50/50 Roll off build

[Gina]

At least!

[Yawning Angel]

Planning to have plenty of sockets ? oh yes!

Todays madness was to strip the grass on the Obs plot and clear the ground work spoil - on another blazing day! Massive thanks to @Uplooker for pitching in on the spade work. It filled a 2 ton mini skip, which wasn’t in the budget, but stuff like that is easily missed

least exciting photo ever:

Weed matting and stones in order to cover it. If only the builders merchants sold new backs, as mine is killing me!

[Gina]

It shows progress - that's gotta be good!  ??

[Astrokev]

Looking good!

[Yawning Angel]

Progress today. Base framing done, awaiting joists next. Slate ground cover heaped up for now, as the pier pour is next weekend and I didn’t fancy a landslide. 

The pier itself is due end of next week from the fine folks at Rother Valley Optics - slight refinements on their standard offering. 

Last job of the day was completing the bury of the SWA network cable.  

Nice to be going upwards ?

[Yawning Angel]

Collecting the pier on Saturday! ?? Should be doing the concrete on Sunday, all being well

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Wishing you well for the weather....

[Astrokev]

I really like the way you've staggered the joists at the corner of the frame. Looks much stronger than simply butting one side against the other as I did with mine. Wish I'd thought of that!

Have you put any sort of damp proof layer between the frame joists and the concrete blocks? Without this there's a risk of moisture rising into the timber.

Edited July 27, 2018 by Astrokev

[Yawning Angel]

The frame isn’t fixed down at the moment, but it will be wrapped beforehand, yes.

The staggered ends seemed to make sense, leaving as little exposed end grain as possible, but I’m sure I cribbed it from a build on here. If it’s not yours, perhaps James’ ?

Just weighing up ideas for the back wall, as it needs to be low / maintenance due to being very close to the fence.  Front runner at the moment is the same coating that’s going on the roof (25 yr before maintenance, if it performs to spec), but over vertical OSB panels - built and coated flat then raised and fixed ‘finished’. 

[Astrokev]

8 hours ago, Yawning Angel said:

The frame isn’t fixed down at the moment, but it will be wrapped beforehand, yes.

The staggered ends seemed to make sense, leaving as little exposed end grain as possible, but I’m sure I cribbed it from a build on here. If it’s not yours, perhaps James’ ?

Just weighing up ideas for the back wall, as it needs to be low / maintenance due to being very close to the fence.  Front runner at the moment is the same coating that’s going on the roof (25 yr before maintenance, if it performs to spec), but over vertical OSB panels - built and coated flat then raised and fixed ‘finished’. 

Some folks have used uPVC panels for hard to get at walls. May be worth looking into. @yesyesused this approach. 

[Yawning Angel]

Ooh, found some upvc in 2400x1200 sheets - ordered a sample ??Thanks

Collected the pier from Rother Valley Optics too <glee>

[JamesF]

Excellent

Personally I'd be tempted to remove those threaded rods and replace them with the shortest possible bolt that allows you to get a hand/spanner in for aligning the mount.  That should improve rigidity.

James

[Uplooker]

2 hours ago, JamesF said:

Excellent

Personally I'd be tempted to remove those threaded rods and replace them with the shortest possible bolt that allows you to get a hand/spanner in for aligning the mount.  That should improve rigidity.

James

I agree wholeheartedly with what James says

[Yawning Angel]

Indeed. I'm going to make up a nice short centre bolt, then drop those right down - I've plenty of height to play with. That said, it's pretty solid

[Astrokev]

Yes, I think that would be better - agree fully with the comments above 

[Jkulin]

I deliberately made my pier so there was no adjustments and made the concrete as level as possible, not chance of any flexture.

[Astrokev]

11 hours ago, Jkulin said:

I deliberately made my pier so there was no adjustments and made the concrete as level as possible, not chance of any flexture.

How did you attach your mount to the pier ? Did you have some sort of owls nest design?

Of course, polar alignment can also be achieved without the need to have the top of the pier level (although having a level top is aesthetically pleasing ?). 

[Jkulin]

Hi Kev,

 My mate owns an engineering company and he drew up the attached drawings, in the slots I then bolted one of Ian's pier plates from Altair Astro which originally accommodated my AZ-EQ6-GT but now allows my iOptron to fit: -

JK-Model.pdf

JK Pier Drawing.pdf

The pier that my mate made has an owls nest that allows you to bolt the pier plate down and as it is slotted you can rotate to align approx. and then you can adjust when doing your PA.

It is really important to make sure you bolt the pier the right way round or it won't rotate enough.

I've attached an image showing the owls nest with my CEM60EC mounted on it.

When the builder laid the concrete it was virtually flat, it has settled in the last year but without any adverse effect on the PA.

BTW my mates said he would make more of these piers up if people asked, you won't get them in your normal boot as it took three of us to lift it off his pickup bed.

HTH

[Alan White]

Looking good, amazing progress in the heat.
Sorry to ask late after your comment, but what is a 'Newcastle' Shovel?

[sloz1664]

Nice set-up Alex. You will love the easy access and simplicity in setting up your scope when you have completed your project. 

I wish you all the best and a speedy completion to your 50/50 roll off.

Steve

[Yawning Angel]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Looking good, amazing progress in the heat.
Sorry to ask late after your comment, but what is a 'Newcastle' Shovel?

Thanks Alan

its a narrow, curve section shovel - quite thick metal, and great for slicing neat holes and trenches and punching through roots and bricks ?

http://www.spear-and-jackson.com/product/tubular-steel-shovels/tubular-steel-newcastle-draining-16

Edited July 31, 2018 by Yawning Angel

[Alan White]

14 hours ago, Yawning Angel said:

Thanks Alan

its a narrow, curve section shovel - quite thick metal, and great for slicing neat holes and trenches and punching through roots and bricks ?

http://www.spear-and-jackson.com/product/tubular-steel-shovels/tubular-steel-newcastle-draining-16

Now I know what one is, thanks, you live and learn.
I should have bought one of these years ago!

 

[Yawning Angel]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

I should have bought one of these years ago!

 

That's what I thought when I came across them a few years back. By far the best digging tool I've owned!

[Rusted]

An adjustable pier should not need much adjusting beyond early set-up.

Why not cut some heavy, thick wall, steel pipe to length to go over each stud once their exact lengths are known?

Use thin washers for packing if need be and lose the inside nuts altogether.

Rely on the pipes being clamped down hard for their much greater area and resistance to cyclic crushing forces and flexure.

 

The obvious alternative is to use much larger studs. 

Studding cost little enough up to an inch or 25mm diameter even in stainless steel or galvanized.

That just leaves you with finding somebody to drill out the existing holes in your flanges to a far more useful size.

It needs a sturdy pillar drill, holds downs and a very low drill speed once you get over 1/2".

Though it can be done in a large enough lathe in back gear.

 

I did some experiments using heavy 16mm studs and hefty square roofing washers to stiffen up opposing walls of a huge 1.5" thick plywood subwoofer box.

A humble 3/4" chipboard shelf absolutely slaughtered the studs on killing box wall resonances.

The heavy studs were only really useful for clamping the chipboard shelves in place.

Not an ideal basis for avoiding flexure.

[Yawning Angel]

I plan to access it once it's in place - but I'm thinking of using stud connectors threaded onto the bar to make a stable join, with washers if it needs leaveling to any great degree. Should make it pretty bomb-proof ?

Edited August 2, 2018 by Yawning Angel