Astrokev

I chose to take early retirement in March after being faced with the big "R", therefore unfortunately I can no longer use the evening & weekend argument as an excuse! Last winter was a killer though, and caused huge delays. Keep plugging away James - having the winter season as your target is great and will help motivate!

Yes, I bought one too. Problem is now full of holes where it was rubbing against the corners of the timber in the wind. Still better than nothing, but is becoming less useful every time I use it!

Not sure the same can be said for the builder ?

Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me ...... just realised it's 1 year tomorrow since I started my observatory build thread ?. That's quite scary ? ?????? P'raps I should get a cake ?

Really hot and sunny in Beds. Must check the forecast.....

I toyed with having a drop down flap but eventually decided against it. It's a good idea though. I may regret not fitting one. I could probably retrofit one later if I felt it would add value but it's a lot of effort for only a small extra bit of sky I'd get between the house and next doors pine tree.

Rain ? What's that? ? Where are you?

Thanks Neil. Certainly trying! Don't like to complain but it's a bit too warm really ?

Thanks Gina. Can't wait to finish now. Whilst I'm enjoying the build, its taking me far longer than I thought, and there's so many other needy jobs about the house that are sadly being neglected!

Always welcome Dave

Back on the observatory today after looking after my 10 month old grandson while my daughter moved house. I'm not sure which is more tiring - observatory building or child minding ?. So, managed to finish off putting up the rafters between watching world cup matches. Starting to look like a real roof now ? . Pics showing progress below. I decided to keep the ROR closed just in case of rain - don't want the insides to get wet ?. I've taken a movie of me closing the roof but I don't seem able to upload this, unless anyone knows how to do this? ?

I wrestled with this for ages with my design. I eventually decided to keep the walls at ~1800. I modelled this based on a Newtonian OTA and had considered it being to the side of the mount. My main scopes will now be a frac and an SCT, with the EP at the bottom of the OTA instead of the top and I'm now considering adding an extension to my pillar to raise the mount! (but I'm going to see how it fairs once the obsy is operational)…..but at least I can walk in the door without having to stoop too low ?

Teaching kids to swim is something to be very proud of though and I'm sure gives you a great sense of achievement ?? Well done ?

Well, today's update, such that it is. Pretty rubbish day regarding progress made. Got the brackets I wanted from ToolStation to attach the rafters to the ridge beam, and lovely they are too. Unfortunately they didn't have the smaller brackets I needed for the other end of the rafters so had to order these. Marked out the position of all rafters....and then measured and marked them out again, and again. Hmmm, something wasn't right. Turned out I'd actually decided to cut the ridge beam to be longer than shown on my SketchUp drawing and I hadn't updated the drawing. So, back to the PC to recalculate rafter positions, and then recalculate how best to cut the OSB boards due to the small change in ridge beam length. Lots of faffing around today. After another trip to ToolStation to get more screws , as I didn't realise I'd run out, I finally managed to screw a couple of rafters to the ridge beam as shown in the pic (apex end only for the moment). Not a very satisfying day ? but at least I moved forward and not back. I've estimated time allocation on my build so far - 50% design, 25% sorting out straight timber in the DIY store and trips to buy stuff, 10% trips to replace the bits I bought wrong the first time round, 10% climbing up step-ladders, 5% actually building the thing ? Having a day off tomorrow to help with my daughters house move!

Yeah - "can you tell what it is yet?" Thanks James. I hope so. Bit of a race against time now. I'd like get the EPDM on before we lose the dry weather if possible. My tarp has got more holes in it than a colander and isn't very functional now!

Went back to Wickes this morning and kept them solvent for a few more months by buying another heap of timber. I have to stop finding things I need to buy soon, surely! So, this was to get the studding for the ROR rafters. Today's progress - I decided to raise the height of the north side beam by ~12mm with pieces of ply. If I'd left it at the height it was, I know it would just keep niggling me so best to sort it out. The clearance over the warm room roof is more generous now but the "overlap" with the dividing beam is obviously less, but I think it's still enough. Also fixed the ridge beam to the centre blocks with brackets and started cutting the rafters. The two shown in the image are only placed in position at the moment, just to give me a feel for how the whole thing looks. I find that the first couple take quite a while to cut and think through how best to fix in position. Once I've got the method down, the rest should get finished pretty quickly. I need to get different sized brackets to fix the rafters to the ridge beam, so off to ToolStation tomorrow who sell in bulk and seem better priced.

Disappointed you weren't trying to do more by candle light there James ? . Yes, it would be good to sort out that left rail if you can; it may come back to bite you later on otherwise. Impressed with the progress you're making ? .

