Buckeyball Hub

Design by Colin

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Three pentagonal subassemblies put together.

This is one of the twelve pentagonal subassemblies

Three pentagonal subassemblies put together.

Hub for assembling a model of the "buckeyball" fullerene molecule and other interesting geometries. Sixty hubs and ninety dowels are required to create a full model. I cut my dowels out of bamboo skewers.

cm: 2.032 w x 2.352 d x 0.832 h

in: 0.8 w x 0.926 d x 0.328 h

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3bob says:

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@Colin Hi Colin, your idea with the garden hose, washer and botl and nut is great. I could make 3-way hubs easily that way. And the whole structure would be damped too, which would be great for wind resilience and hanging stuff from the ceiling.Thank you very much, I'll try this one out.

April 5, 2013, 6:51 am

Colin says:

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@3bob Hi again. Here is one very inexpensive "Buckydome" hub solution I have used before. Cut two lengths of tough, flexible tube, about eight inches long. Clamp them together just short of the middle and drill a hole through both. Keeping them clamped together, put a washer on a bolt, insert it through the hole, then add another washer and a nut. Tighten and you have a four-way hub. If you prefer to have a six-way hub, use three sections of tube. Cheap old garden hose works for this. See the attached picture.

April 5, 2013, 2:43 am

Colin says:

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@3bob Hi again. I have built a few larger "buckydomes" but they were not big enough for a person to step into. Have you considered purchasing a single hub and using it as a model to create a mold for casting more hubs out of urethane or some other resin? Alternatively, have you considered purchasing one of the less expensive 3D printers and creating your own hubs? Sadly, I bet that last will still be somewhat expensive, because of the cost of materials. How about this--the only really important component of the hub in my store is the angle between the holes. Could you use a table saw and drill press to create wooden or aluminum hubs?

April 5, 2013, 2:18 am

3bob says:

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@Colin Hi Colin, thank you for trying it out. Yes this kind of cost is prohibitive. I wanted to make an event tent for a little NGO project, a bit more than half a "buckydome" or truncated icosahedron, so it is tall for enough for people to stand in. 7m diameter was the plan. Seems like 3d-printing is not an option yet for the hubs. There are molded 5 and 6-way hubs with curvature for geodesic domes, 5 and 6$ a piece, but 3-way hubs are hard to come by. Do you have any experience with building life-sized buckydomes? As the whole world seems to be satisfied with the geodesic domes made out of triangles, which are way to heavy and materials hungry for my use case, and way too strong too.

April 4, 2013, 8:12 pm

Colin says:

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@3bob Hi, 3bob. The scaled up to 12mm inside diameter hub is posted and, as I expected, rather more expensive. http://www.shapeways.com/model/1011736/buckyball-hub-with-12mm-sockets.html How big a section of the full "buckeyball" would you want to use for your tent? I'm thinking at least six hubs for a "cap" and probably twenty-two for a half. Colin

April 4, 2013, 6:15 am

Colin says:

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Hi again, 3bob. The scaled up to 12mm inside diameter hub is posted and, as I expected, rather more expensive. http://www.shapeways.com/model/1011736/buckyball-hub-with-12mm-sockets.html How big a section of the full "buckeyball" would you want to use for your tent? I'm thinking at least six hubs for a "cap" and probably twenty-two for a half. Colin

April 4, 2013, 6:13 am

Colin says:

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Hi, 3bob. I will post a scaled up to 12mm-tube hub this evening so we can both look at the cost. Cost has been my concern with these hubs, since most designs need a lot of them. Strength is probably OK, but I would want to test brittleness, especially in cold conditions. Colin

April 3, 2013, 2:20 pm

3bob says:

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Do you think this simple hub design would work strength-wise, when scaled up for 12mm plastic tubing? Usage would be a light tent.

April 3, 2013, 8:09 am