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Friday:
The dome is in pieces again. I had to separate the gores to gain access
to the screw heads hidden between the ribs. Only then can I loosen the joints
enough to allow gluing.The gores look much more angular now they are separated. A few rib extensions have yet to be glued and screwed due to poor access on the dome top.
The grass looks absolutely awful after weeks of drought and my foot traffic from working outside most days. The shorter lengths have suddenly turned to straw leaving longer green tufts.
It might be fun to speculate on a much lighter, hollow, tubular, glued plywood framework to replace the complex ribs and multiple struts arrangement. The tubes could be notched to fold into neat, angular ribs. Perhaps even expanded foam filled for increased stiffness and strength.
An alternative might be box-section, tubular aluminium ribs. Again notched at the inward folds for neat, sharp bends. Perhaps welded, or the joints reinforced with 'elbow' aluminium strips. An aluminium covering would seem more appropriate for such a construction. The panels could be ordered to be precision guillotined by an engineering company. Though water jet and laser cutting are also available these days.The base ring was reinforced with crossed boards, while still lying flat, to keep its circular shape and to stop it bending. There is a major optical illusion of perspective. The "huge" ring fits nicely onto the white rollers up in the "crow's nest."
Later, I trimmed the remaining grass and relaid the base ring on wooden blocks flat on the ground. I need better access to the top panels of the dome. The stands were adding a foot or more to the height. Which required a stepladder to work out of the top of the slit. I also had to step over the bar at bottom of the slit dozens of times per day going both ways.While I had the ring loose I turned it over and sanded the underside. I also smoothed off the ribs with an orbital sander in readiness for the rebuild.
Click on any image for an enlargement.
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