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Geodesic domes

Being all mathematical I’ve been long fascinated by geodesic domes. There are instructions in many places on the web for a method involving rolling tubes of newspaper up and then stapling them together in the right configuration to make a dome. Newspaper being free, I thought I’d have a go…

P1000310

This is actually the best it ever managed. Having had a think, I realised that the newspaper I started with was too small (or the strut length too long) so I rolled it diagonally. This meant that it was thicker in the middle and weaker towards the ends, which is where most of the failures were. Also, there was no way I could find to staple through six tubes of paper and insulation tape in one go. I did find a much neater solution though:

P1000307

The trouble was I came to this idea late in the build. Really the easiest thing to do would be to remove all the staples, drill holes in each end of each pipe and then reassemble with fasteners. If the rods didn’t have inbuilt weakness near the ends, I might consider it.

In reality, I’m going to shelve this for the minute. When my time is a bit more my own, (or the boys nag too much for a den) I’ll put out a freegle or freecycle call for big broadsheet newspapers and start again!