Truncated Icosahedron; AKA: the Bucky Ball, and the Soccerball

topic posted Tue, January 27, 2009 - 12:29 PM by  Ash of the Dark
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I was wondering if any of you have tried building a dome based on the design of the truncated icosahedron? I am kicking around ideas for building a panelized version, for two people to camp out in at Burning Man, and would love to hear of any experiences you may have had. The Cosmology Gallery in Western Australia is built like this:
www.gdc.asn.au/gallery/Ce...ry_1575.jpg
-- wish I could make those tri-directional metal braces they seem to be using on theirs... :)
posted by:
Ash of the Dark
Los Angeles
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  • Jim
    Jim
    offline 8
    The Cosmology Gallery in the picture is basically a 3V, 5/9 icosahedron dome, only using the "B" struts, the middle length struts. See:

    simplydifferently.org/Geodesi...me_Notes

    The green struts in the 3v, 5/9 dome (roughly mid-page) are the "B" struts. They are the same as the ridges/joints on the Cosmology Gallery.

    If you were using sheets of plywood you would cut six pentagons, 10 hexagons, and 5 1/2-hexagons. You'd then bevel the hex-hex edges to about 69 (69 degrees, 5 minutes, and 30 seconds exactly) degrees and the hex-pent edges to about 71 degrees (71 degrees, 18 minutes, 30 seconds exactly). See:

    www.coolmath.com/reference...edron.html

    You'll need between 9 & 18 sheets of plywood/osb/insulated panels for this, depending on the size you want. You'll also have to cut strips of wood to join the panels, side screwing plywood at these angles would be near impossible.

    If you built a classic 3V, 5/9 dome using 3/4 EMT as a Bucky Ball, you would need 59, or so-depending on the door, struts vs. 165 for a standard dome. You'd also only have 21 vs. 105 faces of a standard dome.
    • Excellent! The degree to which the edges are bevelled - I've never been able to figure that out! What I think I might do is to "tab" all the pents, hexes, and half-hexes with 1x2's, which have been bevelled to those very degrees, and lay the bevelled angle against the shape panels. These 1x2 tabs would have a few holes drilled along their length, to allow for bolts to join the tab of one panel to the tab of another.

      Another idea would be to use 1x4's for the tabs, put in 2" of insulation, and fit an interior panel to hold it in place. The remaining couple inches on the tab would be drilled for tab-bolting, as above. Either way, the bevel angle is crucial to this design, so I really thank you for clarifying that for me. When I have a bigger vehicle to transport the panels needed to build a structure like this, I will be so very excited to bring one out to the playa!

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