Hey there Brian,

I built what sounds to be probably the same dome about 3 years back. After you've chosen 3v the 10' lengths of the conduit, in order to minimize waste, suggest a 12' ish radius. Are you doing 3/5 (more than a hemisphere) or 2/5 (less than...)?

So, in terms of tools, when I built my dome here is what I needed:

I sawed all the pipes by hand. (I did a 3/5 with 1" conduit, so that was a lot of sawing.) This required a vise (borrowed) and a reasonably good hand hacksaw.

Next was the flattening. This required a press. I paid the crucible $100 to use their manual screw press. Using their screw press was a 2 person operation. I don't know if they would still do this deal or not. They may have tightened up their operation.

Then the drilling. This required a drill press (borrowed).

Then the end bending. Required a vise (borrowed).

I happen to have on hand the same borrowed drill press and borrowed vise. I bought myself an arbor press in anticipation of doing some more dome work this year, but I had to drop the project at the beginning of this month due to lack of time and help.

For you to accomplish this before Bman, if that is your goal, is going to take up the majority of your time over the next two weeks. I am NOT exaggerating. A lot of the work involves moving the (with a 3/5 dome with 10% extra made for spares) about 188 poles from one place to the other. Help will be helpful.

With some kind of thing that makes me confident you can take care of and return the tools that I am just borrowing from someone else, I can lend you the arbor press, drill press, vise, and hand hacksaw. I will need the arbor press until about wednesday or thursday of this week. You would need to buy your own drill bits, wood for the jigs, saw blades, oil for the drill bits as you are working, etc.

Some advice on drilling: When I first did my dome I made the holes the same size as the bolts. This makes the dome very tough to assemble. Go up an eighth inch and you will be happier.

Bruce :-)