My name is -- and -- and we are here today to build a 32 foot Dodecahedron -- Dome. These are the scraps it will take to build the 32 footer and we have just started putting and it is put together with wood now and it would take us through -- about one day to finish up.
But first go around the hubs and struts that you put up. You will have to brace it because it will not hold itself yet. By the second time we go around, the dome will have a self-supporting attitude and we take these temporary bracings we have -- to the ground, if you will notice, these are colored coded so that if you have a red strut going to a red hub, you are right, if you did not, you are wrong. Unlike the icosahedron, an icosahedron that has triangles that go in a row around it and are easily cut in half. The dodecahedron does not have that luxury. So we have to pick the place to cut the dome. This is a six tenth of a sphere, the diameter, the half way mark is about right here on this dome. So what that does is the wall have to be, this bottom wall here actually goes in a little bit and if you are standing inside the dome, it means it actually comes out a little bit so that you can walk around the perimeter without hitting your head because the dome is actually slightly going away from you instead of coming in on you.
So this dodecahedron, we have to cut, we cut it into place, the six pins where you cut half way through every other hub. Here, it is cut half way through the strut. So that is the reason for the lay-out that we have got because you cannot just cut a dodecahedron just any place.
When the dome gets to this level right here, you will start t realize that instead of being round, the dome actually is not round, it is just that it starts with a -- ground but it actually has plenty sides to it that are straight. But the lumber is not curved and yet the -- a circular path. So that is one of the neat things about it. Another is that the struts never cuts each other. That none of these struts are touching each other and that is why the integrity unit means. These are all starting to take on the tension between the -- to catch this frame and the compressive strength down at the bottom, it is starting to balance out.
Well, the reason we are shooting this young lady is, that is the heaviest piece of the dome, that she is bringing over to her grandfather.
At this stage of construction, the dome has reached what is called, its critical mass, so it no longer needs any kind of support from the outside, it is supporting itself. It is under tension enough to keep it in place and you can see that it has pulled itself to its own level, that some of the places -- touching on the ground because the ground is not leveled with the dome. So that is the good characteristic a dome has.
By putting this 4 inch tamp over the strut and squeeze it together on the hub after you have got it lined up, because when you take the pin out, it will stay in place while you drive the bullet. And that sort of a handy little kit that we have come across some -- together.
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