He's Got a Good Head on His Shoulders

The domes arrived on Friday!!!  I was so excited to get home and see the box sitting on the porch, UPS had sent me an email near the end of the school day saying that it had been delivered.  I placed the box just inside the door so the kids would see it when walked in from the bus and they got really excited once they figured out what it was.  We went to run errands that evening because Steph wasn't home yet to see the unveiling and I wasn't sure that I would be able to resist.  At 8:00 that evening (after five hours of torture) we unwrapped the box and saw the beautiful craftsmanship that was contained within.

Inner and Outer Dome with the Dome Ring

the unveiling

           I started by wanting to polish up the dome a bit and clean off the water marks left from the hydroforming process.  I purchased some kerosene and #0000 steel wool for the polishing.  Kerosene has a mighty odor that does not go away quickly.  We had the cars out in the driveway for two days while it aired out.  The kerosene did shine up the aluminum , but it did nothing for the water spots.

Shiny!

          I checked on the interwebs to find a way to get water spots off of aluminum.  Vinegar was the one sure fire way to clean it up and I had just been talking with my students about how vinegar was a wonder cleaner.  I sprayed the vinegar on the dome and started rubbing it with the steel wool.  What I didn't know is that vinegar reacts with steel a little differently than aluminum.  By the time I done with the dome the steel wool had almost completely rusted.  But the water spots were gone from the dome too.

          The next step was cutting out and rasping the panels from the outer dome.  These panels will one day open and close on the dome, which is the reason there is an inner dome.  First cut out the panels, then paint them and reattach them to the inner dome.  Christine wanted to help with this process.  She rasped most of the pieces as I cut them out.  The next post is going to be the painting process.  I was so excited to get going that I cut the pieces out and got the first coats of primer on so I could paint the pieces quickly.

Cut up dome and the pieces