A few questions: 1) Do you have panels to show up close? 2) Did you use a rivet gun? How did you install the rivets? Would cold welding work? 3) How did you cut the aluminum panels? What method? 4) What is your weatherizing sealant on the top and, how is it applied? Some here in the USA are spray liquids. 5) Once you fit the foam interior triangles (glue I'd assume) did you use 2 part spray foam over it? 6) Did you use a metal skeleton of bars for the top or just simply assemble it using triangles and rivets only? 7) Would you see this as a viable solution for a home if properly insulated? Thank you for your valuable input to our dome building community at large. I've learned a lot from your personal efforts.
Ok 1) Sorry no, I will have some offcuts so could take some pictures of them. 2) Standard pull rivet gun, installed from outside, I don't think cold welding would work. 3) A fabricator cut them with a guillotine and folded the edges with a press, pretty common tools in any metal workshop. 4) it's an acrylic with fibre, brush coated, very thick sticky stuff. 5)I I glued 50mm polystyrene to the inside f the panels, sprayed polyurethane foam from a guniin all the joints/gaps then filled the 10" space between outside and inside skin with broken polystyrene packing. 6) No the whole dome is 16 gauge aluminium all the same construction. 7) Yes, I will be doing a video on dome home construction methods so keep an eye out for that. Cheers, Paul
Thank you for your most excellent dome video. Each panel can be filled with a coat of spray on foam insulation prior to installation. So stress skin construction seems to be the best method. I've try your paper model. If that goes well, I build one in the backyard. Thks again
This is a really interesting design. The only thing I was wondering whether it could be possible to replace the cover strips with some kind of adhesive.
Would you recommend a spray on foam insulation on the inside of the dome to deal with the condensation problem? How large do you think this design can be practically scaled up? I'm interested in a DIY design for a dome home built with a crawl space. A primary design feature would be the ability to easily move internal walls around allowing the structure to evolve as a family grows and shrinks.
Yes, any metal sheet would work, I would use galvanised rather than paint as rust could be a real problem, Buckminster fuller's union tank dome was demolished because it rusted up and it was too costly to maintain.
Here in Paris zinc is the roofing metal of choice in all the buildings of the 19th century. It's rust-proof and doesn't change with time. It remains light grey. I don't know how hard it is but roofers ust have the equipment to cut it with precision.
A few questions:
1) Do you have panels to show up close?
2) Did you use a rivet gun? How did you install the rivets? Would cold welding work?
3) How did you cut the aluminum panels? What method?
4) What is your weatherizing sealant on the top and, how is it applied? Some here in the USA are spray liquids.
5) Once you fit the foam interior triangles (glue I'd assume) did you use 2 part spray foam over it?
6) Did you use a metal skeleton of bars for the top or just simply assemble it using triangles and rivets only?
7) Would you see this as a viable solution for a home if properly insulated?
Thank you for your valuable input to our dome building community at large. I've learned a lot from your personal efforts.
Ok
1) Sorry no, I will have some offcuts so could take some pictures of them.
2) Standard pull rivet gun, installed from outside, I don't think cold welding would work.
3) A fabricator cut them with a guillotine and folded the edges with a press, pretty common tools in any metal workshop.
4) it's an acrylic with fibre, brush coated, very thick sticky stuff.
5)I I glued 50mm polystyrene to the inside f the panels, sprayed polyurethane foam from a guniin all the joints/gaps then filled the 10" space between outside and inside skin with broken polystyrene packing.
6) No the whole dome is 16 gauge aluminium all the same construction.
7) Yes, I will be doing a video on dome home construction methods so keep an eye out for that.
Cheers, Paul
+Paul Robinson Very helpful. Thanks for getting back to me Paul.
Thank you for your most excellent dome video. Each panel can be filled with a coat of spray on foam insulation prior to installation. So stress skin construction seems to be the best method. I've try your paper model. If that goes well, I build one in the backyard. Thks again
This is a really interesting design. The only thing I was wondering whether it could be possible to replace the cover strips with some kind of adhesive.
Interesting way to collect water! I wonder how much it would "rain" in volume per evening?
It would be a good addition to a clear dome green house!
Would you recommend a spray on foam insulation on the inside of the dome to deal with the condensation problem? How large do you think this design can be practically scaled up? I'm interested in a DIY design for a dome home built with a crawl space. A primary design feature would be the ability to easily move internal walls around allowing the structure to evolve as a family grows and shrinks.
What CAD software are you using ?
Paul, How large is this dome?
Joe Dimick qq
can iron be used for this?
Yes, any metal sheet would work, I would use galvanised rather than paint as rust could be a real problem, Buckminster fuller's union tank dome was demolished because it rusted up and it was too costly to maintain.
Here in Paris zinc is the roofing metal of choice in all the buildings of the 19th century. It's rust-proof and doesn't change with time. It remains light grey. I don't know how hard it is but roofers ust have the equipment to cut it with precision.
here is a link to a great video that gives you the dimensions for stressed skin construction on paper
czcams.com/video/vv01yWHo_1o/video.html