Thank you for showing us how you built this brilliant dome. This is the way to go for the future, Our best wishes and congradulations from our small group co-operative edencommunities. CHESHIRE England
Very nice. Rod is doing the same thing. He has lined the outer edge of his dome with raised grow beds for ground crops and has both media beds and float bed troughs strategically placed inside. I think you'll be rather pleased with the saw. The right tool for the job makes such a difference.
I did the same thing and ended up with some warped and some twisted wood. I used the ones I thought weren't too bad off but did end up with some I thought just wouldn't do. There is enough play in the structure to push, pull and/or twist the boards to where you need them to be but of course straight boards are always easier. Rod bought premium lumber from a big box store for the 40 footer and most of his wood was really nice although we did experience a few boards that were warped/twisted/bowed.
If you had used double hat channel furring to sandwich the poly, the skin would be stretched tight. Use double sided tape to hold the plastic until the second hat channel is fastened.
Both plastic covers held up great. No tears whatsoever. We didn't have any extreme cold or snow but we did get down into the 20's F. We did have some snow but not anything that stuck around. It usually melted the next day. We do get some extreme winds somewhere in the 40 mph range and gusts up around 50 mph and both domes held up like champs. No tears or damage at all. The plastic on dome one isn't even pulled tight everywhere and flaps up and down with the wind but this doesn't seem to matter.
Wow, that all sounds really cool. (especially the beer drinking) Right now we are running between 15C to 25C. It's been around 1C at night and maybe 12C daytime. Sunny days really help warm it up inside. During the past summer (It's autumn here now) we were getting up in the 30's celsius during the daytime. Quite warm. Of course it was hot outside also. 27 to 33C everyday. We mostly concern ourselves with the water temp which is running around 15C right now. Perfect for the plants.
well thats awesome!! how did the domes handle the bad weather through the winter? was there any tearing on the plastic cover and if so how did you fix it? im building 29 footer's here soon and would like your input.
Not sure what you are experiencing but I remember thinking my angles looked skewed. Could be an optical illusion. I just looked for equal distance from tip to end of the cut along the wide part of the board and tried to get the arrowhead as "pointy" as I could. Does this make sense? I also believe that there is room for error. Wood is flexible. No matter how accurate your cuts are, you will still have warpage and discrepancies to deal with. Too bad about the saw. Hope you get compensated for it.
...Not so perfect for the fish but they are doing okay. Our nitrates have fallen to around 5 where it was over 20 during the summertime. Our plants don't seem to mind though. They are doing just fine. We just put 25 strawberry plants in and they are growing well along with lettuce, kale and swiss chard which is really flourishing.
Also the bigger you go, the more of an issue it will be. (So it seems to me) My 18 footer was very easy to assemble and I know we weren't on completely level ground.
That's awesome can you advise me on how to get my angles and stuff such as that I'd love to build something like that for me and my wife but I'm unsure about how to do the angles and stuff thanks for sharing
If you go to simplydifferently.org and click the dome tab you can go to the dome calculator and put in whatever size dome you want to build and it will calculate all the angles you will need. It will even render a 3D drawing for you to print out and help with the assembly
Are you using a tarp underneath these domes? If so, do you have the grade of the ground on an angle in one particular direction to drain these ? Just curious, thanks!
We graded the ground level and used weed mat for the bottom. We did have some water inside the dome during heavy rains but it didn't hurt anything. Since then, we dug a hole just outside (uphill) to collect heavy rain and that helps a lot. For our hoop house we built the ground up about a foot and leveled it flat and we do not have any water issues inside it.
Thank you for showing us how you built this brilliant dome. This is the way to go for the future, Our best wishes and congradulations from our small group co-operative edencommunities. CHESHIRE England
Very nice. Rod is doing the same thing. He has lined the outer edge of his dome with raised grow beds for ground crops and has both media beds and float bed troughs strategically placed inside. I think you'll be rather pleased with the saw. The right tool for the job makes such a difference.
