The most important part of the dome is the
base ring. This needs to be perfectly circular and strong enough to
support the roof. This
web site describes the process of making a base ring from plywood
using a router.
I tried using a couple of CAD programs to
design the dome but found them to be too complicated for me. I ended
up using graph paper and a compass (guess I'm getting old!). The
frame is made of ½ inch ply and was put together in 6 bits, as
my garage was not big enough to house the dome complete. The frame
was skinned with wire mesh before glass matt and resin were added. I
did the fiber glassing in January so had a few problems keeping
things warm enough to go off. Also the wet matting would slide off
the frame if the quadrants were not laid on their side.
