What a day! Whew!
It started yesterday afternoon...
...
Because I planned to paint the inside of the POD with Krylon Fusion paint to reduce UV and IR (and hence temp build up in the POD) I started masking and painting panels in Friday arvo after work. I managed to get two dome quadrants painted on Friday arvo, using one aerosol can of Fusion per panel.
7:00am Saturday and I was out there doing it again. Wrestling with the breeze, trying to spray paint outside...
... How I would love a workshop with a) nothing in it that I was worried about overspraying, and b) enough room to do it without a major removals exercise...
About 10:00am a mate turned up to give me hand putting the POD together
... this is a must! I finished off painting the last wall panel, and decided not to paint the inside of the door panel at this stage.
By lunchtime we the two dome halves assembled but without the rubber seals and my offsider had to go...
So I poked about doing what I could by myself, fitting the POD bay wedges for the shelves, then started assembling the walls.
When Lyn got home from shopping we were able to get back into the 2 person tasks.
One minor disappointment was that when we assembled the dome on the walls, it was obvious we didn't do as well as we thought pulling the domes into shape while fitting the flange plates and rubber seal clamping strips.
The weather seal is snug right across, but on one side is very tight
. That side of the secondary dome just scrapes on the inside of the primary dome. I'm not too sure what can be done about that yet... I may be able to pull the dome off one day and have another go at it, but I suspect that could be very difficult to make the necessary adjustments in screw positions with existing holes there. For the time being I think it will have to do
. So if you're about to build your POD - give this lots of attention!
With storms forecast for this afternoon, I was keen to get the POD anchored, which I managed to do by about 7:00pm. I'll have to go back later and install the rubber flange seals between the two dome halves, and fit the shelves to the bays, etc... in the meantime, it's up, it works and its secure!
I must say the quality of the gear supplied by Skyshed is excellent!
The stainless steel fittings and rubber backed washers to weather proof the screws for the bay wedges, are all very nice touches.
I must say there is more work in assembing a POD (the first time) than I thought there would be, but after watching the assembly video I figured it was going to be most of the day to do... well I didn't finish in a day, but then I added a few hours work painting onto the schedule...
I've attached a few photos:
1. The assembled dome halves.
2. The bays are keen... they're in position.
3. Walls assembled.
4. View of the inside walls. The bays are black lined from Skyshed, the wall panels are painted with Krylon Fusion.
5. The stainless steel screws and rubber backed washers are just the thing to keep the bays dry.
6. The almost complete POD... open.
7. Another view of the POD open.
8. The POD closed.
Al.
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