Has anyone looked into making geodesic domes?

CNC Machines Shapeoko
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I have been thinking of making one for the garden - rather than buy a kit I was wondering if anyone has tried to make one - atleast the joints on a Shapeoko?

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I have found the below site that can run some calcs on it to work out what you might need, but I also believe you can do it with equal lengths…

http://geo-dome.co.uk/3v_tool.asp

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This is one of the projects I have in the to be done file, and like you have been collecting info, but AM not yet in the “MAKE” stage.

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Glad to know I’m not the only one. Any good info you can share now?

From my understanding all these hubs are a 10 degree angle inwards and assuming your using 6 way joints each one (if made from wood), would be 30 degrees per side.

There seem to be 2 main construction methods:

  • using hubs
  • not using hubs but creating the actual joints

The obvious benefits of hubs is you can slot it together really quick, however you increase cost significantly when using hubs.

I stumbled across this kit - http://buildwithhubs.co.uk 0 which means things super easy, and whilst I won’t be buying one it raises the question on how few joints can you get away with? This one relies on 25 with 75 sticks… others (including my link) suggest far more.

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You need to post your link again.

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When I get home I’ll round up my research and share it.

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See if there’s anything in https://github.com/HopefulLlama/JointSCAD which would help?

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It would be a good idea. I made one for camping at Electric Forest. Crimped ends, bent angles at end, and then drilled holes. Took a while, but well worth the time.

Some sort of hub attachment would have made setup/teardown easier.

The plastic is just construction plastic sheets ironed together.

IMG_20150531_201925.jpg4160Ă—3120 1.52 MB

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I am having trouble finding my saved info, but I had two trains of thought, based in part on an Australian website selling wood template kits for bending aluminum panels and sharing info.

  1. Cut aluminum frames and fill them with sprayable foam ,to quickly make a rigid and light weight insulated panel-that could be shipped anywhere cheaply as aluminum frames.

  2. cut urethanefoam/luan panels and cover with poor mans fiberglass(light weight cloth saturated/coated with Titebond 2 wood glue(dries waterproof) or aluminized roof coating-or both-use tooth picks(for foam) or tape (for Luan) to hold them in place while covering them-again quick, light weight, insulated, strong and cheap.

Both must be anchored because of their seriously light weight!