Metal studs for dome construction

[RoConroy at aol dot com]

In a message dated 01-07-22 15:27:21 EDT, JM Goldman wrote:
 
<<  Earlier I looked at the panels made from steel studs (I think those
 were Seatrek/Martin photos), and revisited the idea of a less
 expensive, easy to assemble garden shed.    So if a frame was made
 from a metal stud (or just light stud track) properly bent into a
 straight sided triangle (or perhaps shipped straight with the bend
 points prescored, the buyer just bends and screws end tabs down to
 form triangle), with your wedges provided to get the dihedral angle
 right where the panels are connected ( wedges of wood, plastic, bent
 metal, etc.) , and then sheet metal (or pattern for wood) sheathing,
 hmm, I wonder how close we get to the garden dome shed that works... >>

      I have photos of panels being made from metal studs, but the heavier 
metal studs were required to give the structure stability.  The heavier metal 
studs cost more than the wooden 2x4s at that time and they were about 4 times 
harder to work with.  I used a lightweight concrete panel for the sheathing.  
The pictures should be listed under the "Research and Developement" link on 
the URL: http://hometown.aol.com/dometruss
        My opinion is that the metal studs simply aren't worth the trouble 
unless maybe your building inside of a termite mound.  Bob