Thanks for the tips.
I hope the exintex don't trap a lot of heat. Colorbond certainly doesn't but colorbond does make for an oven.
Cheers,
Greg.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bert
If you get down to rock drill some holes and chemset some starter bars in it to tie it in to your concrete and that pier will be going nowhere. The observatory at kandos I built is similar dimensions to the one you are proposing and we used a 100mm slab and a 100x 300 thickening beam in the slab edges and that was class 'm' moderate reactive soil there from memory. Is the area granite or reactive?
The kandos observatory we used a welded steel frame with .42 monoclad (stramit's trimdek) and used a similar product to aircell, but it had a bubblewrap, and I really have no idea which is the best to use with that or the foam aircell.
The extinex panels are polystyrene? If they are they work great, as Guy mentioned he has used polystyrene and it looks great and insulates well without having a huge thermal mass that will leak heat well into the night.
Walls 2.5 high is pretty high, unless your pier is quite high as well, Which come to think about it if you swinging a long refactor....
I have a hollow pier and I drilled holes for running cables up the pier, but I didnt use them, I read some where to carpet the pier which I did, and its way more practical than I would have imagined because a)velcro stick to it (think power supplies, usb hubs, focus contollers, dew controller etc) and being able to attach it where you want b) I ran the cable between the carpet and the pier, it looks tidy and you can run the cables wherever ie no 240 and data together. c) its easy to make changes.
Freds idea of running the pvc works great.
The adjustment of bolts at the top of the pier works well, use fine threaded bolts and a huge plate, since you are using a paramount, you can use the pier adjustment plate made by bisque and the hard work is done for you.
Brett
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doomsayer
Re the computer and monitor
My observatory is quite small so I decided to make a simple timber cupboard which is bolted to the wall. I think it is about 500mm deep 800mm wide and 900mm high and has a horizontal shelf spiltting it in to 2 equal halves. I have 2 rolladoors which I got from Ikea installed. The rolladoors are space efficient and keep the PC gear protected and shields stray light from the monitor to the scope. The top shelf is at eye height when sitting and has a wide screen LCD on a swing arm. The PC and keyboard sit in the shelf below - I use a compect PC to save space. My legs/chair can fit underneath.
I also run cabling up the pier and have 240v at the pier and on two walls - I used exterior grade powerpoints. Just prerun the 240v flex through conduit and get the electrician to finish it off.
As Brett suggests if you have solid rock, secure some reo into holes drillied into the fresh rock and form the concrete around these with a sticky mix - not going anywhere after that assuming the rock has good strength such as fresh Hawkesbury sandstone.
Putting a good sheet of sarking under your floor - in my case thick formply isolated from the pier - helps with further heat/pest shielding. I also lined the interior of my observatory with ply painted black - this is optional I guess.
guy
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