts at other times, but always had fun doing this project. This weekend they got to USE the Dome and just WOWed themselves that they had built it and how cool it was.

We had 3 other groups at camp and we had visitors all weekend. The Girl Guides really wanted to check out the Dome and the guys that built it.

We LIKE our Maple Leafs. If you look in the back ground of the pic with us on the dome with the flags you will see our camps mascot ( a moose painted like a Canadian Flag) in the back ground.

[MedicineMan]

I know domes spread the load throughout the structure but I am wondering if there was a calculation made on the total load that can be applied to it. sorry if this has already been asked.

[orangehero]

Really cool project.

Did you consider using aluminum?

[Redoleary]

That thing is really cool!! Well done.