The Orange Room Starts

[Clockwork_Orange]

Hi

Just thought I'd post this. Ive been allowed by the gaffer, now that Ive finished in doors for a bit, to do something with the garage. I've made a start this week, the first task was unbolting a few of the sections and moving the door to give a me solid walls for the obs/warmroom area. No doubt I'll be asking lots of irritating questions as a progress over the next few weeks, but at least I've made a start

The Space Ive now created for the obs measures just over 3mtrs length by approx 2.5 mtrs wide. I intend to have a warm room at the very far end with the scope room then measuring approx 2mtrs by 2.5mtrs. I intend to split the roof in the middle, take out the truss and having sliding back over both the warm room area and the rest of the garage. I'll be making a start on the internal walls tomorrow.

Regards All

John

[wxsatuser]

Thats a nice area to play with.

[Gina]

Your garage looks almostly exactly the same as our's

Good luck with the mods

[LukeSkywatcher]

That is a great space to already have and play with.

[laser_jock99]

Looks a good size- just check those roof panels aren't asbestos if you start cutting them.

[Clockwork_Orange]

Evening All

Been a busy day in the Orangery, thanks for the interest pips, its from reading through the other posts in this section that gave me the idea about putting this space to better use.

Thanks for the heads up about the asbestos Laser_jock, I had already clocked that they were asbestos, If all goes to plan I will not need to cut them, they should just unbolt and slide out when I get round to that part, I'm intending to remove them completely and replace the section with Poly-carbonate triple wall panels that will then slide back over the roof at the warm room end and garage end. The asbestos only becomes dangerous if its cut or drilled, creating the dust that does the damage. I'll seal then up in polythene once there out and contact the council with regards to the disposal of them.

First Job of the day was to set about the removal of the central roof truss, It needed to come out in one piece as I wanted to relocate it above the partition wall that will make up the warm room. The whole garage is just a bolt together kit which has certainly made things a lot easier so far. Where I've now refitted the truss though, didn't have any fixing holes in the concrete panels, so I've had to do a bit of a work around to get it fixed firmly in place, I'm pleased with the result, its rock solid. It does needs to be, as it will have the casters that I intend using for the sliding roof fixed to it.

This is the one that had to be moved.

Put a prop under it whilst unbolting just in case anything decided to start moving. its pretty solid though and the prop was removed before long, better get this finished before a foot of snow lands on the roof though, dont think it would hold without the truss there. 

The truss refitted in its new location

As said above no holes in the panels meant I had to fix these uprights in place to bolt the truss to.

Once I'd got the truss in place I really cracked on this afternoon and managed to get the door and stud wall all fixed. I intend to insulate the warm room section with rock wool prior to closing it all off with plaster board, but I'm getting a bit ahead of me self there, I wont be boarding it until the sliding roof is finished which might be a couple of weeks away. Ive got to make the frames for the Poly-carbonate panels to fit in before I reach that stage. 

I'm hoping to get the other wall up tomorrow. I'm not using any plans for this I'm just letting it sort of flow out of me as I go.

Regards All

John

[Gina]

Looking good

[Clockwork_Orange]

Thanks Gina

Can I ask how do you put photo's directly into the post, at the moment I'm uploading them to my gallery space and the linking them from there, I just wondered if it possible to put them direct into the post from my PC without having to take up gallery room?

Thanks in advance

John

[Bizibilder]

In the edit box - go to the "more reply options" button at the bottom.  Then you will find an "attach files" button appears.  Click and choose (up to 10) your pics (directly from your computer).  When they have loaded you will see a list.  You have to put the cursor in the reply box where you want the pic to appear and click on Add picture (or similar).  If you put two or more on one "line" I usually put a couple of taps on the spacebar between them.

Nice project by the way - and an interesting new slant on adapting a structure into an observatory.

(PS Pics do have size limits - so you may have to resize your originals first)

[Clockwork_Orange]

Thanks Roger

I'll give that a try with tomorrows progress, your build was one of the ones that inspired me to have a go at this, just wish I could have started it earlier in the summer, but alas she who must be obeyed said the hall,stairs and landing had to be done first and I wasn't going to argue 

John

[Clockwork_Orange]

Bit late with these meant to post yesterday but got side tracked as you do, finished the second of the dividing walls on Sunday so the room is taking shape. Ive got the Polycarbonate sheets on order hope to see them later this week. Got to make up the frames for them to slot into, reluctant to start the frames without them.

Got the day off tomorrow so will make a start on the high level support rails that will carry the track for the opening roof sections. Another visit to Wickes first, I'm sure I'll be on first name terms with them by the time this is finished.

Regards all

John

[Clockwork_Orange]

Hi all

Got a little more done, managed to bolt the 6" *2" that will support the pulley wheels for the sliding roof sections. I've also had the Poly carbonates sheets delivered. I did contact a local window/conservatory company but they wanted silly money for the 4 sheets. in the end I got them off the internet cut to size and delivered for just under £140.00, now that I have them I can make a start on the actual frames to hold them this coming weekend.

Regards

John

[Clockwork_Orange]

I've been busy last night and today working on the first of the roof frames for the sliding section. I've got another one of these to bolt together tomorrow. Few coats of paint to apply and then roof can be fitted.

These are the frames to hold the polycarbonate sheets

Ive made them so that I can bolt them together once finished using these brackets and M6 bolts that I've cut to length.

