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location Wholeo guide, Wonder

Wholeo dome frame geometry Strut Guide

This drawing shows the strut positions for 1/5 of the Wholeo dome frame, with color-coding. (See the previous gray version). Loosely assemble each hub with a bolt, the struts sandwiched between two washers, and a nut. Start from the outside of the dome. The nut goes on the inside of the dome, or curvature of the frame. So the strut ends are bent in toward the inside. The bolt is 1" long and 1/4" in diameter. The washer is 3/4" in diameter and 1/16" thick. The hex heads of bolt and nut are 7/16" across. Look for non-corroding parts.

Five of these sections make the dome. For most of the hubs with six struts, the strut joint stacking order shows the outside. Actually, you end up assembling the dome from the inside, where it is easy to reach. So the order is left, right, lower left, upper right, lower right, upper left. Stacking each hub the same way increases the resilience of the frame as a whole.

Five short (#10) struts form the ribs of a pentagon. The stacking order is similar: left, right, lower left, top, lower right. For the sixth five-sided hub at the top of the dome, wing it.

The bolts are as short as possible to avoid deforming the inner surface of glass panels. Take care during assembly to not deform the strut ends. The threaded shaft of the bolt can force the flattened aluminum apart. The ends can easily break off under pressure and should not be flexed. There are no extra struts and manufacturing them by hand requires materials, tools, workshop, and a lot of time and energy I don't want to spend. Have patience during assembly. When the struts are bolted together, gradually tighten the nuts in stages equally all over the dome. Allow the struts to shift into proper positions. Avoid locking them into positions of unequal stress.

For details about the geometry and calculations, see the archive pages listed on the dome frame page.

This table shows the length in inches (from measurements), a number for the mark in aluminum tape wrapped on the strut (from measurements), the original color mark on the tube (if known), a letter (if used), and the numbers (from chord factors).

Struts
inches qty color ltr band code #
14 7/8 30 pink   #10
16 1/2 60 none   #7
16 7/8 30 stripe   #11
17 1/4 30 yellow   #1
17 7/8 60 turquoise T #5
18 1/8 90 purple P #2 and #12
18 5/8 130 black B #3 and #8
19 3/8 65 blue   #4 and #9
19 1/2 60 red R #6

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