And so it begins

[twintin]

i started to put the roof on last night (pics later) but even though i have tried to keep the weight down by using 1/2 inch board i'm still getting a bit of sag! Also had my rubber delivered today which will add even more weight! I'm thinking i may have to put a wheel and a runner in the middle to stop it sagging. I know this is because i had an aesthetic trade off and had to put the pitch of the roof the narrow way round so i just need to come up with a solution.

[r3i]

i started to put the roof on last night (pics later) but even though i have tried to keep the weight down by using 1/2 inch board i'm still getting a bit of sag! Also had my rubber delivered today which will add even more weight! I'm thinking i may have to put a wheel and a runner in the middle to stop it sagging. I know this is because i had an aesthetic trade off and had to put the pitch of the roof the narrow way round so i just need to come up with a solution.

I used 6mm plywood then covered with EDPM rubber on my roling roof. So far that's been fine, although my roof pitch runs parallel to the runners.

[twintin]

Yes i'm thinking 6mm may have been better as the rubber is heavier than i thought. Bit late to change it now so i will have to come up with a work around, amazing how these things go from being a very light weight frame you can move with one finger to a mighty behemoth that needs a motor to open it............. "hmmmm wonder if anyone would notice if i dismantled the garage door opener"

[yesyes]

is the sag in the boards or the timber frame?

[twintin]

Its the timber frame. The problem is it's a 3m long unsupported timber and all the weight of the trusses and the roof panels bear down on it. The ends are fine as they are supported by the castors, so i'm thinking of putting an extra smaller rail in the middle to take the weight of the front although this won't help at the back. I'll post a piccy later when i get home it may make it clearer.

[yesyes]

That's what I thought.... I think I might run into the same issue where the roll-off roof meets the warm room roof...

[twintin]

yeah i'm sure it must happen a lot especially if like me you have a large span to cover. At the minute it's deflecting approx 10mm which doesn't sound a lot but once the rubber is on and with time an movement i'm sure that will increase. So although i had a good 20-25mm clearance it not take much to close the gap up until it binds and i don't want to add more weight by using a heavy steel angle. I'll have a play and a think tonight

[yesyes]

what's the size of the timber?

[twintin]

Its 2 timbers screwed together one 50 x 100 and a 65x 40 on top to take the trusses. You can see the side rails which are the same on the last pic i posted. I'm going to screw another 45 x 100 to the front face flat on so it basically gives it a 100mm timber hopefully that should pull it up a bit. I had a quick dabble with a middle rail and wheel but i didnt like it. It seemed to want to lift the other front wheels off the track a wee bit, Alittle more thought tomorrow when it's light i think.

[yesyes]

Hmmm... I only have a 50x75 planned there, 2.7m long.

[Oddsocks]

A technique often used in old building restoration where it is necessary to reinforce a weak irreplaceable beam for example is to cut a slot along the entire length of the top surface of the beam with a rotary saw, drop in a thin steel plate, dowel through and gap fill with poured two-part resin.

In your case you are going to add a second piece of timber to the existing beam so try sandwiching a thin aluminium plate or zinc coated steel plate between the new and existing timbers, drilled through and screwed together.

5mm x 40mm aluminium would add very little weight but stiffen the beam considerably, 2mm x 40mm zinc coated steel would have the same effect but add a few kilos to the weight, either option would be much lighter than adding angle steel although the plate will only add stiffness in a downward direction where angle would also add lateral stiffness.

William.

[twintin]

That's a good suggestion William I think if the timbers don't do I'll have a sniff around at work and see if we have anything I can use.

[twintin]

Well i got a little bit more done this weekend, progress has slowed a bit due to work and a few other things. I got the rubber on the roof and fitted some of the trims. I also managed to fit one of the timbers to stop the sag which seems to have worked a treat. Just got to fit the other one now. Just a few bits left like fitting the fascia trims and gutters, the door to finish and fit and the bar doors to and bar to fit, electrics to install and one or 2 other bits so hopefully a couple of weeks or so should see it off? Anyway a couple of piccies of what i've been up to..

Trims finished to gables and roof rubber on

Sag at the back end ! a good 10-15mm!

Sag at the front cured, just need to make the fascia and fit guttering. I'll fit a brush strip at some point as well

[yesyes]

that sag on the back looks quite bad. It does not seem to happen on mine. I've put the roof beams on the roll-off last weekend. I've not yet put the sheets on but I was doing pull-ups on one of the beams near the middle of the horizontal on the warm room side and there was almost no sag, despite it being a 75x50mm joist only.

