Post by starsheep on Feb 21, 2024 15:00:09 GMT -7
Repairing the Spitz Jr, and other projects have me thinking about some sort of dome project. Projecting on a flat surface seems to be less than stellar.
The laser cutter I have access to has a 1 meter wide bed. I have used it to cut player organ rolls of that length.
If one used it to cut gores, then a 2 meter wide dome could be easily cut. If there is a center disk, that could be 25 to 30 CM. Which could make for a 2 and a half meter dome. Decent sized for one or two people. I know for a lot of folk the more can show things to (up to a point.) the better. For me it is about the technical aspects. Sure an app can do the same thing. But it is not the same. I sort of remember the quiet solitude of the dome room at the college I attended. I seem to recall the class was after lunch, so most people were in a fairly relaxed state. What I really wanted though was to handle the controls myself. Or upgrade them to the computer technology I was learning at the time.
Inflatable seems to be the most practical. I did see some while browsing using the fiber tent poles. At one time the crafts stores sold this in 2 meter lengths.
Sewing a full dome would be a lot of work. Especially if french seamed, which is the flat seam used in denim jeans. I think balloons also use this. It is an overlapping seam. It was used in victorian undergarments as there is not a selvage bulge.
There are plenty of you tube vids showing inflatable domes. One I thought interesting was made from Big box home improvement tarps. As noted I have experience making victorian hooped dresses, which I wear two months out of the year on weekends. These are about 1 meter at the base. Such takes about 6 or 7 yards of 42 inch fabric. I may have some bolts of Toule fabric somewhere in the closet.
Semi rigid, also has some attractiveness. There are some vids and websites showing geodesic cardboard domes.
The "STEAM" maker fair is in April. So I am trying to think of something that can be put up quickly. I mentioned this to one of the other members who is currently involved with Burning man. I have not attended in years (Since it was on the SF beach.) Seems like things there have become exponentially more complex.
I did security work for the big San Mateo overnight Maker Faire. Mostly the overnight shifts. So I have seen how some of this complex logistics take place. And what a crowd of 100K visitors does duringt the day. I think that is why such things have gone to the smaller 1 day events.
What would be fun would be to vaccum form a dome out of the plastic panels used for ceiling lights. This way one could turn up the edges. The process would be similar to making fiberglass panels. The gore mold would need to fiberglassed anyway. My machine though can only do a 25 by 30 cm sheet. It really does come down to the size of the heater and the supply of Vacuum.
If only I did not have enough projects to keep busy for 500 years... (Or is the number closer to 2000 I would love to have seen Nero's golden palace and what ever the rotating star chamber was. Just the surviving fragments of the ships of Nemi are amazing. And I haves spent years if not Decades studying the Antikeythera device.)
