Finally got the last of the heavy bows on the roof. I've been at it for roughly two hours every afternoon after work until I run out of light. I've even come home at lunch times to get 30 minutes of labour in at times. Time is so precious.
The next step is to roll-form some lighter intermediate bows. Flat sheet to cover the dome will bend nicely one way, but not two ways, so trying to bend it over the large area between these heavy bows is likely to warp and distort them too much. Putting in some intermediate bows will mean thinner strips of sheet, reducing the need to bend them two ways.
Nice, I had a feeling you may have gone that route and im glad you did!
I have a similar setup and was walking around bunnings and spotted them, nice and cheap
Nice, I had a feeling you may have gone that route and im glad you did!
I have a similar setup and was walking around bunnings and spotted them, nice and cheap
The beauty of these is, I was thinking ahead when I bought them. Last time I had huge troubles rolling that old geodesic dome as it got heavier.
This time, I planned with a method in mind thinking that if I miscalculate and the dome gets heavier for any reason, I can just add more wheels or upgrade to heavier-duty wheels. It's a good system and is running very smoothly.
Nice. yea my concern was the nylon starting to compress under the weight. The ones you used are around 2" diameter correct?
For the axle is that just threaded rod or did you put a thread on a rod leaving the middle blank.
Sorry for all the questions but it looks you probably have solved a dilemma of mine.
I look forward to making it down one day and taking a good look
Steve
Yep, roughly 2 inches correct. The axle is just a bolt that replaces the mild steel axle that came with the wheel as it was too short. I used high-tensile bolts. Over-engineering as always.
With great skill and ability... plus some sheer arse...
A stack of 40kg rollers all set into the lower ring, with four guide rollers (bearings) at the cardinal points.
Great build you have there. Out of curiosity, did you get the guider rollers from bunnings as well? Am in rolloff roof dilema making sure it wont fall off the joists and suspect I could resolve it with those rollers?
Great build you have there. Out of curiosity, did you get the guider rollers from bunnings as well? Am in rolloff roof dilema making sure it wont fall off the joists and suspect I could resolve it with those rollers?
Thanks
No mate, I got these from the top of those big soundproof movable wall partitions that divide conference rooms and classrooms etc.
One of the hurdles I've had to overcome is that the old pier is not high enough to mount the telescope on, as the new floor level is now much higher.
To solve this, I have built another wooden box like the one underneath, to be filled with reinforcing mesh along with some conduit to run electrical cabling. It will then be filled with concrete.
The race was on today as the rolled steel arrived to build the dome's sliding doors and complete the intermediate dome ribs. I say, "race" because tomorrow afternoon I have a professional welder coming over to weld stuff together.
This afternoon I measured, cut and joined all the framing together for the sliding doors. I have used 20mm steel plate to join it all together with screws, that way the welder can just weld all the joints together, then I can remove the ugly plates and screws.
Below: Picture 1 - One side complete. Picture 2 - The two halves will split sideways to open the dome slot.
