A Dome is Home

Well, I just returned from the ranch. Well, late last night I got home, but I was too tired to deal with this blog then. I took the dome up to the ranch along with the dog and the kid to help try to put it together.
Success! (click me)
It took about 4 or 5 hours times 2 people for 10 man hours. I think longer if I was alone. It really does need 2 people to put it together in a timely manner.
It did go up easily. I have a bunch of pics that I will post later. They are at the web site, just change the url to reflect the pic you want to see for now.
Important to note! Do not tighten bolts. you have to take them on and off 2 or three times. The last strut goes on, use the washer and hand tighten only. The whole structure will tighten itself as it goes up and it also shifts it's form some. This is a plus for any errors made during the fabrication stage. Only after the entire dome is up do you go back and wrench down the bolts.
Use a power drill with a deep cell socket if you can. Saved us a ton of time, till the power ran out of the battery!
Color coding is essential. you will be tempted to skip this because "I can tell the difference in the poles". Believe me, I had thinking issues a couple of times WITH the color coding. Joe (kid) and I sat down a couple of times to discuss and make sure we were doing ok. The dome does not always "look right" as it is going up. We did a ground up build. Easy enough. Standing on a table, we could reach the top fine.
As far as a dead or live weight test, We did a Teenage test. The kid weighs 220 lbs. Probably more since he just ate half the food in town for breakfast. Here is the result: (Click me)
And for a side load test: (Click me)
All for now, other than that puts this frame at about a dollar a foot and 40 hours start to finish. Now for the cover......