Rotating Roof Obsy Pics

[Davei]

Pics should be attached now! These should show:

The completed observatory with roof closed, with roof rotated off and with the south flap open for maximum sky access.

Also the observatory structure part assembled and the Pier with HEQ5, scopes, PSU's and interface cables as it is today.

dave

[kris h]

That looks AWESOME

Wish my shed was like that

[barkis]

What a great innovation that is. I reckon that is unique mate, and you ought to patent the design before it gets nicked .

Ron.

[Beyond_Vision]

Now that is really neat, I love it

Regards

Kevin

[michaelmorris]

That looks an elegant and intriguing design. Could we see more detail of the rotating and counterweight mechanism?

[LukeSkywatcher]

That looks an elegant and intriguing design. Could we see more detail of the rotating and counterweight mechanism?

Yeah that would be good to see. I finding it hard to understand how the roof rotates.

Fine looking structure.

[MarkF]

Paul if you look in the last picture there is an orange arm with a silver pivot point attached to the end of the shed, that is how it must work with a counter weight to the left out of shot.

[MarkF]

Paul if you look in the last picture there is an orange arm with a silver pivot point attached to the end of the shed, that is how it must work with a counter weight to the left out of shot. Oh and you can see the winch in that shot too.

[Bizibilder]

What an exellent design! I've never seen an observatory roof like that before! I suppose the next step would be to split the roof down the middle and let each half counterbalance the other?? Not a criticism - just thinking out loud.

[Davei]

Kris, Ron & all,

Thanks for the comments. I will post some pics of the pivot arrangement shortly. Re: the patent, several others have suggested patenting it and it does seem to be unique, but I would rather help those that want go also go Rotating Roof approach than go through the hassle & expense of a patent.

cheers

dave

[George]

That's highly innovative, you might set a trend there really great looking obsy.

[MarkF]

Kris, Ron & all,

Thanks for the comments. I will post some pics of the pivot arrangement shortly. Re: the patent, several others have suggested patenting it and it does seem to be unique, but I would rather help those that want go also go Rotating Roof approach than go through the hassle & expense of a patent.

cheers

dave

I forgot to say what a marvellous idea looks great and ideally camouflaged as a shed

[Davei]

The Rotating roof is bolted to 2 Pivot arms made from 1 inch ply.

Halfway down they each have a stainless steel bearing compring a 2 inch stub welded to a long back plate bolted to the north and south walls.

The lower end of the pivot arms have the cast iron counterweights.

As the roof rotates it slides through two slots in the west wall.

The arm bearings were designed to provide a 4mm gap between the pivot arms and the walls so the building needs to be rigid and with accurately parallel north & south walls. A nice engineering challenge but it all works!

The winch in the earlier pic is there for my wife to operate the roof, since I've just had major surgery!

Does this anwers the questions?

dave

[Bizibilder]

If its counterbalanced why the winch?

P.S. If you "reply" to your own original thread then everything will be in the same place, rather than starting a new thread each time. Hope this helps.

[Helen]

P.S. If you "reply" to your own original thread then everything will be in the same place, rather than starting a new thread each time. Hope this helps.

Threads merged

Helen

[Macavity]

Wonderful. Shades of Abraham Darby, James Watt, Thomas Newcomen...

[Rusty Strings]

Amazing idea brilliantly executed I might add.

Are there are a duplicate set of counter weights on the other arm?

What is the roof made of?

[Davei]

Thanks all for the comments. The roof/pivot arm assembly has fairly high inertia plus a degree of in-built friction because I did not want it running out of control once it starts to rotate. So it needs an amount of arm power to get it moving and then to stop it. Hence the winch for my wife to use and rubber buffer pads on the concrete base to stop the roof as it reaches 90 deg. Yes there are 2 sets of counterweights, one on each arm. I have fitted removeable safety pins in each Pivot arm so that when the roof is in place it's locked against hurricanes, small kids etc.

dave

[Psychobilly]

Superb design and implementation.. ideal if space is limited ...

Peter...

[Digz]

A great design, Ive never seen anything like it. It seems a sensible and elegant solution to a rolling roof scenario.

[Astro_Baby]

Thats one sweet bit of design and build

[yesyes]

This really is an excellent design. Though it does remind me of a big rubbish bins we use in Germany somehow... ;-)

Anyway, this made me wonder if it would also be possible to use some kind of mechanism similar to the up-and-over garage doors to open an obs roof?

[michaelmorris]

What a great design.

[Nermal]

Very innovative design - and I admire your decision not to patent it but let others learn from your design

How did you make the roof and what out of ?

[Rusty Strings]

Maybe we could nick a few of those germans waste bins and market them as rotating roof obys for the under 5's.