Bruce is not on Utah-Astronomy but sent me the following. Let's do as he says and hire a welder for the seams between the gores, around the door and the former slit. Then we can concentrate on the dome/roof interface. patrick Begin forwarded message:
From: "BRUCE GRIM" <bmargrim@msn.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Seeking suggestions for repairing RH dome Date: 07 March 2012 08:40:47 MST To: "Patrick Wiggins" <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>
Welding will work on the dome seams - we could tie a ladder to the dome and get a mountaineers belaying harness for the welder to tie him in safely.
Better yet hire a pro-welder and rent a bucket truck. A pro could weld it in half the time (or less) than we would take.
----- Original Message ----- From: Patrick Wiggins To: Utah Astronomy Cc: (S) Grim Bruce Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 12:02 AM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Seeking suggestions for repairing RH dome
Welding! So simple I feel dumb for never having thought about that.
I'm pretty sure the dome is made of thick enough steel that welding just might work and there's no way water is ever going to leak through a proper weld.
Then, as was said before, all we'd have to worry about would be leaks where the dome joins the roof.
I understand that Rodger Fry is already in talks with a company (as Kim suggested) that does commercial roofing. Certainly they could fix the leaks at the base of the dome.
Plus I heard from Larry Holmes that he's been in the business of selling industrial coatings for over 30 years and he seemed fairly upbeat about the repairs.
When I first saw how badly the dome is leaking I was really down thinking we might not be able to get it up and running again this season. But now things are not looking quite as dark.
patrick
On 06 Mar 2012, at 19:57, Chuck Hards wrote:
On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Rob Ratkowski Photography < ratkwski@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
I think you all have to decide how much $$ to be spent and how much of a PITA factor it is.
That was my first post on the subject. I'm glad to read that Kim is starting to think my way regarding welding. I've been thinking about it today, and it could probably be done in one long weekend. As one seam is sandblasted, the welder goes to work while another is prepped. Safe scaffolding is going to be biggest hurdle.
Finally, a painter follows-up with primer and a couple of topcoats of good exterior grade paint.
Patrick Wiggins paw@wirelessbeehive.com