A long day but have got the roof in place, rolls well but needs some tweaking to get the best performance. Also still have the flashing to do and water proofing but I have something that looks like an observatory or a very weird garden shed.
The roof is finished, and rolls smoothly on and off. Now for details; the main support for the tracks are two 90mm x 90mm x5m beams these protrude about a metre on ether side of the shed. Bolted to these are four 50mm x 50mm x 2.5m square tubing (two at each end), these form the track for the roof to roll along.
The roof itself is contracted from 38mm x 33mm angle iron and 35mm x 75mm structure pine and corrugated sheet iron. The roller system is as follows; on each of the four peices of angle iron are attached four 50mm castors (total 16) nexts four tangent arms, fitted with a 100mm ball raced wheels are fix to each peices of angle iron. The 100mm wheels fit below the 50mmx50mm track and the purpose of these wheels is to hold the roof in place as I am not using full length track due the little room I have in the back yard (in short it is a space saving measure). Turn buckles are used to tension the 100mm wheel against the bottom of the tracks.
Internally eight guide wheels have been fitted (four for each roof panel) and rest against the 90mm x 90mm beam so as to help guide the roof half when they are being open or closed.
In operation the whole system works very smoothly, later on I will install a pully system to make the job easier.
mmmm why is the roof so flat - you will get moisture under those roof sheets - they are not deep enough channels!!
Hi houghy
Not sure what you mean, I have set a reasonable fall in to the roof design. Just by luck it rained heavily yesterday and the rain had no trouble running off. I still need to do the ridge cap and the flashing but getting moisture under the roof should not be an issue.
Not sure what you mean, I have set a reasonable fall in to the roof design. Just by luck it rained heavily yesterday and the rain had no trouble running off. I still need to do the ridge cap and the flashing but getting moisture under the roof should not be an issue.
Anthony
the roof being that flat will allow for moisture to bleed through and drip. that profile colourbond is not designed for such a flat roof. 15 degrees pitch is the minimum design for that profile.
the profile of the steel rib 500 is manufactured for low pitched roofs (as low as 1%)
and is guaranteel to keep out the rain.
I see what you mean, but there is no real plan for this observatory it is just evloving and I have to use the materials at hand, if I have any problem with moisture (winter will tell) I will let you know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by h0ughy
the roof being that flat will allow for moisture to bleed through and drip. that profile colourbond is not designed for such a flat roof. 15 degrees pitch is the minimum design for that profile.
the profile of the steel rib 500 is manufactured for low pitched roofs (as low as 1%)
and is guaranteel to keep out the rain.
What he hasn't told you as how well it stood up to the storms we had here a couple of weeks back. The roof, even unsecured, only opened a small amount in the 130km gusts and only a little bit of water got in. Anthony has also finished the flashing on both ends so that it has a more "finished" appearance. He has also used window winders to lift up the one edge to clear the other when opening up for the night.
hey, just read the entire thread in the matter of 10 minutes, and love the design! my only question is when the roof is fully retracted, how much of the sky is actually visible? looks like its only a 1 - 2m strip.
hey, just read the entire thread in the matter of 10 minutes, and love the design! my only question is when the roof is fully retracted, how much of the sky is actually visible? looks like its only a 1 - 2m strip.
MORE PICS NEEDED!!!
Hi Alex
With the roof retracted you have a full field of view, It like standing outside and just looking up and around the night sky. The telescopes themselves do have a restricted horizon due to the wall height, but most thing I will be imaging will be close to zenith anyway.
Some final image, the observatory in now to a stage that it is functional. I still need to do the paneling and tired up the electrical side of thing but she works. Just of intrest, the ridge cap that runs the lenght of the roof is hinged and is raised and lowed via window winders, also note the guide wheel to keep the roof straight when rolling off and on again.
I also have two computers for very tasks, such as autoguiding, imaging etc. Both are Pentium III, both where pickup of the sided of the road re-worked in put back into service. The best, a 1Ghz machine with 384MB of ram is used with my LU075C camera for planetary imaging and it works well in that roll. Just a note, I have been getting back into the swing with planetary imaging but due to the smoke haze and now the wet weather I am not having much success (mainly poor data unfit for public viewing).
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