I have uploaded photos of my creation in the photo section of this tribe. I have to give a hearty thank you to Vinay for making these instructions so readily available. The hexayurt saved my ass on the playa and made my experience so much better. I will elaborate in a moment...

First, this build was a rush job, about 4 days prior to leaving for BM. I just needed a personal shelter that wouldn't take up too much space (we were limited by our theme camp) The panels were easily found at the local Home Depot. The tape was another story. I eventually found a guy online (who's warehouse was 45min away) who had a case of 3in Intertape Polymer Group filament tape. This stuff is sticky and strong and would take a flame thrower to melt it. It survived BM quite nicely. I have way too many rolls left over from the case, so if any body needs some in an emergency (come to medical station 9 camping). As posted elsewhere, it is a little more challenging to apply 3in tape, so I was more liberal in my application. This also helped with my not so accurate panel cuts. The tape definitely compensated for unmatched corners etc. I also took along a few rolls of Henkel aluminum air duct tape to patch unfortunate dings to the foil panels.

I arrived on the playa early (I am part of the EMS team). The first day I was there, it was gusty, windy, blustery, sandy, stormy, you get the point...It didn't calm down until the late evening. I was tired, dehydrated and just wanted to crash but I really wanted to take advantage of the no wind situation, so I set up some lanterns and began building the yurt at night for the First Time, just going off my memory of what it was supposed to look like. I pulled it off with some creative dancing around with the roll of tape. Next time I will design a pole lift system for the roof panels, which were the biggest headache doing it solo (there weren't so many people around early and those that were are busy with their own crap.

I cut out two windows which I covered with furnace filters (pony up the cash for the cloth like type, not the open weave fiberglass type). Next time, I need to consider about the direction of the sun and make sure my windows are facing closer to the north! The sun will beat through any little crevice. I should have used the foil tape to cover the seams inside the yurt to "seal" out the sun leakage (allows for sleeping longer in a "blacked out" environment.)

This year I am going to re-do the door panel with a floor seam. Meaning, all the walls will be taped to the tarp, to seal out dirt and the door will swing out in the middle of a panel. This was the biggest problem of them all...having the dust storm kicking up under the door.

I also cut out a square in the roof and fit a 6inx6in 12v computer fan from Fry's electronics ($8) which was hooked up to a flexible solar panel that was taped to the roof. The fan would kick on sometime in the morning which worked great to blow out the accumulated heat and stink. With ear plugs and an inflatable mattress, I slept very comfortably well into the 10-11am time zone. This was crucial to get good sleep in order for me to survive working the medical station and partying too. The misting idea didn't work very well, I think you need a large space and tall ceilings for that to work effectively. Just spraying my body for evaporation worked well though. The yurt was a tad too hot to lay in at times during the peak hours of the day, it was cooler being outside under the shade with a cross breeze. I would have to create a larger fan system to pump more air circulating through to keep it cool enough during the day.

All in all, it was an awesome last minute creation that is coming back this year, probably hybridized into a stretch version so I can invite playa dates over for a sleepover.

PS I ran into a friend from medical school who i hadn't seen in a long time. She was camping in a tent that was destroyed by the winds (it snapped her poles like toothpicks) and her stuff was buried in playa dirt. She was more than envious of my luxurious 41sq.ft.