[twintin]

Hi Chris, to be fair the picture makes it look a bit worse than it is in reality. It's purely down to the fact the 10 trusses which are fairly heavy in themselves are bearing down onto a 3m span with no central support. Individually they easily hold my weight so they are probably over engineered as most house trusses are a lot thinner. Happily the addition of the extra timber seems to havetaken the sag out and stiffened it considerably. I'm just debating in my head wether i should change my track which is 25x25x1.5 ali angle for 38x12x3 as the 25x25 catches on the castor frame slightly and makes it difficult to open. Also the 3mm thickness will give me a couple of mm more clearance so if i get a bit more sag there will be tolerance. In hindsite it would have been better with the trusses running the other way but it was a stipulation of the local planning dept (swmbo) so i have to work round it.

[twintin]

I have been a bit slow over the last week or so what with one thing and another but I did manage to add a couple of timbers to reduce the sag, which has worked thankfully. It was hard getting them cramped up but it all worked out ok. Being a joiner by trade I have realised that working to normal tolerances on a shed build isn't the best idea as it is way to easy for things to drift a mm or two. I have added some 30 x 5 flat Ali plate on top of my Ali angle runners which g

has lifted the roof 5mm and given me very nice clearances all round which allows the roof to roll so much easier. Tonight I added some stop ends so the roof doesn't go to far either way and also a couple of large hasp and staples which will hold the roof down and offer security against it being lifted. I have also hung my ebay 99p door after putting the mullion back in where the glass was and fitting some cladding. Tomorrow the lock will go in. So small update but just a few things left to do on the main structure like finish the soffit and fascias and fit some brush strip to the joints and weather bars to the door, then it's just power and the bar to do. Hopefully a couple more weekends should see it finished. I'll post some pics in the morning as its pitch black now.

[SnakeyJ]

Thanks for the tip on the Nissan Micra disks - off to my local factors tomorrow!

Will be watching with interest how the bar takes shape - ru planning an opening night

[twintin]

Hi Jake if you go this route I think they are a 92 year with a 59mm centre bore. I got them from GSF vetech branded if it helps

[SnakeyJ]

Thanks Twintin, extremely useful and very much appreciated - Jake

[twintin]

Well this weekend i managed to complete all the major construction works. The fascia's are done the doors done and lock fitted and the bar doors are in. All thats left now are the electrics the decking the bar to fit the guttering and finish the insides off, but to all intents and purposes it is now usable A few piccies if anyones still interested.

Quick piccy of the fasia & soffits minus guttering

This is the patented anti roof bloweroffer device! HD Hasp & staple with a big fat bolt in it

This is my doubled up stop. I used 2 on the theory that if one failed the other acts as a back up. They are on both sides so hopefully there is no chance of it failingThe last thing i want is the roof rolling back to far and ending up on the deck!

[twintin]

Well it's been a short while since I did anything in obs bar. I have installed the consumer unit, sockets, lights and switches. I just need to run a feed from the cu in the house to the shed. I've got all the armoured cable and glands etc... So hopefully this weekend I should see POWER !!!! I had a sneaky go with my st 80 in the week running off battery and I think it's all going to be good. Once I'm powered up i will spend a bit of time on PA so stand by for a plethora of stupid questions. I will try to take a few piccies this weekend aswell.

[twintin]

So over the weekend i managed to sort out the electrics. I ran a new circuit from the consumer unit in my garage out to the obs in swa. Its only about 15m and the only bit that needed to be buried was under the block paving pathway so it was a bit easier than i thought it might be. I clipped it to the wall and the railway sleeper retaining wall and laid it underneath the deck so it didn't take long at all. The consumer unit in the obs is way over specced for my needs but it does mean i can have every circuit on individual breakers. Ive got 2 red lights and one white one. I have the two reds because the one on the left side nearest the double sockets will be behind the wall which i 'm putting up to give me somewhere for the optices to go . I ran a cable under the floor and up some conduit to the two single sockets on the pier. They were a headache to fit as the cable between them is very short i only did it this way as i hate to see double sockets on their side ! Nearly all the gear i managed to get for little or no money through our electricians at work which was a big help. So i now have a useable obs (when the cloud plays fair) just a few minor things to do like gutters, desk, shelves, outside socket, carpet, fit the bar, fit brush strip to the roof and no doubt a few more "little things" will crop up. Overall i'm very pleased with how it's turned out and i'm looking forward to using it.....oh and giving it a suitable name, i'm erring towards the Star Bar

A few piccies of where i'm at today.

[twintin]

did a few little jobs outstanding on the Star Bar obs today. Made a step from some bricks and blocks we had lying around (i'll paint them later) installed the optics   and beer shelf, made a desk top from some old 40mm planks i had and mounted the c8-n. Still a few more bits to do but its coming along nicely. Managed to get a couple of hours observing on saturday night, started to take a few long exposure images with my 450d but the battery died so had to cut it short. Anyway a couple of photos for the record.

View through the bar serving hatch

view of the optics and beer shelf

My new step made from stuff that was going to the tip

The C8-N with my st80 piggybacked

[twintin]

just realised i messed up the tags to the pics! Oh well i think you can work out which is which

[SnakeyJ]

Love the Optics - more than just Scopes and EPs,   sure you'll spend many happy hours in the bar