Shed conversion Obs.

[Steep]

The first thing I should say here is thanks, to everybody who has posted their obs constructions, ideas and links to parts, it was all a great help and made my task much much easier.

I love technology! but as I get older I have less and less patience faffing about with technology to make it work (this is going somewhere honestly). When I bought my Celestron 127slt back in January it very quickly became clear that taking it all out and setting it all up and aligning (or failing to) it was more faffing than I wanted. I knew that my patience would wear thin and my hobby would stagnate, sooo... I decided I needed somewhere I could leave it safely set up and ready to go.

I'd already decided to dismantle an old greenhouse in the back garden so had a base just about ready and only needed to choose a shed to fit it. The one I went for was this Penta roof 6.5'x6.5'

which was bigger than my base so the first thing was to extend it, and fit my 'experimental' pier, a bucket of cement bolted down with a plastic waste pipe filled with concrete set into it. A power line comes from the garage, underneath the brown shed, it used to feed the greenhouse heater and will do nicely for the laptop etc.

The building was delivered just in time for a few days clear weather which I spent getting it painted up, then Doctor Spode arrived as construction was about to commence. Being a hardy scot I let nothing hold me back, actually I think the 8.7 tons of mud I dragged in on my feet help to steady everything up!

I'd had many ideas about how to handle the removable roof and finalised on a lightweight two part lift off affair, but as soon as the shed arrived it became clear that the solution was much simpler, the top 'pent' section is actually separate from the main body so the plan then became ro-ro roof, this meant supports etc and extra work but in the long run it's a much better solution.

One problem I encountered was that the roof was meant to form part of the structural strength of the shed so I needed to add strapping around the top as well as metal corner pieces inside to make up for it, same for the roof section.

More tomorrow from the inside which I've only just started to sort out.

/edit dammit there's always one spelling mistake that escapes the net...

[yesyes]

very nice!! ;-)

and you even got the warm room shed right next to it already ..

[Steep]

Odd you should mention that! the thought crossed my mind too It wouldn't be hard to cut openings into both for a doorway, if you see the mount picture below, the two windows are almost in line with each other.

This shot shows one of the four hasps locked closed a caster and the aluiminium guide rail. The guide rail is made up of parts of the old greenhouse.

This is the goto mounted on the 'ahem' pier, which while not perfect actually is not bad, it has a small footprint, isn't affected by my movement and settles down quickly after any adjustments to the scope.

This is the roof in the off position. The obs is nearly complete outside now and I actually got some good use out of it last night for the first time.

Just need to get stuck into the innards and photoshop some grass back into the garden...

On hold now for a few days while I paint the fence, I managed to recycle a dozen sheets of glass into the neighbours greenhouse too which I feel good about

[yesyes]

Nice. I'd probably put a doorway in there. But it would also be OK to go around... ;-)

One comment about the roof though. I would probably put it the other way around with the higher side towards the obs when it is open. If there is any water on the roof it may run down into the obs when the roof is this way around. If you turned it around, that wouldn't happen...

[merlinxlm]

If you don't mind me asking, where did you buy the shed from?

Thank you.

[Steep]

yesyes, that's a good point, the roof will travel well past the front of the building though so I reckon it will be ok, it's the way it is because the slope of the roof means I get a better view to the NW. I might try and work out a gutter of some kind that will move with the roof.

merlinxlm, ah the shed! yes well... Living in the far North it's pretty hard to get anyone to sell you a shed, that model is made by Shire (search - Shire pent shed) and sold by a number of retailers, only three of which would deliver to me. I chose B&Q, though their price was £80 higher than anyone else they deliver free and the cheapest quote I could get elsewhere was £90 for delivery!

The shed itself is a nice but there were some small bits missing, the supplied roof felt was 50cm too short and the worst thing of all, the door had a 1.5cm drop from left to right before I even fitted it. as it is it doesn't fit properly and I'm going to have to pull it apart and rebuild it properly (actually I want to strengthen it anyway for better security). Pretty sloppy workmanship from Shire, the door drops because it's badly designed, just three slim horizontal cross pieces you can see in the last picture are all that's holding it together

[spaceboy]

Great job Steep!

[Horus]

Looking good ....I'm as green as your shed lol

[gary1968]

That looks the biz, I am considering making my Summer House into an Obs and moving the Pier into there so the kit is always ready to run..... an Obs will make your hobby much more rewarding. Did you have to 'beef' up the original framework much to runn the RORO roof? I ask because I have concerns the framework in my summer house will be too light for that.

Gary

Gary

[msinclairinork]

Great build Steep!

Well done,

Michael

[Steep]

Did you have to 'beef' up the original framework much to runn the RORO roof? I ask because I have concerns the framework in my summer house will be too light for that.

Not a lot no, the framework of the shed is 44mm deep so I used 44x22mm batons to tie the wall sections together at the top as the roof would have done and added some metal angle pieces for good measure and did the same for the roof section.

[noakesy]

well done looks fab hope you have many hrs of fun in it

[noakesy]

when my scope is looking 25 dec from straight up i have to use a step ladder to see, so in going to put in floor on top of the floor in there 10 ins higher save cutting the pier,

[Steep]

I have a similar problem, the bar stool goes quite high but not high enough when viewing low stars, especially with the Baader zoom eyepiece. So I've co-opted a light 3 step aluminium step ladder which hangs neatly on the wall when not in use.

I've come across another problem too, the roof sags at the low end despite the extra wooden bracing so I think I'm going to have to replace that with some square section steel.

[Horus]

Any completed pictures?

[Steep]

Not completed yet, I've done some work on the inside, shelving, electrics and red led lights, alarm. Some finishing touches on the outside. What with having to paint miles of fence, go to work, having my debit card scammed, dodging more rain... I haven't made the progress I'd have liked but I'll take some shots tomorrow and if my new pin number arrives I'll sort some steel to brace the roof.