Chris's Obsy build

[Bizibilder]

You could suggest that there may be more buried - and Old Bill may oblige by digging you a bigger hole

[Chris]

Scarlet- I'm in Ipswich:) you never know what your going to find when digging deep, when I was a kid I dug a hole as you do and found some old coins from the 1920's:)

[Chris]

dtr42- lol I was hoping I didn't find either bones or a gun, my wife on the other hand said "wow, wouldn't it be cool if you found a gun", I would have called the police straight the way for that:D

[Chris]

Bizibilder- yeah, or persuade them that its best if they just fill the hole with concrete to be sure, and I'll just stick this 170mm pipe in the concrete to remember that I shouldn't go near this area:D

[Gina]

:)

[dtr42]

it could turn out to be an explosive situation [sorry i'll get my coat lol

[Chris]

A policeman took away the ammo, he said they looked like machine gun bullets because there was evidence of linkage. Well thats the time team interlude finished with, now back to the build if it ever stops raining!

[ggreene1]

Rain, rain and more rain here as well:( I'm finding it more difficult to find spare time now my wifes back at work from maternity leave, I do 3-4 shifts a week and the other 3-4 days I'm looking after a 5 month old, I'm typing this with my left hand baby on the right:D I did find time over the weekend to do a nice little mod to a cheap 7 pound CMOS chip webcam from ASDA, hopefully I can use it to start guiding in the obsy plus do a bit of planetary imaging:)

I have a question you will surely know regarding webcam conversion. Do they go into the scope in place of the EP or are they attached to the eyepiece taking the place of your eye ? I'm thinking about modding an old webcam I have and don't want to screw it up. This would be a first attempt at imaging.

[earth titan]

Just gonna have to work in the rain. Only way mines getting built...!

[Chris]

Hi ggreene1- The webcam replaces the eyepiece, you also need to remove the lens from the webcam during the mod.

If you get stuck with anything message me and I'll do my best to help:)

Chris

[Chris]

Earth titan- its heading that way isn't it

[Chris]

The pier is in! one of the walls of the hole had collapsed so I just made the hole a bit bigger, its now 30"x24" and 30" deep. It took most of the day to mix the concrete in a plastic tub and fill the hole. I used 4 lengths of Rebar for the base, and 2 lengths of Rebar and galvanised tube for the pier which I still need to fill with concrete as I ran out of concrete for the second time today, I'm doing my third B&Q concrete run first thing in the morning so I can finish it off:)

[earth titan]

Well done.

Looks good to me.

[Chris]

Thanks Earth Titan, again well done on completing your obsy:)

[shellfish]

its gettin there

The weather up north seems to be improving so with a bit of luck yours may too

[Gina]

It's looking a bit better for the weekend down here - fingers crossed Mind you by the time we actually get some clear skies I shall probably have forgotten how to do things, it's been so long!!

[Chris]

its gettin there

The weather up north seems to be improving so with a bit of luck yours may too

Thanks Shellfish:), yes I can't believe the weather at the moment its got to get better soon, obsy progress is slow I might have to strap my 6 month old to my back when I'm not at work so I can get more done:D

[Chris]

It's looking a bit better for the weekend down here - fingers crossed Mind you by the time we actually get some clear skies I shall probably have forgotten how to do things, it's been so long!!

I know the feeling, It feels like ages since I've done some imaging:) I'm working Saturday so hopefully Sunday will be dry so I can make some progress:icon_scratch:

next step is to lay the base I've narrowed it down to 2 options which are similar in effect:

1) I have some slabs already but they are not very thick so they wont give much clearence so one option is to buy some more slabs and double them up with morter between them and lay 11 of these down in a 4-3-4 configuration so there is plenty of air getting under the obsy.

2) or I can do the same configuration but cast some thick concrete blocks that sit a few inches into the ground and rise about 3-4 inches out of the ground, I just need to think of some thing suitable to cast the concrete in.

I was going to use breeze blocks but I'm worried that they'll be a bit too crumbly and brittle?

option 1 would be more simple and cheaper I recken, but option 2 might look a little bit more professional:icon_confused:

[Chris]

Here is a rough mock up of the base configuration that I plan on using, it would be good to make use of the slabs I already have from a recycling point of view, I'm leaning towards option 1:)

[nightvision]

Looking good, I had a large hobby shed at my last property using option 1 as a base. Just 1 layer of 2'x2' slabs and the floor was still rot free after 14 years. I think it would have been better to have larger beams (they were 2" only) and more of them as parts of the floor did go springy as some of the slabs sank a little into the clay/soil, so a better base for the slabs next time. The roof also had a large overhang which helped keep the base dry. My new obsy will use option 1.

Tony.

[Chris]

Thanks Nightvision, so options 1 looks like it might be good if I lay down some hardcore and tamper it down before laying the slabs so there is less chance of subsidence.

The shed I'm getting is tanalised throughout so hopefully this should help reduce rot:)

[dtr42]

have a shed for 8 years now no rot on floor [has a 2" gap created by 4x2 laid on slabs virtualy the same as your's [think i had 12 or 14 slabs ] and i painted the base with a rubberised paint from my work. it's all about circulation the higher the gap the better [i found 2" is about right ]

[Chris]

Thanks dtr42, this is all very re-assuring:)

[shellfish]

Thanks Shellfish:), yes I can't believe the weather at the moment its got to get better soon, obsy progress is slow I might have to strap my 6 month old to my back when I'm not at work so I can get more done:D

Thats shocking... he is 6 months old.... tell him to get a shovel in his hand the SGL team wants to see progress lol

[Chris]

Thats shocking... he is 6 months old.... tell him to get a shovel in his hand the SGL team wants to see progress lol