50/50 Roll off build

[JamesF]

22 minutes ago, Yawning Angel said:

The carpet tiles have some sort of anti-static rating so it shouldn’t become hair raising⚡️I suspect the foam tiles may be a different story

Ah.  Never thought of that.  I shall have a search for "anti-static carpet tiles"

It surely can't be too expensive (especially compared with the rest of the build).  I only need about three square metres worth.

James

[Yawning Angel]

Seems they come mainly in packs of 16 or 20 at 50x50cm, so 4 or 5m2

Plenty of places do free samples. I found DCTUK.com especially helpful

[JamesF]

So, all I need is about a dozen places that will send me a free sample

James

[Yawning Angel]

Office reclamation places seem to get pallets full. I’ve  seen them from £1 a tile. At that price you could double them up ?

[Astrokev]

3 hours ago, Yawning Angel said:

Scope room painted, lit and floored. Right, warm room next

Looks fabulous. Are those conduits sticking out of the floor?  You’ll have to be really careful you don’t trip on those if they are. 

[Yawning Angel]

6 hours ago, Astrokev said:

Are those conduits sticking out of the floor?

They are, yes. They need cutting flush. They’re just about in the lee of the pier head, so I’ve been alright far ??

Much as it looks done, I do need to lift it to tape it down, and I’ll cut the conduit then

[fwm891]

Looks superb but on dew laden nights isn't the carpet going to act like a sponge which will need a dehumidifier running during the day to remove the water - especially when a wet day follows a damp night...?

[Yawning Angel]

The dehumidifier is waiting to be plumbed in ?

The carpeted space is the warm room only, which is (will be) heated and closed off from the open side. I've been treating is as a summer house / garden office, when spec'ing materials, as suppliers understand that concept better than 'observatory'.

Of course, it could end up an unmitigated disaster (let's hope not) where in it gts ripped up and replaced ?

[Gina]

I put the same foam rubber tiles in the warm room as the scope room, avoiding any trip hazard in the doorway between the two.

[JamesF]

I was shying away from rubber tiles in the warm room because I wasn't convinced they'd stand up to being rolled on by a chair.

James

[Gina]

They seem to stand up well to that though haven't used warm room for a few years now other than for storage and power supplies and backup battery.

[Astrokev]

5 hours ago, JamesF said:

I was shying away from rubber tiles in the warm room because I wasn't convinced they'd stand up to being rolled on by a chair.

James

Yes I wondered about that. I've used carpet tiles in the warm room, but I now find myself using an office chair in the scope room! It does leave some marks; time will tell if they spring back. Once I'm fully set-up I'll probably move the office chair back into the warm room and, if I decide I need a chair at all in the scope room (always was a lazy observer), I'll look for something with bigger footprints to reduce the risk of damage to the flooring.

[JamesF]

I think it's almost certain I'll be using an office chair in the warm room.  If the weather is sufficiently good to do some solar imaging I may well just move down there to work for the day as I'd much prefer to be out in the fresh air, so I need to plan for a fair bit of use.  Even with carpet tiles I'll probably get one of those carpet protector mats for the chair to go on.

James

[Yawning Angel]

I’ve been quietly using the odd evening here and there to paint all this inside woodwork, which is now done except the rolling roof - honestly, I’ve not been able to face it, but I will!

Planning for the electrics has meant starting to outfit the warm room, or at least plan for the desk etc. I want to put the main span of trunking under the desk, which means I need the desk (or at least it’s dimensions)

My current thought is to run 50cm deep shelving rack on the left, then extend a shelf across to for the desk, and maybe echo that with a smaller high level shelf above. There exists a number of commercial solutions like this, so it’ll most likely be a bought in kit

my floor tiles arrived, so I loose laid them to get the feel :

The purple colour cast is from the leds doing ‘white’ from the scope side - the walls are actually ‘silver birch’, so a nice pale grey

[Swoop1]

Form those of you not yet commited to your choice of warm room flooring, wouldnt commercial grade lino be tough enough?

It would certainly withstand office chair rolling. Anything that survives the rigours of a special needs school has got to be up to warm room (and scope room) work.

[JamesF]

Lino certainly could be an option.  I do quite like Alex's carpet though.  And it's more comfortable if you fall asleep and slide off the chair onto the floor :D

James

[Astrokev]

My warm room carpet tiles were a freebie from an ex-company, so it was a no-brainer to use them. Being office tiles, they’re as tough as they come and won’t show any wear from the chair. The scope room may be a different matter though!

[Yawning Angel]

Roof open, sunny day:

I suspect, if I can’t discourage them, I might have built a big bee hive...

[Astrokev]

40 degrees, with the roof OPEN ?!  ?

[Yawning Angel]

Yep, it’s a sun trap and then some! Cooled to 30 a bit later, with the lid on. 

[Yawning Angel]

Just a day ahead of a thunderstorm, guttering! Ignore the random fence post, it’ll come out when the patio gets extended to the observatory front

I can’t take any credit, as my Dad kindly installed it whilst I was at work. Just in time ?

[JamesF]

I wasn't going to put guttering on mine, but I think I'm changing my mind.  Something else to add to the list

James

[Uplooker]

Just in time, it absolutely hoofed it down late this afternoon, plenty of flash bangs too! That will certainly have tested your Obs water tightness ?

[Astrokev]

On ‎21‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 20:03, Yawning Angel said:

Yep, it’s a sun trap and then some! Cooled to 30 a bit later, with the lid on. 

I think I'll have to get myself a couple of the temp/RH displays. My experience of humidity sensors at work was that they require periodic calibration, but I suppose for the accuracy we need for observatory use, they should be fine.

[Yawning Angel]

The carpet tiles have gone it, which is a substantial milestone, as the whole space now has a floor covering! As with many of the tasks in building thus far, I've never needed to lay carpet tiles before. Following advice, it all seemed too simple, but double sided tape, a steel ruler and a sharp knife where all that was really needed.  That an an hour or so, of course. It's changed the acoustics, so it sounds less like a hollow wooden box.

There are thresholds to fit and some cable holes to punch, but that's finessing ?

I've a garage full of shelving bits being variously painted, sanded or waxed ready for install and the desk (600mm deep furniture board which I'll sand and clear wax) is due on Saturday. This will lead on to the install of the surface mounted electrics, who's plans are already running round in my head

The nice chaps at DarkFrame have my mount for servicing, before it's permanent install, so I've no distractions or excuse not to 'get on'!

Test fit of the shelving: