My welder friend gave his valuable time and skills tonight to weld up the door-frames as planned. They are extremely rigid and strong now. Great job mate.
Putting up all the intermediate dome ribs was so much quicker than the heavy ones. I got a couple done yesterday at lunchtime, a couple more in the afternoon, a couple more today at lunch time and the rest done this evening. I even had time to paint the door with primer.
Below: All bows up, ready to be welded in place and then the temporary joining brackets can be removed and the roofing can go on.
I've been trying to work out how to get the doors on top of the dome to slide sideways, without leaving protrusions outside the dome when it is closed. My uncle came up with a solve consisting of four bearing-slide-rails from industrial sized photocopier paper trays. I now have them and they look and feel like they will do the job nicely. I'll put pictures on the website when I have them figured out.
Today I got my welder friend Jacob to come over and weld all the ribs on the dome, so I can take off the cumbersome steel plates holding them on. Now I can start getting some sheeting on the roof and seal it all up.
I've bought some cement and hopefully this week I can mix enough concrete to fill the central pier extension. With that in place, the telescope can be mounted as soon as the roof is on and operations can begin! All the prettying up on the inside will follow, but at least I can start to use it.
My next-door-neighbor is a carpenter and has volunteered to help me build the stairs inside. Actually, he is the expert, so I think it is me who will be helping him!
I don't know how many times I have leaned on the unattached pier up on the top floor and nearly toppled over, so today I filled it with concrete and mounted the mounting plates.
Solid now and good to lean on!
1. Reo about to go in, pouring in concrete, then embedding the mounting plates deep into the wet concrete via three long threaded rods.
2. Filled with concrete and mounting base plates seated.
The steel for the roofing arrived today. Thanks to a couple of good jobs with the chainsaw and a wonderful donation. Along with the roof sheeting, I also got the doors custom covered.
Thanks to the help of my next door neighbour and his friend, we got all the flooring in on the first floor today. Getting the first sheet in took a little work, but once we got a flow happening, the rest went in so quickly. Now I have something to stand on while I put the roof on.
As soon as we were done, it poured with rain, but I've had two test-pieces up there for months and they are not yet swelling or deteriorating from all the weather. Hopefully, I'll have the roofing on within the week and won't have to worry about that any more.
1. Colorbond sheeting cut to size and ready to clad the dome.
1. Humble beginnings. This was my original cardboard concept I built all those months ago to get it right in my head during the planning stages.
2. A bit of mucking about today, finishing off the flooring, putting joiners underneath etc. Finally started on the roofing and got the first piece worked out. The four around the centre slot are the most complex, but once those are worked out, the rest are easy.
Today's work. Attaching the hardest sheets first. Each sheet has to be clamped, traced along the bows, removed, cut to shape, re-clamped then screwed on. Getting sheets to bend on two axis has proven difficult.
Baz, I have just caught up with your obs progress, and it's really taking shape now. Looks the real thing!
Your floor opening seems very small - are you planning to use a ladder, or build stairs, or what? From memory, the floor opening in mine was 92 degrees of arc, but of course you need less if using a ladder.
Baz, I have just caught up with your obs progress, and it's really taking shape now. Looks the real thing!
Your floor opening seems very small - are you planning to use a ladder, or build stairs, or what? From memory, the floor opening in mine was 92 degrees of arc, but of course you need less if using a ladder.
Chris
Hi Chris. It's just to get in and out during construction of the dome. Once that's done, I will be building stairs and the hole will be cut bigger to conform with the curve of the stair. Until they are done, I'm not willing to start cutting material unnecessarily.
Let it not be said that I have not spent blood on this observatory! Nearly dropped the door from the top of the dome today, caught it mid-slide but managed to run my forearm down the edge of the sheet-metal. Saved the door, lost some blood.
1. Interesting seeing the muscle under that many layers of skin.
2. Stitching it up, a couple more to go. Good as new and back to work!
Let it not be said that I have not spent blood on this observatory! Nearly dropped the door from the top of the dome today, caught it mid-slide but managed to run my forearm down the edge of the sheet-metal. Saved the door, lost some blood.
1. Interesting seeing the muscle under that many layers of skin.
2. Stitching it up, a couple more to go. Good as new and back to work!
Ouch! Hope you're ok and you haven't severed any main tendons or nerves ...
