From Micro Obsy to Dual Pier Observatory - via Hard Work, RSI, Back Ache & Melting Credit Card!

[Kimboman]

what a super location you will eventually have a grand set up 

[ArmyAirForce]

April 27th 2022 - The observatory shed arrived; a day late. Following the advanced warning phone call yesterday, I'm not surprised the pallet was damaged. I wouldn't have shipped a dolls house on it and the shed was 350Kg.

The courier had placed the shed and broken pallet precariously on a much stronger pallet, but it wasn't particularly stable! Oh well, yet another pallet could well be turned into another ammunition crate for my World War 2 truck! That's four and the broken one I've got in stock now to be recycled into WW2 accessories!

[ArmyAirForce]

It arrived just after 10am and it took me a good two and a half hours plus to slowly unpack it, load it on or in the car and drive around the back of the house.

It was unloaded on the workshop patio and around the trailer while I made the rest of the trips up and down the drive. Somewhere around five or six loads I think. I was beginning to wonder whether I'd bought a shed or a flat-pack bungalow!!

[ArmyAirForce]

Slowly it was carried into the workshop to be checked over and ticked off the parts list.

Having just cleared space in the workshop earlier this week, all of a sudden, it's full of concrete and shed. Perhaps we need to move to a bigger house?

[M40]

Loving your planning  👌

I feel your pain with the concrete; I recently went into B&Q and bought 10 bags of the same stuff, which I must highlight was down to you guilt tripping me to move myself, anyways, I got covered in dust by shifting a large number of split bags before I got to some good bags. 

[andy fearn]

Well after reading that lot, i think things can only get better🤞 best of luck.

[ArmyAirForce]

April 28th 2022 - More concreting and digging today. Having supplies again, I was able to concrete in the last three shed footings. Only the two roof runner footings to dig and concrete, once the shed is starting to take form so I can project the roof runners, straight and parallel to the footing location.

After a brief stop for lunch, the rest of the afternoon was spent digging the first telescope mount foundation, slowly chopping away at tree roots for the first 12 inches down. Five wheelbarrows of earth have been excavated so far, but quite a bit of digging still to go - and that's only pier number one.

Edited May 18, 2022 by ArmyAirForce
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[ArmyAirForce]

The wheels for the roll off roof also arrived in the post today.

Each has a 20Kg rating, giving 160Kg carrying ability. Considering the whole shed was only 350Kg, they should easily carry the roof. I can always add more if needed. The roof will run on an 'L' shaped runner. The small wheels will be mounted sideways to guide the roof and keep it in line with the runners.

[ArmyAirForce]

April 29th 2022 - It was a surprisingly hot day to be working in the garden. My thermometer said 35°C in direct sun light and 15°C in the shade.

I started by reducing the height of the earth around the rear left corner, slowly uncovering the roots of one of the tree stumps. I didn't want to rip the whole stump out, as this would disturb too much earth close to one of the telescope piers, which would then need filling with hardcore or concrete.

I slowly uncovered the roots with a trowel and then used the chainsaw to remove the roots where needed. For now, just the earth around the tree root and footings was cleared, enough for the floor joists.

[ArmyAirForce]

Next job was to get three of the six floor panels onto the workshop patio to measure. I don't trust adverts and instructions to give me actual sizes. Once the length and width of the floor was established, I could start cutting the outline floor joists. I wanted this outer frame so that I could more accurately plot the pier positions in relation to the outer walls.

The left side end joist was first, as the back left corner being the highest, sets the height of all other positions. The mounting bracket for the vertical supports was loosly bolted to the front left concrete pad and the vertical support cut to height. The front joist could then be aligned horizontally and parallel to the string marking the new lawn edge.

[ArmyAirForce]

It was heading towards 5pm by the time all four joists and supports were cut, although nothing was screwed together. Only the front two mounting brackets have been drilled and temporarily bolted at this point. I need to do some careful measuring to get it all square before drilling the next mounting brackets.

Two floor panels were carried out and tried in place on the joists. I'm not convinced they are 100% square, but I need to do more checking.

