Dome work begins

I started working on the dome last night. I followed the 300mm dome tutorial fairly closely and it worked well. I numbered the panels and inside the dome so I would know where the panels were placed when it's time to put them back. Then cut out the panels on the dome with a hack saw blade. The rest of the evening was spent filing flat the tabs that held the panels in place and removing the slag left by the laser cutting process. Filing the tabs was simple enough, just grabbed a flat or rounded file and smoothed out the panel lines.

The slag removal didn't seem to go as easily. I first tried the recommended method of using a wood chisel to remove the slag. It did work to some extent, so it's a good first step, but I found in areas where lots of panels were removed that this was just too much pressure and was going to bend the dome. So, I used some medium coarseness steel wool to sand the back side of the dome and remove the slag. This worked much better, took longer, but I wasn't worried about putting too much pressure on the dome and deforming it. I still am not quite satisfied with the outer dome's fit to the inner dome, and so another round of sanding is coming today. It's good, but I know that the slag isn't all gone and I want a good tight fit. Also, as you smooth out the slag, be sure the reapply your panel numbers if you remove them.