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Astrokev's ROR - The Build


Astrokev

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1 hour ago, Gina said:

All these posh observatories make mine look like a very rough old garden shed! ?

But then that was your design and plan and, as you said earlier, yours blends into the surroundings thereby avoiding unwanted attention. The best observatory is the one that does it's job and gets used, it doesn't really matter a hoot what it looks like. And yours is well fit for purpose and gets well used. ? ? 

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13 hours ago, Astrokev said:

But then that was your design and plan and, as you said earlier, yours blends into the surroundings thereby avoiding unwanted attention. The best observatory is the one that does it's job and gets used, it doesn't really matter a hoot what it looks like. And yours is well fit for purpose and gets well used. ? ? 

I left the standard shed bolts on the outside of my shed door.

Looks more like a garden shed but on the inside I have an expensive dead bolt with the hole for the key barely visible on the outside.

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Earliest delivery slot for the floor boarding is next Friday, which is disappointing. 

Mind you, with the weather being what it is at the moment I doubt I'd get much of a clear spell to cut it to size. Quite a few other jobs I can be getting on with though, if I get time in the next few days. 

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I was surprised to see blue sky today (well first thing anyway). In between other jobs, I've started to put the drip bars up. The one above the door was straight forward, although it's a very snug fit.  The 2-fin bar I bought for below the door needed to be modified, as I expected, as it's a tad too high. So, I've cut the top fin off and am currently tidying up the cut edge. If the weather gods smile on me tomorrow I hope to get it screwed in place then.

I also put bricks on top of the wire mesh under the floor, to stop it lifting, or being lifted ? 

Not a huge amount done, but it's all forward moving and slowly ticking things off the list, which is the main thing.

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Managed to find a couple of hours today....

Finished trimming the double-fin rain deflector, which is now deficient to the tune of one fin, to allow it to fit on the bottom rail of the door ?. To allow the door to open as wide as possible I decided to round off the right corner so it wouldn't foul the door frame. The door doesn't quite open flat against the wall - the picture below shows it opened to it's maximum without fouling the frame. At some point I will put a catch on the wall to hold it at that angle should I need to open it wide, but to be honest I can't see why I'd need to open it this wide at all; the catch will mainly prevent it being knocked accidentally, and gouging the frame.

Both drip bars are only screwed in temporarily at the moment. When (if) we ever get a dry day again, I'll take them off and put a bead of silicone sealant behind the bars to make the seals watertight. I also want to put sealant along the bottom edge of the door where the cladding meets the bottom rail. This looks like rain can collect and soak into the end-grain, so want to reduce that risk as much as possible.

In preparation for putting the floor down, I also nailed some supports to the joists in the warm room. These will hold-up the insulation panels. I'm waiting for more insulation board to be delivered, but I had a bit left over from doing the warm room roof so cut and installed one panel. This is a fairly loose fit so I can get it out easily. I will put a small hatch in this corner when I put the floor boarding down, so I can access the ground to allow me to bring in the power supply when I get round to that. With hindsight I maybe should've installed this earlier on, but it's not a problem to retro-fit it, so long as I can get under the floor.

Oh yes - and everything was absolutely dripping as the overnight frost thawed. Not very pleasant to work in. I guess I'm a fair-weather DIY-er. ?

 

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I think having the door go back that far, or at least to be held on some sort of catch is very handy if you want to carry things in and out.  Most of the time you'll never need it, but it makes life so much easier when you don't have any hands free, especially if it's a little breezy.

James

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22 minutes ago, Alan White said:

I could smell the wood on the last set of images Kev, really I could.
This and JamesF and others posts and build are making me ponder a build myself now.

You know it makes sense ?

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No progress over the last couple of days as I've been busy doing other things, and the weather has been pretty lousy. However, tomorrow the ply and insulation panels for the floor should be delivered so, weather permitting, I can start to cut and fit the floor. My original intention was to cover the scope room using only two 18mm ply panels. However, now I'm thinking about it, I think it could be tricky to get the dimensions exactly right. The width and length are OK in themselves, but the corners will only have to be out of square by a tiny amount and the deviation will be magnified over the length of the board resulting in it not fitting. I need to think about the best approach some more. Maybe dividing the floor into 4 quarters and fitting 4 panels would make things easier, as I can then put each piece in place and measure and mark-up in situ rather than having to do this outside the obsy. Busy weekend ahead me thinks.

The other thing I've started thinking about is the design and layout of the electrics. I may post another thread to get people's ideas and opinions, as this may hit a wider audience.

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Had a text last night to say my Wickes delivery of 4x8' ply sheets was due to arrive between 1PM and 6PM today.  Experience, and the laws according to Mr. Sod, tell us that this really means 5.59PM, right?

Well, on this occasion - wrong. Knock on the door at 1.04PM ? . Wickes have gone up in my estimation!

Ironically, I was busy this afternoon so couldn't make a start on the floor, but hope to be getting the saw out tomorrow.

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Finally managed to get some real flooring down today, in between dodging the showers. I completed a third quarter in the scope room, but forgot to take a picture. Tomorrow I'll hopefully complete the scope room and make a start on the warm room. For the gap around the pier, I will cover this with ply, leaving a narrow gap around the pier itself - all pretty standard stuff really.

If I can find any varnish in my mess of a shed, I may give a quick coat to the underside of the ply to help resist rising moisture from the ground.

I have to say, it feels absolutely fantastic to be able to walk around in the scope room (well, around half of it anyway) without falling down holes or balancing on joists. Although the floor level is only slightly above the height of the joists, it also feels different now that I'm able to stand, more or less, on the finished level and get a feel for the final height of the pier and the walls.

 

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Bit more progress today...

I still need to finish putting the insulation under the warm room boards, but I can cut that in the observatory, so wanted to make best use of the dry weather today to cut the ply out on the decking.

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58 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Excellent :) Doesn't look like there's much actual construction work left now.  You'll be in by Christmas :)

James

Well, I guess I had "first light" last night, but this was only with binoculars - does that count? ?. Took my first squint at comet 46P Wirtanen, and a bit of a disappointment it was too, to be honest. Mind you it was losing altitude when I went out and I was cloud dodging. I want to get the mount set up this week and dust the frac off to try some imaging before it reaches perihelion. So, I suppose I'll be officially in once the scope has seen some action :)

Regarding remaining jobs, it's getting closer, but there seems quite a few still to tick off. Ones that spring to mind -

  • Fit Door baton, stops & draft excluder
  • Fit Door hook/eye catch
  • Insulate warm room floor
  • Paint pier
  • Fit Floor rubber matting
  • Fit carpet tiles in warm room
  • Fit Roof locks
  • Fit internal roof seals
  • Tidy internal EPDM
  • Fit Barge boards
  • Fit Guttering
  • Make Internal door
  • Fit Window
  • Install Electrics
  • Fit Wall covering
  • Paint walls
  • Make external step & landscape
  • Fit warm-room bench, shelving & cupboards

To be fair, most of these are fairly small jobs so, apart from the electrics (and maybe the door), they shouldn't take too long. He says, foolishly. ?

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