Hey all,
If you’re interested in the dome building process, I’ve added some dome building pics to my profile. The "14” Cutoff Saw" was used to cut the 250 sections. Currently, I’m getting ready to crimp all 500 ends. You can see the pic “Test Crimp” that shows roughly what the crimps will look like. This one’s a little askew as I just eyeballed it. Notice that the crimp is rounded, not a flat line straight across. A flat line would create a weak point. I achieved the rounded line by replacing my vice jaws with die plates I had made up. The die plates have a semi-circle cut out to prevent crimping straight across. After the crimping is done, I’ll just need to drill the holes and bend the sections to the right angles and it’ll be ready for assembly. I hope to be at this point within 4 weeks.
Troy
If you’re interested in the dome building process, I’ve added some dome building pics to my profile. The "14” Cutoff Saw" was used to cut the 250 sections. Currently, I’m getting ready to crimp all 500 ends. You can see the pic “Test Crimp” that shows roughly what the crimps will look like. This one’s a little askew as I just eyeballed it. Notice that the crimp is rounded, not a flat line straight across. A flat line would create a weak point. I achieved the rounded line by replacing my vice jaws with die plates I had made up. The die plates have a semi-circle cut out to prevent crimping straight across. After the crimping is done, I’ll just need to drill the holes and bend the sections to the right angles and it’ll be ready for assembly. I hope to be at this point within 4 weeks.
Troy
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Philadelphia
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Re: Steel Dome Progress
Mon, April 11, 2005 - 1:04 PMIve gotten to see his progress in person. And im getting so excited for PDF!!! Im having PDF withdrawl
Mary
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Re: Steel Dome Progress
Mon, April 25, 2005 - 12:21 PMHey all,
All 500 ends are now crimped! Things started out a bit rough. My first day crimping, I used the vise as planned. However, in order to get a nice flat crimp, I had to put a cheater bar on the vise and beat the hell out of it with a sledge hammer. After just one hour, my arms were mush, the vise was slowly being reduced to a pile of metallic dust and I only had 10 ends crimped. It was apparent this method wasn’t going to work.
Off to Harbor Freight Tools I went and scored a 12 ton hydraulic press for $99.99. Crimping with the press was about 5 times faster. It was a little easier on me physically, but still required a lot of muscling. I now feel like a lop-sided freak. How I miss being a symmetrical freak. I’ll need to do left handed curls for a few weeks to even myself out.
I’m setting up to drill my 500 holes. It’s going to be interesting to see how many bits I go through.
Troy
