Polydome project

[toby6668]

We finished the frame of the polydome project this evening. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else fancies making one

[mothhawk]

Oooh! A mini Eden Project!

[veggiechicken]

Looks amazing - but how have you made it? I need more info

[Glutton4...]

That's Fab - I'm green with envy!

[The Masons]

It looks fantastic, do tell.......

[toby6668]

I got the wooden struts from a builders yard that sells fencing. The struts are the packing spacers that go in between the big fence posts when they are pressure treated. So they are seen as waste by the yard. I got the lot for £15. Each strut is cut to length as per the plan then has a 75mm vine eye screwed into each end. Then you just bolt the lot together. You can get the plan and the strut lengths from the dome calculator on desert domes (google it). Just got to work put the best way of fixing on the sheeting now

[Martin H]

I did a bit of goggling to look for how to design one of these. Is this the one you used? 3v Geodesic dome calculator

[toby6668]

I used this one. http://www.desertdomes.com/domecalc.html
The reverse dome calculator is useful too. The one I made is a 3v one.

[WPG]

Wow, that's super impressive Toby, I love it!

And looking at the exorbitant prices of flatpacks from the websites, all the more impressive that your costs are so low.

Out of interest, how long did it take to construct up to this point? What are you using for sheeting, and how will it be secured to the ground?

What are you planning to put in it?

Please do add more photos of next stages

[Veggiefirsttimer]

That looks so much like the Eden project! It's sure to be the talk of the allotment and everyone will be sat looking at it with envy!

Well done, looks brilliant !

[Martin H]

It looks fantastic. I need to work out where I can put one!

I'd love to see a close-up of the door, can't quite work out how to do that...

[toby6668]

The wood was £15 as mentioned earlier (though I think I was lucky to get such a good deal on that). I bought 400 x 75mm vine eyes off eBay and used about 330 (one in each end of each strut). Cost about £35 for the vine eyes. A box of M8 roofing nuts and bolts cost about £15. So looking at around £70 so far. I have worked out that I'll need a piece of plastic sheeting about 10m x 10m to cover it in one piece. Found a supplier on email who sells for approx £80. I'm going to cut lots of thin strips of wood to screw onto the cover over the internal frame to sandwich the sheeting in place. Hopefully make it wind proof and stop it ripping. I plan to anchor it to the ground using long pegs of bent rebar hammered into the ground at opposing angles.
I'm not looking forward to climbing on top to fix the sheeting batons though .... Could be a bit dodgy!

[toby6668]

Took a few boring hours to cut the struts to the correct length and screw the vine eyes in. I drilled a pilot hole in each end first to stop the wood from splitting. We bolted the frame together in a couple of hours last night. Took 2 of us. Was tricky at times - needed more than 2 hands each. It's wobbly until the last bolt goes in then it becomes super rigid.

[marchogaeth]

It looks really well constructed. Just wondering how you plan to ventilate it. Also are you going to put in cross beams to hang things from to make the most of the roof space? I assume it's quite high. I only ask as in my (limited) experience things like that are better put in before sheeting/roofing.

[toby6668]

I sorted the door hole this morning and finished tightening the central bolts. Happily I realised that it is going to be strong enough to lean a ladder against to fix the top battens once the sheeting is on. It's going to be pretty easy to fix stuff up inside as I can screw straight into timber frame. I'll leave one triangle near the top as an opening vent if I need to. Getting some strange looks from my fellow allotmenteers but all positive comments so far.