Hi John,

I'm so glad you reached out to me! Great video!

I've been meaning to send you a note letting you know I used your design for building a massive dome for my nephew's wedding that was on the Summer Solstice 2018. He wanted a dome that was large enough for all the guests to fit under—made from the bamboo they grow on their farm.

It took me several weeks of planning and preparation to make but it ended up being a highlight of the wedding ceremony. The final dome was 50 feet wide and 25 feet high!! One reason I was hesitant in contacting you while making it was the recognition of the fact that this size exceeded the maximum recommended pole lengths on your website so I did want you to feel responsible whether or not we would succeed. At the end of the ceremony, the guests surround the perimeter and lifted the dome waist high. 

I wish I had seen this video or had somehow thought of your design improvement of using sections of PVC pipe as sleeves around the bamboo ends. I think that would have saved me time (not to mention a fair amount of anxiety around whether or not we could make the connection to the bamboo ends strong enough). My variation on this was to tape 3" wide gorilla duct tape around the ends to at least minimize splitting at the ends where the zip ties where threaded through the bamboo poles. The other time consuming customization was to match the hole size to the bamboo size as much as possible (diameters of the poles we had varied from 2" to 3.5") and to drill the holes into the large PVC pipe at the 16-18 degree angles so that they would fit more snuggly. This meant we had to keep track of all the poles and their associated places in the hubs.

Attached are a couple of pictures from the creation of a prototype hub, creating all the customized hubs, and the completed dome. I will try to send you a time lapse of the assembly as well.

Thanks again for your inspiration and sharing. I could not have done it without your website and what you told me.

Regarding Geodesic Domes for the Homeless: At work, we're thinking we will use the design to make a smaller dome for a communal area for residents living in the temporary housing units being placed on under utilized church properties. In the lot where we did our first project (the one depicted in the video I sent you), they end up setting up a yurt.  I will let you know if we move forward with building something.

Happy New Year,

Ken

Note from John Hurt: I granted Ken Snyder a license to make his own hubs for building a bamboo dome, as at that time, I did not know how to make the outer collar lock for the various diameters of the struts that bamboo would provide.
Ken's solution of drilling the holes to match each bamboo strut was "over the top" in my book, and I am amazed how well it worked for him.
Ken's solution may not be practical for everyone, but the most important thing is that Ken made it work for his own project, that is what counts.