It started to become apparent how big the observatory will be - my third man-cave, after the workshop and garage!

[JeremyS]

Crikey, you certainly don’t hang around @ArmyAirForce! 👍🏻

[m.tweedy]

That's going to be some Observatory Stephen. 

[Macavity]

Very impressive. Lovely location. 🙂

Reminded that my old Dad (Post Office Engineer) used Pythagoras to "get things square".
He had some magic "triplet" based on a standard plot size of UK Telephone Exchanges?!? 😉

[3,4,5],[5,12,13],[7,24,25],[8,15,17],[9,40,41],[11,60,61],[12,35,37],[13,84,85],[14,48,50]
[15,112,113],[16,63,65],[17,144,145],[18,80,82],[19,180,181],[20,99,101],[20,21,29]...

[ArmyAirForce]

The weekend was mostly spent doing other jobs in the garden and I was out with my World War 2 Dodge truck on Bank Holiday Monday. A small job that was done between other things was to paint the pier tubes. In addition to the two coats of dilute waterproof PVA glue, they've now had three coats of Hammerite Smooth White.

Work outside has come to a temporary halt as I've got some builders in, extending the concrete hardstanding beside the garage and shed. Since that's very close to the observatory location, I didn't want to be in their way, so outside jobs can wait a few days. They should be finished on Thursday.

Today, I had a big move around of concrete and other bits and pieces in the workshop, clearing some floor space so I had somewhere to work on modifying the shed. Once a big enough space was cleared, I laid out two end panels to start working how and where to separate the walls from the new opening roof.

[ArmyAirForce]

This end panel goes closest to the garden shed and garage and faces East North East. The aluminium rulers mark the roof runner position, while the two pieces of timber at the top of the picture show the top of the roof. The sides of the roof panels will be about 12 inches tall. The green foam tube is a light shield that goes over the mirror end of my 200PDS scope, stopping stray light from getting in around the mirror. It is slightly larger than the scope size, but is a good representation for the position. The front wall of the roof section will open upwards to allow the roof to slide down the tracks and clear the scopes.

The clearance between the roof and scope was similar on my last observatory. It keeps the walls as high as possible to act as a wind break while still giving the scope the best possible view all around. It's been a bit of a challenge working out the height of the scope, the pier, the observatory walls and the pier foundation height in relation to the floor and ground height - all being interconnected.

[ArmyAirForce]

The builders finished the concreting in the garden yesterday. I now need to give it a month to fully cure before I put any significant weight on it. The square in the foreground, replaces some existing concrete that was rather thin and cracking up. The shed will be moved and my trailer will tuck in here, along side the garage and under a planned trailerport.

The shed will be moving forwards in line with the garage front and also moving towards the camera to the edge of the new concrete. This leaves space for the trailer beside the garage. A raised bed veggie patch will be built on the soil in the foreground, between the shed and the observatory.

[ArmyAirForce]

This morning, after a B&Q trip for some timber, I began to cut down the end panels of the observatory. The uprights were cut through along the new sliding roof line. The panels were then separated and the tongue and groove cut following the slope, but slightly over size.

The two panels were then screwed back together and a 2 inch square roof runner clamped in place. This single long piece will add rigidity to the upper part of the end panel, formerly provided by the roof. Once the shed is fitted in place, I'll extend the runner with a second piece of timber to support the roof when open. An aluminium angle will be screwed on top of this wooden runner for the roof wheels to roll on.

[ArmyAirForce]

The runner timber was screwed down into the wall uprights and the tongue and groove was screwed from the outside into the runner, tying it all together. The excess T&G that extended above the runner was then chisled away to almost flush and needs a final sand to bring it level. I must buy myself a new small plane before the other pieces are done. My old small razor plane died a while back and was never replaced. The overhanging end of the runner still needs trimming off.

I'd just got the runner screwed in place when it was time for the school pickup, so chiseled the T&G when I got back. That was it for the day. The first side is done.

