Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Laser Cut Styrene Dome

I was able to procure one of the fine laser-cut styrene dome from Astromech.net before Christmas.  Even with the laser cutting, it required a fair amount of cleanup and sanding.




















The dome has three parts. A whole inner dome, the laser-cut outer dome and the bottom dome ring. I used Brian Munger's excellent website that detailed his styrene dome build as a guide for assembling mine. You can check his build at http://www.bmunger.com/R2/gallery/dome-3/.

After the initial trimming of pieces and sanding, I used Weld-On to glue the inner and outer dome together.

























I bought some 18" MDF floral rings from Michaels to use as the inner support for the dome. I am going to attach that to the bottom dome ring with bolts and then glue the floral rings to the inside of the inner dome. I used 3M tape to put some temporary foam board blocks inside the dome to help me find the correct placement of the MDF ring.




I want to cut out the holes for the holoprojectors before I mount the dome to the floral ring so that I have more room to work. So far I am really happy with how everything has come together!