Thanks Chris. Yes I'd wondered what to do with this bit. It's not really exposed to the elements so wondered if it would be ok left as is. Following your suggestion, maybe I should do something along the lines you suggest - certainly wouldn't do any harm. One thing I've discovered following a test on some scrap material is that the contact adhesive used around the edges definitely doesn't like solvent based preserver (probably not a surprise). So I'm probably left with using water based preserver or just shed paint in areas adjacent to the EPDM. Main area affected is the roof rails that stick out the back.

Today's progress - 1) Fitted the ROR North end beam. When the roof is closed this only clears the warm room roof by under a centimetre. This feels a bit close for comfort. However, if the beam starts to sag under the weight of the roof I can always shave a little off the bottom by completely opening the roof, at which point I can access the underside of the north end to modify or add a strengthening bar (I may do this anyway as a precaution). As I expected, when placed across the ends of the wheel beams, the north beam is not quite parallel to the warm room dividing beam, leaving a 1cm gap at the west end when the roof is in the closed position. I think this is due to the dividing beam not being quite square. Not a major problem but I've decided to move the west end of the north beam in by a centimetre to make it parallel and improve the "seal" when it's closed. This is hardly noticeable and will be hidden by the overhanging roof sheets when these are fitted. 2) Cut the two ridge beams to length, screwed them together and placed them in position ready to be fixed with brackets when I've got the brackets to fix them with ?. These clear the warm room dividing beam by the 54mm I'd calculated in SketchUp, which actually looks huge in the flesh! I could've gotten away with a slightly smaller clearance I think, which would have reduced the height of the whole building a tad. I'm very close to the 2.5m limit so need to be careful now. 3) As a temporary measure, I've fixed 2 diagonal struts to join the South beam to the wheel beams near the centre blocks, to keep the frame square (can't see these in the pics). I had to raise these on additional blocks so that they cleared the warm room dividing beam. I will have to remove them when I fit the rafters, at which point I'll figure out how to brace the frame more permanently. James' suggestion of putting a diagonal across the rafters is probably the favoured option right now, but I'll have a play once some of the rafters are cut. The north, south and ridge beams all overhang the wheel beams by just over 100mm - this is to give me something to hang the roof retention mechanism off. Boy, it was warm today! Pics as usual....

Thanks James. Yes, that's an idea. Once the ridge beam is on I'll be able to check the clearances (instead of relying on the theoretical clearances in SketchUp) and see what may be feasible.

Thanks Gina. Actually, I suspect my hay-fever may actually be largely due to wood dust as I did a fair bit of sawing yesterday, and then brushing up the sawdust. Note to self - must get a mask!

Looks good James. It may also be worth thinking about placing the joists and noggins to minimise the need to do too much cutting of whichever floor sheets you choose to use. My floor joists are positioned so that standard ply panels should (I say should!) have joists supporting all edges. Time will tell if I got this right or not ?

Only a short update today. I'm struggling with hay-fever so haven't done much other than put in a few screws. Here're a few pics from yesterday and this evening showing the addition of the blocks half way along the roof span which will support the apex beam (or ridge beam as I believe it should be called), and the South beam now fixed in position. I'm a little unhappy with the South beam fixings - the beam can still twist slightly away from the vertical. I'm hoping this will stiffen when the roof rafters are fitted, but I must ponder on this before deciding whether to change the way I've designed this. By the way, the bracket clearly sticks out above the top of the beam. This won't be a problem once the rafters go on! I've also been thinking about how to keep the frame square. Right-angle brackets are insufficient on their own to keep the frame square. Adding diagonal bracing is difficult as the obvious place to put these would prevent the roof from rolling open! The roof OSB sheets once fitted should ensure everything is held together well, preventing risk of twisting, but I'd rather not have to have the roof integrity rely on the OSB alone; it would be good to have the frame rigid on its own before the OSB is fitted, if possible. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please let me know! Thanks

Once again didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. Working on the roof seems to involve endless moving and climbing up step ladders for the smallest task, which is surprisingly time consuming. I dismantled the roof frame and took down the wheel beams, as I realised it would be better to screw the blocks (that will support the apex beam) to the wheel beams from below. This took a while but they're now back on the roof! Also cut the joints in the south end beam to attach it to the wheel beams, involving loads more trips up the step ladder with the heavy beam to check the fit, back down to the work mate to take off more wood, back up to check the fit, and so it continued. Feel like I've had a work out ? Will post pictures tomorrow.

Looking good James ??