Yesterday, all the end grain on the legs and floor joists were painted with several coats of dilute waterproof PVA glue, allowing it to soak deep into the wood and help seal it. The only other job from today was to paint the four legs in bitumen paint. While it is treated wood anyway, the PVA and bitumen paint will help to keep moisture out. I'll be doing the underside of the floor before fitting too.

[andy fearn]

11 hours ago, ArmyAirForce said:

The runner timber was screwed down into the wall uprights and the tongue and groove was screwed from the outside into the runner, tying it all together. The excess T&G that extended above the runner was then chisled away to almost flush and needs a final sand to bring it level. I must buy myself a new small plane before the other pieces are done. My old small razor plane died a while back and was never replaced. The overhanging end of the runner still needs trimming off.

I'd just got the runner screwed in place when it was time for the school pickup, so chiseled the T&G when I got back. That was it for the day. The first side is done.

Yesterday, all the end grain on the legs and floor joists were painted with several coats of dilute waterproof PVA glue, allowing it to soak deep into the wood and help seal it. The only other job from today was to paint the four legs in bitumen paint. While it is treated wood anyway, the PVA and bitumen paint will help to keep moisture out. I'll be doing the underside of the floor before fitting too.

starting to take shape now. looking forward to seeing the end result. 

[ArmyAirForce]

Thanks to a chance spotting of an advert in the "Latest Posts" section of the SGL homepage, I met up with @bilbo this morning and bought the second NEQ6 mount needed for my observatory.

My original NEQ6 Pro was bought in 2012, while the one I've just got is the newer, green trimmed model. I'm not sure when that version was released. This one is about two years old and in excellent condition. I can't wait to get them both installed. I'm just about to get changed, head to the workshop and start modifying the other shed end panel.

[ArmyAirForce]

Another busy day under a surprisingly hot sun. The outer floor joists were refitted today and the diagonals carefully measured to get the base as square as possible. Once the position was set, I drilled the bolt holes into the footings for the rear corner leg brackets. The brackets were then bolted down finger tight and the floor joists screwed together.

Again, this was just a temporary measure. Once all the piers are done, I want to lay a weed membrane down over the footings and then bolt the brackets down onto them. With the floor in position, the other six legs were marked up and cut to length. Their mounting plates aren't yet bolted down. I'll do that when I'm doing the weed membrane.

With the frame supported and secure, I marked out the edges of the pier foundations on the timber frame and knocked some small panel pins in. String was then stretched across the pins, end to end and front to rear to give me the pier position. Small stakes were then hammered into the ground where the string crossed to mark the area to dig.

Both piers were marked out with string across the frame and after staking out the corners, the string was removed and refitted around the staked out corners. This will let me dig out the foundations without tripping over strings suspended above ground.

[ArmyAirForce]

Lynne had been wondering how much of the garden would be blocked by the observatory when viewed from nearer the house. She held one of the end walls in place while I took a picture from about half way to the house. Once the garden shed is pulled forwards onto the new concrete, half of the observatory will be hidden anyway.

This was one of the reasons for the low height of the observatory. Another was that it meant the piers didn't need to be so tall and the whole thing is just more hidden in the garden by the hedges. This view is looking approximately South South West.

Back down at the build site, Lynne supports the end wall. Her eye line is around the height of the top of the roll off roof. I don't recall if I've mentioned it before, but due to the floor height above the lawn, I'm planning on some fold out steps in the doorway. When not in use, the steps will fold away inside the observatory and leave the lawn unobstructed for mowing.

[ArmyAirForce]

A closer view of the observatory, again looking approximately South South West.

Slightly out of work order for today, the other end panel was trimmed and the roof runner screwed in place this morning. The tongue and groove side was planed down to the runner and sanded flush. Since it was a nice day, that's when I decided to go out to the garden and move the job along out there.

[ArmyAirForce]

May 9th, was mostly spent digging and digging.....and digging! The first pier hole was extended in width to match the strings plotted out the day before and then I started digging down and down.

Since the slope of the earth drops away to the front of the pier, I wanted to go down a decent distance so the foundation was supported on all sides. The hole was about 2 feet square and a tight space to dig in once I got too low to reach from the outside.