The Assembly of Domus Noctem
On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Carpe Noctem assembled in our friend Jay’s spacious backyard to erect Domus Noctem for the very first time.
The day started very early (10am) with two teams in two different places, each with a truck. One team, Casey, Cody and Trey, handled the rental of a Sumner 2118 materials hoist and a 20′ extension ladder, while another team of Justin and Jon loaded the pipe into the truck.
The hoist was indeed heavy and unwieldy but proved to be exactly the right tool for the job. It fit perfectly inside both standard-sized truck beds throughout the day.
With the pipe, lift, and beers unpacked it was time to get started. We had several people assemble the top pentagon while we double checked our work area to ensure we had enough space, and then we lifted the pentagon over the hoist and began to work out how to attach it.
This is pretty much what we ended up with the first time. There was a small issue with this rig which I’ll explain after I show you:
This is a 50 foot segment of rope rated at 500 lbs working load. Like another dome team we had seen on the net, we ran the rope between each vertex connected to the top pentagon. What we found is that it was cumbersome trying to adjust the various rope segments such that the dome would be lifted in a level fashion. With a little finagling we were able to get it even enough, but for the next build (and breakdown) we are considering using a carabiner system with pre-cut equal lengths of rope to connect from the mast to each vertex. Nonetheless, with the dome suspended from the mast, it was time to get building.
Once the dome was built, the next task was to detach the dome from the mast. We thought it might be possible for one of our braver members (Jon) to scale the dome and untie the dome from the mast, but when you get near enough to the top, you stop being able to climb and moving horizontally across the dome is just too challenging.
Instead we leaned our extension ladder against the mast and secured both with several people, and sent Jon up to untie the rope.
Presto! Finished dome. Total time to build? Just two and a half hours from when the first struts were assembled.
Oh, and let’s not forget, our shade structure actually has to provide shade:
Thanks for checking out how Domus Noctem is assembled. Did you see how it was made?