Planning to build a yurt in Czech Republic

[Knecht]

Ok, it's glued and screwed together now, just waiting for the glue to set.

[Knecht]

Since I can hardly find a moment when there's no unsadned or drying filling or glue on this thing, I've decided to take the picture now, as the next time it's dry and sanded, I may have the painting started.
Took several pics and the thing still looks highly assymetrical on them. I guess it's caused by the wide, downwards facing corner on each of the four beams of the crown. Once there's one of them hidden behind the other one, it all starts looking weird. The whole thing is actualy pretty symmetrical in real.
Anyhow, here's my wooden UFO. You can see wet spots of fresh filling over the attaching woodscrew heads. Once I do the final last sanding, I'll paint the whole thing and start covering the four slots between the center star beams. One gets metal sheet with hole for the stove pipe, others are getting transparent plastic.

[Bob Rowlands]

There's nothing wrong with that knecht. Good job. Are you going to soften and mold the plastic with a heatgun?

[Knecht]

I'll see how flexible it gets cold, but maybe the heatgun will be necessary.

[Bob Rowlands]

I've worked a little bit with clear sheet plastic. The stuff I'm talkin about is about 3 mm thick, and covered both sides with a protective plastic wrap that needs to be peeled off-AFTER- being cut. It might not be the same material as you are using, but here's what I found making windows out of the stuff.

Go VERY slow cutting the edges. Tablesaw skilsaw scrollsaw jigsaw. Use a VERY fine sawblade, like those for cutting veneer. You'll need to have support right at the edge you'll be cutting so the chatter and vibration don't crack your material. I lost a fair amount of plastic during cutting.

Once the edges are cut there will be very tiny cracks all along the cut edge. Sand those out (or melt them?) so they don't take off on you when you start bending the sheet. I'm thinking you'll need to really soften up the plastic to pull off making any curved surface.

There are likely other better ways to do the work. I'd check youtube. A red hot piece of strap metal might work for cutting and eliminate the cracking problem. I don't know just a guess. Anyway, there you go. Have fun and good luck. If anyone can pull this off, you can.

[Bob Rowlands]

Oh yeah, and wear safety glasses if using power saws to cut the stuff. That plastic is brittle and can rocket out of the tablesaw.
lol

[Knecht]

Thanks Bob.
What I'm planning to use will be 2-layer polycarbonate plastic with cells inside, like this:


I saw it on a yurt ring already:


Funny story. I went to the builder's supplies today to get the plastic (been there and talked to the guy about this material a day ago, told him I'll be back when I do the measuring, as he said it's cut and sold by meter). So, I came in and said I wanted 2m of it.
"Sorry, I'll have to bring the jigsaw first." So I was standing there couple seconds, expecting he's gonna get his saw from somewhere. He seemed surprised.
"We don't have a saw here. I'll have to bring my own."
"So...you're selling this material and cutting it, but you don't have the tool here?"
"Right. The boss said it's not sold often enough to justify buying a saw for it. So I bring my own when someone asks for it."
"Eeeh, ok, so...would you bring it tomorrow?"
"Yeah I hope I'll keep that in mind. Wish me luck."
"You know, you could have mentioned this yesterday when I was here. I would bring my own saw."
"Well it can't hurt if you take it tomorrow, anyway. In case I forgot."

[Bob Rowlands]

Regular Johnny on the spots, huh? lol

Keep us posted on your cap progress. The sheet tin with stove hole will be a snap for you. Looks like you sized the top cap supports so you'll need very little bend in the plastic to clear the inner hole. You'll get it I'm sure.

BTW my door paint detail is kinda similar to the red one on the roof cover above. I really ought to have my computer literate wife load a few photos of it on here.

Enjoy the work. Bob

[Knecht]

I hope they have thin enough polycarbone in stock. It seems to be made as thin as 4mm, which would be good for the bends. Yes, I made the supports that way to minimize the needed curve in the covering material. Now we shall see if it works.

[Knecht]

Good news, he had the saw today. I have the makrolon sheet at home.