DIY yurt center ring any ideas...?

[ljamies1]

Im starting to plan out my crown/ center ring for a 30 ft. yurt and would love any/ all suggestions. I am brainstorming ideas/ materials other than wood. Maybe an old flour mill cog wheel or an old cool tractor wheel rim and then either cut female holes around the edge of that to fit the male pin on the raters into. Or instead of cutting holes I could weld on females pieces to the outside edge of the crown to hook the male rafter pins into...any thoughts on other round/ recyclable/ sturdy/ somewhat light weight objects? Since I am making my own cover and rafters, I have the luxury of first locating a crown piece and cutting all other components to size

 

[Jafo]

Re: DIY crown/ any ideas...?

I am not a builder, but I see a lot of people use multiple sheets of plywood, glued together.

There are a lot of other types of designs in the albums:

Yurt Construction - Images

 

[Reinventor]

Re: DIY crown/ any ideas...?

I'd be interested to see what you did.

I have rough designs for an idea that creates a cupola up top with smaller opening side curved PVC panel windows/screens to create ventilation and an animal observation area in the yurt. I'm not a 'tip the whole dome open' fan.

 

[ljamies1]

Re: DIY crown/ any ideas...?

Jafo; thanks, this portfolio is awesome!!! Just when I think I have something figured out I see a picture that gets me all excited about a different way of doing it.

Reinventor; this guy seems to capture the essence of your "lookout". Not a portable rig but its still nice to dream...

 

[bob golding]

Re: DIY crown/ any ideas...?

I am not a builder, but I see a lot of people use multiple sheets of plywood, glued together.

There are a lot of other types of designs in the albums:

Yurt Construction - Images

a old thread i know but just like to point out that i have made 2 rings/tonos using 4mm ply strips 100mm wide. i first one which i am sitting under as i type this was glued together using epoxy resin. it has done 3 years so far 2 years outside all winter with no cover. there was a cover but blew off in a gale while i was away so i just left the frame up till the spring. no noticeable degradation from a cornish winter. it gets wet here in the winter. as i want a bit more height i am replacing the roof poles with longer ones and have made a slightly smaller ring/tono. this one is around 3 foot diameter. same ply but this time i used exterior wood glue rather than epoxy. both of them are around 50 mm thick. the yurt is 16 foot and 50 mm seems fine to me. no noticeable give even in a strong gale. we don't snow here so can't say if the snow load would ok. i have hung a string chair from the ring and sat in with no problems. i weigh about 12 stone to give you an idea. this is a cheap if time consuming way to make a ring. the ply was from ebay as offcuts. £20 the glue was £10 varnish £5 forsner bit to drill the holes £10 total around £45 plus a lot of time pending on how many clamps you have . i had 8. i used pegs to mark out the ring diameter knocked into the ground and got the initial shape that way. once you have the ring shape it it easy to just add sections till you run out of clamps.