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the yesyes observatory - let the planning begin

yesyes

By yesyes
in DIY Observatories

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Gina

Gina

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I did diagonals by forming horizontal or vertical pieces and rotating them.

I think you may have overdone the horizontals. My main structure is 75x47mm with the east wall of 47mm square timber. Spacing is generally around 500mm.

Thanks for posting liknd to the tutoriald Chris :) I'll take a look - might have seen them before but last time I used SketchUp in easnest was a couple of years ago when I was designing my obsy. Just downloaded v8 onto my Win 7 machine and been designing my dual scope mounting.

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r3i

r3i

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I think you may have overdone the horizontals. My main structure is 75x47mm with the east wall of 47mm square timber. Spacing is generally around 500mm.

Would agree with Gina that you should be okay with 1 row of noggins (if that is the right term?) in between the uprights rather than 2 especially if you're also going to have the diagonals, but I guess the dispensing with the extra row won't save you too much in time or materials. Other than that, it looks pretty good to me.

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martin_h

martin_h

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I would agree with the above, 1 row of noggins horizontally will do, how are you going to finish the inside? If you are going to clad the walls in ply or other sheet material, then a good place for the horizontals would be the join between 2 panels, if there is a join, if not, then 1/2 way would do.

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yesyes

yesyes

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That's a good point you're making. What do others think about that?

I will treat the wood before using it, not sure with what yet. Also the external cladding will go below that line.

If that's a problem, what are my options? 4x2" joists would probably be too weak? Using 5" joists for the outer frame seems a little over the top...

And thanks for the suggestions regarding the horizontals. I shall make one row only. That will save about 15m of timber. ;-)

I had put 2 rows there for extra stiffness because the wall panels will be built separately and later inserted between the main frame uprights with the cladding already attached.

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Astrokev

Astrokev

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More Sketchup work done.

Can Sketchup provide a list of parts in the end?

Not that I'm aware of Chris. Would be nice if it could.

Aspects of SketchUp that I find particularly useful are the ability to put different elements of your drawing on different layers, to make sections and the dimensioning tools. These make it very easy to print drawings (essentially blueprints) to help guide the build itself.

I've done this with a scaled drawing of our house to help design a major kitchen / bathroom extension and interior re-design.

Kevin

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yesyes

yesyes

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If you make Components I think SketchuUp will give you a list of Components - haven't checked that lately.

Yes, I read that on some webpage. You can make Sketchup output a list of components. I'm using mostly groups and nested groups though. Not sure I can be asked to convert everything to components.. ;-)

I have now reduced the horizontals to one row only. New Sketchup file attached. (again, remove the ".pdf" extension)

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yesyes observatory_3.skp.pdf

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  • 1 month later...
yesyes

yesyes

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I haven't posted any updates here for a while. So here's what happened over the last few weeks...

Not much real obsy progress but quite a bit of work done with things that need to be done first. Mostly the tool shed and the path leading up to the obsy space.

I also lost 2 weekends due to weather (snow, rain...)

First I painted the the fence on the back that I had cleaned earlier. Looks a lot better now. I used Cuprinol Ducksback for that. Hopefully that will last a few years....

Then I got some left over timber from a friend and built a shed base for the tool shed. Not the greatest design but I just used whatever pieces of timber I had available. I considered this a test run for building the obsy frame. ;-)

First I cut all the pieces to size. Then painted them with the same paint as the fence. The next day (last Sunday) I screwed the base together and put it where the tool shed will be. This gives a good idea of the size of the shed now. This will be a 4x6 flat-packed shed (1.95 x 1.21m).

The base is not quite finished yet. It still needs to be levelled with some legs which I will make out of a 3x3" joist I have.

That unpainted piece of timber in the last photo is roughly where the front of the obsy will be.

The 3rd picture shows in the background what I have in mind about the path between the walls. These are pieces of stone from the wall I removed. There should be just enough nice and flat ones to do some crazy paving...

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yesyes

yesyes

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Another thing.

Does anyone know what the UK equivalent of what the US call "roof cement" is? I would like to paint the legs of the shed base with that and potentially also some of the main obsy joists where they meet the concrete pads.

It's the stuff that is mentioned in the following video at 6:32

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  • 2 months later...
yesyes

yesyes

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I haven't posted an update for a while again, but that does not mean nothing has happened. Just not much directly related to the obsy.

It turned out that a lot more terra-forming was required before I can start with the actual obsy build. ;-)

I have finished building the tool shed in March and have then turned to crazy paving the path leading from the patio though the raised flower beds up to the shed and obsy. I used the stones from the wall I removed to pave the path. Poor weather has also meant that progress was a lot slower than I had expected.

The path is now almost finished. I hope to complete it in the next week and a half so that I can start digging holes for the obsy foundations and pier on the bank holiday weekend.

Here are a few images of my progress so far.

1. tool shed finished

2. paved path

3. remaining bags of sand and ballast (I ordered 49 bags of ballast and 20 bags of sand, some have been used for the path, the remaining bags should hopefully be enough for the obsy foundations)

4. small patio-like area in front of shed, yet to be finished

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yesyes

yesyes

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Hi Chris - looking good. I get the feeling Mrs 'A' had something to do with things.... :grin:

Not really (though they always have something to do with everything... :D ).

The thing is, I wanted a nice solid path first. It makes it easier to transport things to the back. Also, most importantly, I wanted to get rid of as many of these stones as possible before starting the build to have them out of the way. What ever is left after finishing the path will be put under the obsy floor. I've already filled the shed base with stones. The "hardcore" on the last image is also re-used. It's the mortar bits from the wall that I smashed up into small bits with a hammer... Because of the bad access to the property there is a lot of recycling going on... ;-)

It's also a good exercise mixing concrete. I've never done anything like that before. ;-)

Oh, and she really is my Mrs now. We got married beginning of March. ;-)

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Astrokev

Astrokev

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Looking good Chris. I like the windy path leading to the back.

Can't help but notice though, regarding the pic of your shed.........aren't the tools traditionally supposed to be on the inside???? :laugh:

Looking forward to the next update.

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