Relocation of Pulsar Dome.

[Nigella Bryant]

Hi all, starting this new post about the build of my pulsar dome. It will of course contain the needed repair of some of the dome sections after thieves tried to lift it off at it's old address. Building materials have begun to trickle in with drain pipe being used for the central pier. Used these successfully before in my RoR observatory. Pic of them in place in my RoR. 

Edited June 6, 2020 by Nigella Bryant
Pics added

[Swoop1]

I shall be following with interest Nigella😃

[Bukko]

I do hope the repairs are not too difficult and you make good progress on the rebuild.

Gordon

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Good luck with the re-build. I really like the use of those corrugated drain pipe sections 🙂 

Steve

[Nigella Bryant]

Thanks Gordon and Steve. Just been digging the central hole today and trench for the armoured cable. 

[Nigella Bryant]

Dugout a little more rock. Really hard, lol. Foundations won't move me thinks, lol. Could only get 50mm below pavers for the armoured cable but should be OK as the pavers will be put back in place after laying the cable. 

[Nigella Bryant]

Telescope pier fabricated today. 200mm plate steel with 20mm rods and bolts. Hopefully future proof if I decide on a larger mount, lol. 

Edited June 11, 2020 by Nigella Bryant

[Dinglem]

@Nigella Bryant is that a penny farthing lurking at the back?

[Swoop1]

That looks a bit hefty Nigella. Are you planning to mount the Hubble on it when it retires?

[Nigella Bryant]

29 minutes ago, Swoop1 said:

That looks a bit hefty Nigella. Are you planning to mount the Hubble on it when it retires?

Lol, just being certain to future proof it, lol. Yeah, it's a hefty plate, going to be concreted into the corrugated drain pipe. Don't think it'll wobble, lol

[Nigella Bryant]

Armoured cable laid this morning. Decided to move the position slightly backwards by 60cm. There was a huge block of concrete 60cm square and 60cm+ deep that couldn't be dug out. So I'm placing the pier build on that, good footing as this is straight on top the rock. One pic photo bombed by one of my cat's. She likes to inspect my work to see if it's done right, lol. She's inspecting the line of the dome which is now out due to moving the pier foundation back a little. Cable laid from the side garden to the front of the bungalow. 

 

Edited June 13, 2020 by Nigella Bryant
More content

[Nigella Bryant]

Repairs done today to the fabric of the dome. Revamped the bearings to the wheels while I was mending thing's. 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Nigella Bryant
Pic added

[sloz1664]

The wheels / bearings look nice & clean   I was going to replace all my bearings but, on inspection, they were fine. I did however change all the bolts and nuts to stainless steel.

Steve

[Nigella Bryant]

14 hours ago, sloz1664 said:

The wheels / bearings look nice & clean   I was going to replace all my bearings but, on inspection, they were fine. I did however change all the bolts and nuts to stainless steel.

Steve

I had two that were seized but after some wd40 was fine and then just cleaned and more wd40.

[sloz1664]

9 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I had two that were seized but after some wd40 was fine and then just cleaned and more wd40.

Make sure you grease all the bearings and threads. I've had my dome over 3 years and it's still runs nice and smooth.

Steve

 

[Peter Drew]

WD40 is good for cleaning or releasing seized components but should not be relied on as a lubricant, it is a water dispersant (WD) and eventually gums up the "works"      🙂

[Nigella Bryant]

1 hour ago, sloz1664 said:

Make sure you grease all the bearings and threads. I've had my dome over 3 years and it's still runs nice and smooth.

Steve

 

Hi Steve, what kind of grease did you use? Many thanks for the tip.

[MarkAR]

Rocol Sapphire 2 is supposed to be good against corrosion and looks to be for outdoor use.

[sloz1664]

45 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Hi Steve, what kind of grease did you use? Many thanks for the tip.

I used an anti corrosion grease or a high temp grease will do. This will not melt away on those rare hot sunny days we have.

Steve

[Nigella Bryant]

1 hour ago, sloz1664 said:

I used an anti corrosion grease or a high temp grease will do. This will not melt away on those rare hot sunny days we have.

Steve

Thanks Steve, much appreciated. 

[Nigella Bryant]

Repairs are solid after applying fiberglass and resin to the inside of split dome areas. Resin filled the cracks too. Applied plastic car filler to the outside and rubbed down. Just needs a fine rub down now. Still not sure to keep it white or go for green as it's seen from the road if you really look whilst walking by. Don't want unwanted visitors again. Before pic added of the same area. 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Nigella Bryant
Pic added.

[Nigella Bryant]

Started on the Pilar today.

[ollypenrice]

In the original pier you had a lot of extended threaded bar exposed at the top. Personally I'd be inclined to have as little as possible proud of the pier. It's an annoying aspect of many mount designs that they require access from beneath to bolt to a pier. There is no need to level the base plate to polar align since perfect alignment can be had with a pier top far from horizontal.

It's really good to see that the low life brigade have not damaged your observatory beyond repair. 

Olly

[Nigella Bryant]

5 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

In the original pier you had a lot of extended threaded bar exposed at the top. Personally I'd be inclined to have as little as possible proud of the pier. It's an annoying aspect of many mount designs that they require access from beneath to bolt to a pier. There is no need to level the base plate to polar align since perfect alignment can be had with a pier top far from horizontal.

It's really good to see that the low life brigade have not damaged your observatory beyond repair. 

Olly

Thanks Olly, yeah, I'm not going to have so much threaded bar exposed on this one, lol.

[Nigella Bryant]

Just tidied up cementing, pavers and started just two blocks for the decking.