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My dome is a 3v 5/8 w/ a 24' diameter made from 3/4" Conduit. I've always assembled it starting at the bottom and working my way up to the top. While working on the bottom couple of layers you can have as many people as you have tools - then when ladders are needed you can have two people on a ladder working around the circle. It only goes down to a one man job at the very top (when i have to stand on the top rung to get the center bolt in). Then when taking the dome apart i do the opposite - I'll start on top of the ladder and take bolts out of the top most part - then invite someone on the ladder w/ me, then at ground level everyone can help. This past weekend at transformus (southeast regional burn) I was at the top of the ladder and somebody came by to tell me i was doing it all wrong. He said it's way faster from the bottom up on disassembly. I just can't imagine asking 10 or 15 people to hold the dome up while a couple of other people disassemble it - seems like a waste of lots of peoples time and I can't imagine it would go any faster.
What do yall do?
What do yall do?
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Georgia
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Re: assembling/disassembling bottom up or top down
Wed, July 22, 2009 - 8:04 AMLike you I have only put domes up from the bottom up and taken down from the top down. I have a 16' 2v made of 1 3/8" fence post, 21' 4v made out of 3/4EMT, 40' 4v made of 1 3/8" fence post, and I built a 24' 2v out of 1 5/8" fence post for a friend. I think the only way I would put a dome together from the top down would be if I had a crain, long reach fork lift, or something to lift it. I dont want to have 20+ people waist there time. I like to be able to put it together with as few people as I can. -
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Re: assembling/disassembling bottom up or top down
Fri, July 24, 2009 - 10:43 AMFWIW: The only dome I've ever assembled was a 40' 4v made of 3/4" EMT. There was no ladder available, so it was built it from the top down. It didn't take 20+ people, more like 10, and nobody just stood around. We did this during BM08's Monday wind storm/white out.
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Re: assembling/disassembling bottom up or top down
Thu, August 6, 2009 - 1:51 AMI have made domes of different sizes in different situations.
If it is possible, it always seems better to assemble from the top down.
One of my domes is like your 3v 5/8 24' It's a bear to build bottom up, but that's usually how I do it because it is so large.
One option is to build a dome hoist.
If one is building domes off playa, on uneven and/or sloped ground, the advantages of top down assembly increase. One can also play fast and loose with the strut lengths and end up with something that will still go together, but you really must do it top town in that case.
I just built a 16' diameter 2v octahedral dome out of eucalyptus saplings on sloped uneven ground, and really messed up by buidling it bottom up. Had to redo some of the vertices when it was done :-(
So yeah, on the flat and level playa, and with a big dome, bottom up is not so bad, though if you can figure out a way to do top down you will still save a good amount of time, maybe not overall as you may need to build a specialized dome hoist, but on playa where it counts.
In situations of slope or uneven ground or "more or less" correct strut lengths, the benefits of top down increase.
Any way that gets you to where you want to be is the right way though, eh?
