This should work for a pier

[Kbramley]

After waying up a few options for a pier, I came across an old 10m flag pole that was being scrapped at work, so before the cleanaway guys could wip it off to the skip I chopped the base off and hid it out of the way . Its a fibreglass mast with a substantial steel insert that is welded to a triangular baseplate with some convienient 20mm holes. However the metal base insert only goes about 50cm up the inside, and isn't a snug fit as the fibreglass tube is tapered, but once filled with concrete the whole assembly should be solid. All I need now is a concrete pier base with 3x20mm studs sticking out which will allow me to bolt this straight on ( so when I move house the pier can move with me). I plan to set 3 more studs into the top when i add the concrete to allow fitting of a mounting plate and EQ6 adaptor plate.

Technically my work cant complain as they are always trying to be "green" and this is essentially recycling

The dream of getting a permananet set-up moves one step closer....

Keith

[Astrokev]

Sounds and looks good Keith. One step closer indeed.

I've had a length of air-con ducting in my shed for 2 years and also remember thinking "one step closer". I now have a set of castors for a roll-off roof and am designing my ROR obsy, so I'm nearly there!

[Kbramley]

Good luck with your build Kev, if only there were more hours in the day

One step along a long road for me, I currently live in a flat (so no observing at home) and along with juggling a 5 month old, I'm trying to renovate a house (at a nice dark site), this is proving to take a LOT longer than first thought lol, never realised how long it takes to paint a whole house from scratch . Somewhere near the bottom of the list of thing to do, there is build the observatory.

Meanwhile I'm soaking up all the good info on this site from everyone elses Obsy builds

Hoping first light from the new house and Obs will be October - watch this space.....

[JamesF]

Looks promising to me

James

[Gina]

It's a start Good luck with everything I can vouch for the fact that painting a whole house (or bungalow in our case) is a long job!

[Kbramley]

agreed, every room from bare plaster, including 10 doors from bare wood and a whole house of skirting board,arcitraves and a staircase from scratch, not including tiling and fitting bathrooms and kitchens and laying a new floor , if I had the dosh it would all be getting done by tradesmen but the loft conversion (and a certain 383L+) soaked up all the spare cash so now its down to good old fashioned hard graft at the weekends

Back to the Obsy, would the general concensous be that its better to buy and mod a shed (into a ROR) or build a obs from the base up? My DIY skills are reasonable so fabricating something wouldnt be too much of a challenge, its all down to cost and time I guess.

[JamesF]

I reckon anyone moderately competent at woodwork could stick-build an obsy pretty much as quickly as modifying a normal shed and get a much better result out of it. A garden shed usually relies on the roof to hold it together so you'd end up having to strengthen the walls anyhow, and you'd still need to design the roll-off system for the roof. The only real faff is probably putting on the outer skin, but many garden sheds are pretty poor quality in that respect too.

James

[Astrokev]

Agree with James on that. Building from scratch to your own design will give a much better end result and the cost difference will be minimal. Back on the house front I know how you feel. We moved into our house about 18 years ago and renovated everything, including rebuilding and re-glazing all the rotted sash windows, replacing all the lath & plaster ceilings, re-plumbing and installing new kitchen and bathrooms, fitting skirting, coving, architrave and dado rails through the whole house and re-plastering half the rooms. The only bit left to finish is completing stripping back the original '20's staircase, but I've run out of steam for a while! No wonder my observatory is taking a while to get started .