I did the same thing and ended up with some warped and some twisted wood. I used the ones I thought weren't too bad off but did end up with some I thought just wouldn't do. There is enough play in the structure to push, pull and/or twist the boards to where you need them to be but of course straight boards are always easier. Rod bought premium lumber from a big box store for the 40 footer and most of his wood was really nice although we did experience a few boards that were warped/twisted/bowed.
If you had used double hat channel furring to sandwich the poly, the skin would be stretched tight. Use double sided tape to hold the plastic until the second hat channel is fastened.
Both plastic covers held up great. No tears whatsoever. We didn't have any extreme cold or snow but we did get down into the 20's F. We did have some snow but not anything that stuck around. It usually melted the next day. We do get some extreme winds somewhere in the 40 mph range and gusts up around 50 mph and both domes held up like champs. No tears or damage at all. The plastic on dome one isn't even pulled tight everywhere and flaps up and down with the wind but this doesn't seem to matter.
Excellent!
this is great you da man
Wow, that all sounds really cool. (especially the beer drinking) Right now we are running between 15C to 25C. It's been around 1C at night and maybe 12C daytime. Sunny days really help warm it up inside. During the past summer (It's autumn here now) we were getting up in the 30's celsius during the daytime. Quite warm. Of course it was hot outside also. 27 to 33C everyday. We mostly concern ourselves with the water temp which is running around 15C right now. Perfect for the plants.
Yes, the struts were flush.
This lockstrip sounds very interesting. I hope it works for you. Good luck with it.
We did a video for the 2V on September 2nd. As for the strut cuts and angles, we used the dome calculator on simplydifferentdotorg (See dome notes)
Interesting build. Did I see a video explaining the 2V style? I'd be really interested, as I'm planning on building one myself.
Now the challenge becomes putting the vents in
well thats awesome!! how did the domes handle the bad weather through the winter? was there any tearing on the plastic cover and if so how did you fix it? im building 29 footer's here soon and would like your input.
Although we are satisfied with the plastic, if we had the resources we would have chosen to use polycarbonite.
Not sure what you are experiencing but I remember thinking my angles looked skewed. Could be an optical illusion. I just looked for equal distance from tip to end of the cut along the wide part of the board and tried to get the arrowhead as "pointy" as I could. Does this make sense? I also believe that there is room for error. Wood is flexible. No matter how accurate your cuts are, you will still have warpage and discrepancies to deal with. Too bad about the saw. Hope you get compensated for it.
Ótimo trabalho, excelente!!!
obrigado
...Not so perfect for the fish but they are doing okay. Our nitrates have fallen to around 5 where it was over 20 during the summertime. Our plants don't seem to mind though. They are doing just fine. We just put 25 strawberry plants in and they are growing well along with lettuce, kale and swiss chard which is really flourishing.
Also the bigger you go, the more of an issue it will be. (So it seems to me) My 18 footer was very easy to assemble and I know we weren't on completely level ground.
That's awesome can you advise me on how to get my angles and stuff such as that I'd love to build something like that for me and my wife but I'm unsure about how to do the angles and stuff thanks for sharing
If you go to simplydifferently.org and click the dome tab you can go to the dome calculator and put in whatever size dome you want to build and it will calculate all the angles you will need. It will even render a 3D drawing for you to print out and help with the assembly
Are you using a tarp underneath these domes? If so, do you have the grade of the ground on an angle in one particular direction to drain these ? Just curious, thanks!
We graded the ground level and used weed mat for the bottom. We did have some water inside the dome during heavy rains but it didn't hurt anything. Since then, we dug a hole just outside (uphill) to collect heavy rain and that helps a lot. For our hoop house we built the ground up about a foot and leveled it flat and we do not have any water issues inside it.
Can I please ask where you got your extremely large piece of plastic? Ive built a dome some 2 years ago, and would like to cover it for this season
greenhouse megastore (online retailer)
Can you list your resources for the plastic you used
We bought it online at greenhouse megastore