The brackets bolt each of the frames to the ridge board like so

The poly carbonate sheets then sit inside the frames, I wont fix them in place until after I've got the frames fitted and running true on the rollers and guides

This is the underside of the frames the 2 central cross bearers of each frame will have the aluminium channels fitted for the guide wheels to run in.

[Wyvern]

There goes another man on a mission.  One question though people,........... what is it with this warm room thing?  All the recent "starts" in obs building/conversions seem to want this. Are we losing the ability to "rough it" with the scope and view the skies "live" so to speak? My warm room is the kitchen with the obligatory hot drink waiting at the end of the observing session.

Hell, may be it's just me??

Enjoying the thread anyhow!

Go to it John.

[Tinker1947]

Warm Rooms are mainly for people that image, if your a viewing type there's no point in a warm room as you can't look through the eye piece unless your next to it....That's a nice start hope it goes smoothly to the end.....

[misfit]

making good progress there, keep up the good work 

[SnakeyJ]

Very envious of those dimensions - whoever said size wasn't important?   The warm room looks very tempting!

Very nicely engineered and built thus far and making rapid progress.  

Assuming the garage is already built on a concrete slab how are you planning to mount the scope?  I'm thinking you'll need to go quite high to get a good view with the height of the pitch.

[Clockwork_Orange]

Thanks for the comments guys

with regard to the mounting of the scope Jake, I've drilled into the floor to fix the partition wall plates, the one hole I used a long bit to see how thick the concrete slab was it turned out to be around 8" thick, this being the case I intend to get hold of a fabricated pier and bolt it to the floor to start with. I don't think vibrational movement will be an issue as I'll be in the warm room sat down hopefully, if it does become an issue I have a son in law with a jack hammer  .

I will have to set the CG5GT tripod up once Ive got the roof opening sorted to work out the best height for the pier. the garage is actually aligned perfectly east west front to back so the lower walls (1.9 mtr) give me views to the north and south, the view west is partially blocked by trees in neighbour's gardens  and the view east is out onto the front road with a dreaded lamppost outside in view, so the higher roof apex in that direction will mean imaging from 40 degrees above the horizon or there abouts I think, but at least the light from the lamppost will be obscured.

Any way I'm on the paint brush for the rest of the week, well couple of hours after work each evening, I want to get 2 coats of under coat and a coat of gloss onto those frames ah the joy of it.

Regards and thanks for looking all

John

[Tinker1947]

You might want to think about a wooded floor on top on the concrete, it will help keep the damp out and isolate the pier from what you walk on...

[SnakeyJ]

 if it does become an issue I have a son in law with a jack hammer  .

Not only the tools, but someone else to wield it!

Quite nice to have the roof roll off to the east helping to mask out that street light.    East was my favourite horizon from home, though in locating and building my observatory I've now lost most of this below about 65 deg due to the neighbours trees (perhaps I can marry my daughter off to a lumber jack ).   However the benefit is a far better Southern and Western horizon and a lot more of the northern sky than I imagined before clearing the corner of the garden.   There's always going to be some compromise, even if building from scratch and it looks like you have a very nice ample observatory and warm room without too much of the hard work.     A big benefit of being low is getting right out of the wind.

I would have thought an 8" slab should provide a pretty good base - but as Tinker suggests you always have the option to float a floor over this if moving around does cause some vibration, or perhaps those vibration suppressing pads?

[Clockwork_Orange]

I haven't told him yet Jake, I like Tinkers Idea. I'll work out the costs for doing it at this stage. It may well prove cheaper than having to fill the son in law with lager before, during and after the dig. Its been lashing it down here all evening I havent even been out to the Orangery tonight to start undercoating the frames.

[Tinker1947]

Go for polystyrene sheets 1" thick then cover in the chipboard flooring.....not to expensive.....

http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/210823

http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/164536

[Clockwork_Orange]

Just a progress report this week, all the paint work is finished on the roof panels. Thought better of trying to make a start on fitting them in view of the weather. I've ordered 4 of those toggle clamps that Tinker used on his roof. Liked the look of those Tinker thought that they would be just the job to lock it down when in the closed position. Ive also made up a window frame and fitted it into the wall between mission control and the scope room area, saw that idea on one of the build threads on here and thought hmmm nice idea I'll have one of them.

If the weather is kinder next weekend then the roof is all ready to fit.

John

[Clockwork_Orange]

Evening all

Not been the weather for swapping the roof over for a couple of weeks now what with the high winds and driving rain, I really wish I'd started this earlier in the year now but it is what it is. I've booked a couple of days off Monday/Tuesday fingers crossed the roof will be sliding into position very shortly.

John

[Clockwork_Orange]

Well after what seems like weeks, hmm it has taken me weeks !!!! Ive finally got the roof opening sorted. To say it has been difficult is a bit of an understatement. However it all works as planned and more importantly it has been well and truly tested for leaks and has passed with flying colours. Talking of flying I was not happy with the toggle clamps to lock the roof down and have instead decided to use cargo straps fitted internally, they only take a minute to undue or secure and I cant see the wind taking the roof on a low level tour of the local neighborhood with them fitted. It has taken a fair bit of adjusting to get the roof leveled and running true on the wheels, every time I adjusted one either up or down it meant all the others had to be adjusted to keep the two halves of the roof running level with each other. But thats all sorted now and it opens smoothly and quietly, I can now crack on with getting the inside finished off.

With roof closed and green cargo straps in place

Roof opened up 

View from the outside with it closed

Plasterboard and electrics this weekend

John