I’m not sure if anyone has already tried this. I am new to the group, and just finished erecting my first hexayurt. I had watched the You Tube video of Vinay assembling the roof cone, and due to what seemed like an inevitable problem of error buildup which makes fitting the last piece difficult, I thought there must be a better method. I tested my new method this weekend and it worked perfectly. I’ll keep this post fairly simple, and if there is further interest in what I have to say, I’ll see if I can do a better job in explaining it at that time, answer questions, or make a video at some point.
First, because of the pre-assembly folding method used here, this will only work if the roof triangles are bevel-cut on the angled sides (hypotenuse), so that they fit tight together at each sloped seam. With a high quality blade and a straight edge, this is quite easy to do. I will leave the geometry of the angle up to you. I used 60 degrees and it turned out to be more than I needed to cut away, but worked fine. i.e. cutting off too much is okay, too little and you will get binding between panels. Now, the idea is to make your roof in advance in two collapsible halves, each half being made up of 6 roof pieces. The beauty is that when you get to the playa, your roof is mostly done in advance. The other beauty is that with the two halves pre-made, there is no error buildup, and it fits together nicely. The 6 roof pieces need to be taped together, so they fold and unfold like an accordion. This takes a bit of thinking, but follow this process: Pre-assembly at home: • Begin by constructing one of the six roof sections. You will tape the center joint between the two halves only on one side. The side you tape must be the inside of the roof. Then fold them together to make a sort of triangle sandwich. Lay this aside. • Build two more of these. • Now, arrange the three triangles flat on the ground in the same way they will be oriented when the roof is complete. Make sure your new taped center-joints are face down, underneath. Now tape the angled joints between your three roof sections. • Once this is done, if you hold the entire assembly at the peak and draw it upwards slowly to a height of four feet, one half of the roof will be formed in front of your eyes, gravity dropping everything into place. If you’ve done things accurately, you should have a nice straight line where this half of the roof will join the other half of the roof. • Because your taped joints alternate from side to side, you should be able to fold this entire assembly like an accordion, into a six panel triangular stack. • Build the other side of the roof in the same way. You now have two sets of 6-panels, joined together like accordions, that fit side by side into a 4x8 stack of 6 sheets. Put your walls on top and your heading to the Playa. Playa Construction: • Lay your two roof accordions flat on the playa surface, oriented with the peaks of each half about 1 foot apart. • Tape the opposing sides of your center joints (there are six of these, one in the middle of each roof triangle. • Have one person get between the panels and draw them both up at the center, kneeling down, ultimately drawing the two sides up and together to fit a perfect center seam over their head. This can be made easier by sticking a piece of tape underneath each cone half near the center so the person can use these like handles to pull on. People on the outside can help adjust the alignment. Putting small bits of tape near the bottom of each side helps to hold and stabilize things in position while you prepare to tape it. • Follow Vinay’s directions for laying the final tape joint across the entire roof. You are done. I don’t know how clear this is. It’s hard to explain in words alone. Anyone intrigued? Has someone described the same method elsewhere? Comments and questions are welcome. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt?hl=en.
