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Hi All

I have actually started work on building my Geodesic Dome greenhouse for the allotment. I have been talking about it for years and waiting until I had enough money to buy all the materials etc but to be honest I am never going to get it built if I wait until everything is in place so I have decided to just start building it anyway.

When it is finished it will look like this



We have built the base this weekend. The base is quite complicated. There are 15 base boards made up of three different types. Each of the base boards need to have a 12º angle at each end and along its top edge. 5 of the board also have to slope to the right and 5 to the left.

A couple of days ago I bought the wood and cut all the boards to length with the right angles on the ends. Then I set about cutting the tapers with the 12º angle along the top edge. I did this on the table saw by setting the blade at a 12º angle and setting the depth so it just cut through the board. I then used another board on top of the one being cut, offset by 32mm to give me the correct taper (I hope)



All the boards cut



I cleared the ground of grass and weeds and started fitting the base boards yesterday. Using a stake in the centre of the dome as a datum point for both level and radius it was not too difficult to assemble the base although I will need to tweak it a little when I have an extra pair of hands



Now we need to start making the jigs for making the 103 triangles that make up thee dome. We will make triangles as and when we can afford the materials but I hope to have the dome made by the end of the summer.

I will keep you posted

paul

I am trying to do a little bit towards this each day or at least several times a week and as it is nice weather I thought I would make a start of the templates for the triangles.

There a two types of triangle that need to be made. One type makes pentagons and the other type makes hexagons. I need to make 30 pentagon triangles and 69 hexagon triangles so an accurate jig is essential.

You start by cutting one of each of the triangles from plywood. Then you clamp a piece of 2 by 1 along each edge basically making a finished triangle as it will go in the dome. Once you are happy with your shape you hen fix anther triangle of 2 by 1 inside your first triangle and screw and glue this inner triangle to the plywood. this is your jig.

I have cut the plywood but I am getting the first bundle of wood tomorrow so will try and get the jigs done then



paul

Things are moving on now and it all seems a little less daunting.

I was expecting it to take about 10 minutes to make a triangle but I can do them a lot quicker than that and that was the first ones I have built and I haven't really got a system going yet.

It took me about 30 minutes to build 6 triangles and then assemble them into a hexagon panel.

This is fantastic as I was thinking it was going to take weeks to build a dome but if there is the two of us and we have a system I reckon we could do a dome from start to finish in a few days and a day installing.

Anyway. I am pleased with the potential speed at which I could build a dome if I had all the materials at hand. I have run out of screws now so have to knock it on the head but I am keeping a note of everything I need so when I am building future domes I will know I have all the materials and supplies on hand before we start.

I am getting excited now



paul

That's fantastic Paul

What will you grow in it?

Thanks Doofaloofa

The north side of the dome (can you have a side of a dome?) is going to be insulated and will have a reflective white inner face to reflect light back at the plants. I am then planning on building a series of full hight growing towers to grow salad and maybe strawberries.

It the centre there will be a traditional growbed with soil which I would like to plant a specimen tree of some sort. An avocado would be nice (suggestions?). This will have an understory of smaller shrubs and herbaceous plants and maybe a climber to climb up the tree. It would be nice to try to grow a micro food forest there.

Around the south side of the dome will be the main growbeds for the aquaponics system and we will experiment to see what we can grow in an AP system. I would like to try wassabi.


paul

What's your square meterage?

i have an avacado in my tunel, and has been severly frost pruned, but is still alive. it remains to be seen if i can get a crop out of it

As to wassabi, it needs moisture and shade and is toleranbt of temperate climate, so you may as well grow outside if conditions allow

i'd consider an exotic corden/espalier for a center piece

Perhaps a citrus, or a peach

potential for a well trained grape vine

We will end up with about 16 square meters of floor space

Because I will have running water in the dome it should be well suited to wassabi as an understory.

The dome will be insulated on the north side and will have about 2000lt of water in there helping to regulate the temperature all year round so I am hoping not to have a frost problem. Another advantage of a dome is you have a lot of wooden structure to secure to so rigging up temporary insulation for susceptible plants should be possible

It is all a learning experience

paul

It will be a breat space when it's done

good luck

Does anyone know how dangerous the sawdust from tanalised wood is?

I am going to end up with several sacks of sawdust per dome built and I need to know what I can do with it.

paul

http://www.recycledplasticbuildingmater ... imber.html

http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_%27tanalised%27_wood

I'm watching this with interest. This looks like the same plan that we bought for making our dome. We've got all the stuff to make it but terrible weather (amongst other things) have delayed it.

Anyway the polytunnel is now fixed so hopefully we'll be following on behind you.

Looks good thus far.

I bought my plans from Paul at geo-dome.co.uk He is a very clever man and has obviously put a lot of time and effort into designing these domes so that they are easy to build.

paul

Have you a cost, all in, for the project Paul?

Material cost will be around the £350 mark

Paul

That is pretty good value compared to a tunnel

a good bit of labour I imagine

Let us know when you've finnished