What is “best practice” for building a Hexayurt for Burning Man 2014?
I’m thinking a set of opinionated, field-tried-and-tested directives in the style of the cave divers’ “DIR” (Doing It Right — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doing_It_Right). While the consequences of Doing It Wrong are astronomically less severe for Burner Hexaurt dwellers than cave divers, I would think that excepting a couple of budget-dependent options, at every decision point there is a clear right and wrong way. As a straw-man, I’m going to throw up a starting point and would like people to come at me with either affirmations of correctness or experience-supported explanations of a Better Way. Materials: * 1.5” Thermax HD. The thicker facing offers infinitely better durability and the thicker panels don’t hurt your ability to sleep in a cool environment later into the day. It is however expensive, so 1” R-Max/Tuff-R or similar (at less than half the price) is acceptable. * 6” 3M bi-directional filament tape (3M part number 8959). Accept no substitutes. * 3” Foil tape (or 6”, is that relatively easily available? What 3M part number? Off-brand adhesive products are all shit in my experience) for covering permanent tape hinges and joins, so they do not degrade under exposure to UV. Also for reinforcing the thin foil facings on non-Thermax HD panels. * 3” Velcro (tm—does anyone have an opinion on off-brand hook-and-loop closures?) for the two detachable joins at the walls, the join between the two roof halves and the tension ring. Canvas panels to sew the loop-side onto to make the join strips. * Sturdy (materials? Spectra good here, or do you want something with a little give?) rope halo joined with a double fisherman’s bend (http://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/double-fishermans/). (There should be a standard length of rope you need for a H12 too—enough to be long enough to hang down far enough to reach, not so long the tension points dip below the roofline) * 6 ratchet straps to tie down the rope halo * 6 Playa Staples to tie the ratchet straps into the ground (http://www.ironmonkeyarts.org/playa-staples.html). “Regular” (10”) size is fine. * x' by y' tarp (Vinay, what’s that fancy nano material tarp you were talking about a few months ago?) * Thin (how thin?) 4’ x 8’ ply for the outer protective sandwich to protect the packed yurt. Construction: * Beveled edge cuts. (I have an idea about a 3d-printable tool that will accept a standard snap-off blade and make perfect bevelled edges. I will post again when I get to prototyping.) * “Camp Danger Hinges” (you don’t need “loose hinges” if you bevel your edges, do you?) * Velcro strips for the over-the-roof, wall section and tension-band joins. 3” hook-side strips of velcro stuck directly to the appropriate places of the roof and wall joins with its own adhesive (surely if you clean the surface properly a 3” wide strip is never coming off?) with the loop-sides stitched onto hemmed canvas strips. Important: one, single, unbroken strip of canvas as the tension band going all around the top of the wall/roof-cone join, sticking to itself with a patch of “hook” sewn onto the back of itself at one end (does that make sense?) * Foil tape over all permanent tape hinges and joins, to prevent degradation of the bi-filament tape. On anything other than Thermax HD or other thick-facing boards, a couple of runs of foil tape 6” up from the bottom of the wall panels, onto which you stick the tarp with gaffer or bifi (so it doesn’t take the board facing with it when you rip the tape/tarp off) * Door: outward-swinging, bevelled edges, curved top corners, top edge 4-6” from top of wall panel, rare-earth magnet closure embedded into the jamb, flattened tape (or string?) handle inside (so there’s nothing that can’t fold flat) Is any of the above screamingly controversial? Cheers, Robert. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
