A big day - the first trial

Finally all parts are complete and I am wasting no time to give it a try setting up. How long since I last erected one of these yurts? Ten years at last, perhaps longer.
A friend is kind enough to allow us to use her garden. As I load the gear into my car I check one last time if I have everything:
• All canvas parts:
  - Half roofs: 2
  - Double-width side walls: 6
  - Skylight cover: 1
    (with shock cords on the eyelets and mini carabiners at the end
• Tripod:
  - Three-part legs: 3
  - Rope for the tripod lashing: 1
  - 6-armed chain: 1
   (with shackles on the end of each arm and a central carabiner)
  - Pulley: 1
  - Rope for lifting the roof: 1
• Walls:
  - Extendable steel poles: 12
  - Guy ropes: 15
  - Pegs: 15
• Tools
  - Tape measure
  - Hammer

Now, do I still remember the sequence of steps?
Lash the half-roofs together on the ground - kids are helping, all good so far.
Turn the roof right side up; lay it out neatly at the correct location.
Extent the steel poles to the right length - 165 cm.
At each roof eyelet, put one steel pole on the ground. Attach a guy rope onto each D-ring.
Now the tricky bit: erect the 12 steel poles so that the circumference of the roof is held up. For now, the roof fabric is still hanging down in the centre like funnel, but that's ok. I have three children as helpers and it takes me several times of going round the circumference placing the pegs, tightening guy ropes and then repositioning pegs until I get it right. The kids are getting bored by now of holding onto poles but eventually we get it done.

After a quick break for a drink - it is getting quite hot - we tie the tripod. Now add the pulley to the rope ends remaining after the left tripod lashing and feed the rope for the chain through the pulley for later use. Tie the top edge of the skylight cover with its pull cord to the tripod just above the lashing. Trying to set up the tripod in the centre of the yurt teaches me two lessons:

1. Need to add a pin to the joint of each tripod leg so that they don't come apart.
2. At least two adults are needed for the job.

After a brief moment of stress, we get the tripod in.
Next, attach the ends of the six chain arms to the six eyelets of the roof's skylight edge. Hook the chain's carabiner into the rope that goes through the pulley.
Now the most exciting part: pull the roof up. It works and the kids stand there with gaping mouths - I think they could not imagine how this thing would ever become a tent.
The next step is fiddly too: get the shock cords from the eyelets in the bottom edge of the skylight cover to the outer edge of the roof. Best technique: I stand on a tower of milk crates in the centre of the roof, poking my head through the skylight and throwing one shock cord at the time to the kids who are standing on the outside of the wall catching the cord and hooking it onto one of the D-rings. That worked pretty well - I am quite proud of the progress so far and we have another drink of water.
Now to the side walls: It is not difficult but it takes a while and our fingers get sore form buttoning.

But eventually we get is done and have thereby erected - as far as I know - the first canvas yurt in Australia.
It stands quite well despite the ground not being completely level. All worked, I had all the gear - a great success.
One thing I missed: we attached the skylight cover inside out - the tag is showing.

The tripod

To save transport and importation cost I have bought the canvas components from Tortuga . I figured I could buy all other components locally or make them myself.
I knew from the beginning that the tripod was the most important and - at the same time -the most challenging component. (I had decided to use an internal tripod for time being but there are quite a number of other possibilities which I won't discuss here).



my template

Length: for my yurt with standard (165 cm) high walls I decided on a length of 4.2 m for each leg of the tripod. For ease of transport they are to be in three segments, giving 1.4 m for each.
Material: In Germany there are smaller diameter (from memory around 35 mm) hard wood (beech) poles and large diameter (around 67 mm) soft wood (spruce) poles in use. I chose hardwood and a smaller diameter.
Diameter and raw stock: my search for round hardwood timber of suitable diameter did not lead to anything. I found a manufacturer of outdoor umbrellas with hardwood posts but was told that all umbrellas are assembled in China and there was no way I could get the posts by themselves. I eventually ended up going to the local timber yard where the owner cut and planed for me Blackbutt two-by-twos of the right length. The finished cross section was 42 x 42 mm.
Joints: I used sleeves made from Stainless steel pipe Sched 10, 32 NB (OD 42.16 mm, ID 36.62 mm); 400 mm long.

The next challenge was to get the cross section into a suitable shape. I gave up on the idea of a circular cross section and decided on an octagonal shape instead - except for the ends - that needed to fit into the sleeves - which needed to be round. Luck was on my side and Bunnings had a sell off of router bits and I ended up getting a massive 25 mm x 45 degree bit at a greatly reduced price. I then proceeded to use the 1/2 inch router on the router table to fashion 45 degree chamfers on my two-by-twos. As the Blackbutt timber was I pretty tough (after all that is what I wanted) I had to do two passes on each edge. 2 passes on 4 edges times 9 post segments required 72 passes on the router table. Quite a bit of work and quite a bit of mess but in the end I was very happy with the result.

The next problem was the circular cross section. Jan Pennell from the Blue Mountains Wood Turners saved me. After consulting with her colleagues she took on the job. At 1.4 m long the parts did not fit on even the longest lathe. She ended up using two lathes, lined up behind each other! She also had to use several "steadies" to keep the parts rotating smoothly while she worked the 200 mm at the ends. I specifically requested smooth, rounded transitions from the 36.5 mm diameter sections to the octagonal cross section. I also supplied Jan with the pipe sleeves so that she could test their fit during her work.
Each tripod leg consists of two "Type B" sections and one "Type A" section. One of the "Type B" and he "Type A" has the pipe sleeve permanently attached. (Our initial thought that press-fit would be sufficient to hold the pipe did prove wrong - the timber diameter is changing too much with varying moisture conditions and the sleeves became all loose after a while. I ended up securing each sleeve with a countersunk screw). The corresponding ends that fit into the pipe sleeves during assembly were made a loose fit.

rounded transition from circular to octagonal cross section

All in all Jan did the most outstanding job. From the first assembly each tripod leg assembled easily and accurately. I treated them with decking oil and they were almost ready. The only other pieces of hardware that I installed were a cleat one of the lower sections for the rope that lifts the roof and an eye bold at the very top end of a top section in case I want to use is as a flagpole to run a string up to it.
The tripod is most likely over-engineered being of hardwood timber and the stainless steel pipe sleeves but it has proven its durability. It can easily carry my weight whenever I have to climb up on it to untangle any skylight cover shock cords (a task that I try to dodge but sometimes cannot avoid).