Sunday 17 January 2016

Second time around

There is a huge benefit of repeating the project (or in this case, parts of a project). This time last year I was welding the first frame, and it was a very anxious experience.I have put endless hours of work in planing and making the elements of the sculpture, and I had no idea if the concept will work or not. As I worked on it, step by step, for a moment it seemed that it will work beautifully, and next moment I was convinced that it will not fit together. It was the emotional roller-coaster that I don't want to repeat.
This year, I have proof of the concept, I know that it CAN work, and I also have a fall back position ( last years frame) if I mess this one up. So needles to say, I am much more relaxed about it.

As last time, (see Intuitive sense of Connection), I have started by welding the Y shape, and then connecting the Y's into pentagons and hexagons. 
The frame is emerging:


This time, the base and the inner core will be different. I am attempting to use SkechUp program to design and visualize the new elements. It is a great program, but I know so frustratingly little about it!
But here it is, I can show you my crude sketches to illustrate the obstacles in my way. (That is how I used 3 days of total fire bans when I could not do any metal work)

Imagine that this is my metal frame. Yes, I know that this one is a proper 3V geodesic dome, while mine consists of a honeycomb of hexagons and pentagons....but stay with me. (If you draw a Y shape in each triangle, you will get my frame - I am not proficient enough in SkechUp to be able to do it just as yet).

Have a look at the base:

 Mhmm....it is not sighting flat on the ground. Not only that, but all the little sticks at the bottom are at odd angles. To make things worse, my frame flexes and wobbles like a soap bubble.(That is the bit that I did not expect from metal, and it almost pushed me over the edge last year)
THIS time around, it did not come as a surprise, but it is still a hurdle I need to figure out.
So, this is the plan (If you look carefully, you will notice the black lines inside the dome:

It is easier to see if I separate the dome: 

I have no idea if I can do this, but I hope I can. It will be quite difficult to access all the bits to weld them.
But at least I have a plan....one step at the time......

1 comment:

  1. Brilliant work! But you are not just copying last year's effort... you are improving the design..

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