Right now, I don't recommend folding hexayurts for the playa. Here's why.

On a regular hexayurt, the tape straps go from the stake to a rope to
the tape anchor, up the strap to the peak of the roof, back down, to
the opposite tape anchor, to the rope, to the opposite peg. Twelve
times. It's a ton of tape, and a fair bit of work, but the result is a
structure which is Going To Stay On The Ground Through More Or Less
Anything.

Even with corners cut this structure stands. I'm quite proud (and of
you too, hexayurt builders!) of the low failure rates at Burning Man.

Folding hexayurts, however, tend to have a different structure. Tent
peg to rope to tape anchor... then up to the peak. And that's it. Each
tape anchor is stuck to the side of a roof piece, but it doesn't have
the up-and-over quality of the unbroken strap. There may be a way of
taping them so that they do actually behave better, but I never
figured it out.

The big difference is whether the building is held to the ground by
the *tensile* strength of the tape - a single unbroken band up and
over - or by the *adhesive* strength of the tape holding the tape to
the slope of the roof. It's a substantial difference in structural
terms, because the up-and-over strap won't fail by "skinning" the
building and just tearing off down the side.

Now, this said, people are building folders, and they aren't blowing
over. And they're beautiful and elegant and fast and many other good
things. And there might be approaches, like up-and-over taping on the
*wall* pieces, and then a zipper that holds the roof on. Or something.

But this is generally speaking the issue with folders. You've got the
essence of the how in the email below. Also cutting angles on the edge
of each board is more-or-less necessary for folders, although I've
tried them without it.

Hope this is helpful,

Vinay

On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 11:08 PM, jrusoff <[email protected]> wrote:
> I'm planning to bring a hexayurt to the playa this year, and wondering
> if I can make a partially folding hexayurt. The info I've seen on them
> lead me to believe that I can make all the sides fold into one stack.
> Is that correct? To do this do I tape every other seem on the opposite
> side? Do you make this by using the 6 inch tape, or do I have to build
> clothe hinges? Would a simple canvas strip glued onto the sheets work
> as a hinge? I've seen a writeup where someone build k-hinges, but
> that's more sewing than I can tackle. It seems like having things
> partially assembled would save a load of time during setup.
> Thanks for your help,
> JR
>
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-- 
Vinay Gupta
Free Science and Engineering in the Global Public Interest

http://hexayurt.com - free/open next generation human sheltering
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