Progress has been slow but steady off-late thanks to non-deliveries of dowels from the UK (brexit) and a certain lack of focus from pandemic blues, for want of a better term. However, the current status is
- All sticks or struts manufactured.
- Polythene unit cells being assembled
- Site has been attacked with weedkiller and soil turned.
- Concrete blocks sourced.
- Numerous seeds are being cultivated in trays.
Polythene Cover Cells
So....after a couple of previous trials working with the original 'triangle' base units I quickly realised I could save a lot of time / effort and tape by making larger base cells. Whilst in theory it is possible to construct single cells from the core haxagons and pentagons I decided to use 1/2 heaxagon units due to difficulties in handling, lousy weather outside and therefore strict limitations on indoor area available to stretch out polythene film.
The core thing about the hexagon patterns is that they are not real pentagons due to the raised centre (3D) property.
The sharp eyed amongst you will see that the '1/2' hexagon is less than the normal 180 degrees to accomodate the raised centre. The template pattern is drawn in masking tape on the floor to allow rerlatively quick tracing of the desired pattern to be defined by biro on the overlkying polythene and subsequently cut with sharp scissors.
This means that there is a lot of tension trying to tape the two halves together.
The above image shows the resultant gap which causes the tension when trying to join the 2 'halves' together. Masking tape is used to temporarily hold the halves in place whilst the tricky and very sticky tape is applied to the other side.
In order to make working with this tension a little easier a raised slope platform was quickly created with a couple of hinges and an old board sawn in half to form this below.
The height and length were chosen to be about 8" and 1 metre respectively to mimic the raised centre of the hexagon. (previously reported when assembling a unit hexagon with the bamboo struts).
You can see above the first (flat) half with zero stress has been joined with the transparent tape (10cm wide) with the temporary masking tape restraints still in place. The halves under tension are mounted on the raised profile and taped together on the underside with masking tape ready to receive the Transparent Polythene Welding tape.
The tape is 'mega' sticky and therefore not very forgiving but with a little practice this can be done relatively easily. So far have made 5 upper hexagons and 2 of the 4 lower hexagons. (1 of the lowers replaced by the door).
A reminder of the core structure shows that there are 10 hexagons in 2 rows emanating from the top pentagon. In between the hexagons are 5 further pentagons and a series of 5 1/2 heaxagons at ground level. More time will be spent on this in next post but I'll produce the rest of the hexagons, fractions before moving ahead with the pentagons which I have yet to make in one or two pieces.
Ground Works Prep
Pole with a 5.4m length rope placed in centre of site. Weedkiller applied using sprayer at the beginning of February.
Current status - Dug over once to try and stem new spring growth. Need a spell of dry weather to remove dead grass and level appropriately.
Weather is still 'iffy' with serious wind blowing across Ireland tody and tomorrow and curre ntly my target assembly date is approx 2 weeks away. This should give me time to assemble all of the polythene cover shapes and have the site fully prepared and hopefully we'll get a nice dry, windless spell to have a go. Pandemic restrictions currently mean this is liable to be a single handed attempt and though I have an idea in my head akin to the ancient egyptian architects the final stages of raising the dome to add the underlying sticks will rely on a crude system of stacked concrete blocks approx 90cm of ground level.
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