From: The Butterfly (salsbury_at_bootstrap.sculptors.com)
Date: 11/08/97
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 20:32:06 -0800 Message-Id: <199711090432.UAA05323@bootstrap.sculptors.com> From: The Butterfly <salsbury_at_bootstrap.sculptors.com> Subject: Re: Cardboard domes, kids, and the Future...
-From: sevenup_at_slip.net (Mark Moorcroft)
-Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 00:25:24 GMT
-References: <199710071701.KAA17901_at_bootstrap.sculptors.com>
-
-
-Hi folks, (as I briefly abandon lurk mode ;-)
-
-Check out http://www.hoberman.com/fold/products.html. This is not a dome
-structure. But the polypro. material (looks just like cardboard) is impervious
-to water damage. Although not as cheap as cardboard it seems more
-suitable for
-an outdoor structure. The other cool thing about this stuff is that if
-you cut
-it carefully a good portion of the seams would already be waterproof.
-
-This poly material is used a lot in the sign industry and I have meant to=
- bring
-it up for some time now, what with all the talk about emergency shelters,
-playhouses etc. It also seems to me that the most sensible means to =
-provide a
-leak proof "quickdome" would be brush on goo or a secondary "cover".
-
---> back to lurk mode
-
-
-Mark Moorcroft sevenup_at_slip.net KF6NTD
- Actual home Silicon Valley
- Virtual home www.slip.net/~sevenup
-
The US Postal Service also uses this material in lightweight
carrying cases for the mail. I think it's called 'corrugated polypropylene'
and it weighs next to nothing. It would make an excellent mid-to-longer
term housing solution (on the scale of several years) and as noted,
it's waterproof. It also is translucent, so you'd get good light inside the
structure, without feeling like you were in a fishbowl with the world
looking in.
Another neat side effect of the polypro material is something the
USPS takes advantage of. It melts with the proper application of heat, so
they take it, fold it over, and then "spot-weld" two pieces together
permanently with something probably like hot tongs. For quick assembly
without staplying, gluing, using goo, or whatever, this would probably be a
boon. (Imagine a disaster area where you need to get at least 5000 of them
assembled before nightfall with a bunch of untrained help who've just been
through said disaster...)
It CAN be done, though. The dome design we worked on could be put
up within 4 hours by 1 person, 2 hours by 2, and so on. Might take even
less, actually. There were only 30 pieces.
--
Pat
___________________Think For Yourself____________________
Patrick G. Salsbury <salsbury_at_sculptors.com>
http://www.sculptors.com/~salsbury/
-----------------------
You know it's scary when a corporation's fines for enviromental
terrorism are less than their office supplies. Eek!
--Aaron Lee Forrest <louisxiv_at_albany.net>