Small robotic shed, joinery done.

[ollypenrice]

Just in time for winter, here's the small single scope robotic shed ready and awaiting its motor and, of course, its telescope. (I've built this shed for a group of Italian friends formerly based at a Spanish remote site. It will positively be the last one because we have no more room!) It's very like the big one next to it. Timber fame, clad with ply. An inner ply roof is further protected by the corrugated steel with an air space to help reduce internal temperatures in summer. Instruction to open and close will come from the bigger shed and its weather station.

As with the bigger shed the most fun is to be had by watching the south flap self-open and self-close. The mechanism is based on a 12th century seige engine and can be used for lobbing boulders at rival villages...

Despite its comical Heath Robinson-ness this system works perfectly and is very easy to make. The roof can be fully opened and closed by pushing with one finger. The anti-lift system can be seen in the half-open picture. (The two external uprights on the rolling roof extend beneath the rail supports.)

It can be seen from giddying heights, but minus the drop-down flap in Per's drone video. http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/257256-provence-obs-drone-movie/

Olly

[steppenwolf]

As with the bigger shed the most fun is to be had by watching the south flap self-open and self-close.

I can see why! I can also see how! I look forward to watching this in action one day ..... :grin:

[gnomus]

I like this design. It looks like something even I could have a go at building. Is there a door? Do you think it would stand up to the British weather? (We're forecast for 70mph winds over the next day or so.)

[Mick J]

Shame you cannot fit more in Olly,  looks like you have perfected this design  (blue sky - no comment).

[ollypenrice]

I like this design. It looks like something even I could have a go at building. Is there a door? Do you think it would stand up to the British weather? (We're forecast for 70mph winds over the next day or so.)

Yes, there's a small door on the side opposite to the drop-down flap.

I've built this with the beam over the top, which means you have to duck down to get under it (which is a minor hassle) but on a small shed like this the alternative would be triangulating the 'door wall' from the outside and such triangulation would be a significant trip hazard in the dark. (We started the big shed with the beam to duck under and got fed up with it and hacked it out!  However, it was easy to triangulate that one without creating hazards. I just had to nick a bit of Monique's veg garden which was a hazard for me alone... Besides, the big shed has four rigs and so four times as much likelihood of needing attention. Well, that sounds like a theory! 

Would it stand up to British weather? I don't know, but when we get weather here we get weather. We are well protected from the dreaded Mistrale but we catch its lee rotor and northerlies, when they come, come with some style. We have giant thunderstorms in summer and phenomenal hail bombardments. This is a climate of extremes, so mostly extremely nice but sometimes just extremely extreme! We don't get much snow, though.

...by comparison with Antarctica! 

Yes, I think the construction would withstand most situations. For us, UV degradation is the great killer. In the UK it tends to be death by slow soggy rot. The virtue of marine ply cladding is that it can be replaced or cladded over again without replacement (possibly easier). The marine ply is rather like the glass of a primary. The glass of a primary is there to hold a few microns of aluminium in place. The marine ply is there to hold the lasure (varnish) in place. I only use the thin stuff and have yet to replace any after about 11 years in the case of the oldest shed. I have replaced some 'bardage' (solid pine cladding planks, more expensive than thin marine ply) so it's thin marine ply from here on in for me.

For the varnish I use water based top quality stuff, very expensive. It's 100 euros per 5 litre tin but it is worth every centime. It's the UV protection that makes it worthwhile here.

Olly

[gnomus]

Thanks for the extra details. Is it 6' x4' (or thereabouts)?

[Starlight 1]

I have a beam over the top ,after I hit my head on it 2 or 3 times I put a little hole in it with a red LED light and a swich on the door so when you open the door from inside or out the LED come on and save a pound on paracetamol.

[ollypenrice]

Thanks for the extra details. Is it 6' x4' (or thereabouts)?

It's 1.6 metres square. Purely robotic via the net so need for 'person space.'

Olly 

[ollypenrice]

By the way, the design scales up OK. This one's 'manned.' The computer pod is a space saver and was welcome on this shed because I was excavating the foorprint out of our intractable boulder and clay.

0lly