A Long Felt Wont…

The Observatory porch has finally been felted!  After a couple of weeks of heavy rain and showers.  (By the way Bizibilder thanks JW for the off-cut of felt!)
Bizibilder has included another close up of the “post shimming” method employed.  This has proved to be a great success.
“Underneath the Arches” A view from inside the Observatory showing the roof rails, wheels and braces.

A little touch of paint….

It was quite apparent to Bizibilder after his first (and, so far, only) observing session in his new observatory, that lights from the neighbours houses were reflecting of the nice bright white internal walls of the shed.  So Bizibilder has bought some matt black paint.  The trouble is that the temperature outside is barely warm enough and the paint is taking twice as long to dry as it should – He thinks he will wait for warmer weather!
He has also started to caulk around the lower door slides to try and stop the, admittedly small, amount of water that is finding its way into the shed.  It POURED down yesterday – the only water in the shed was below one side of the lower door track.  So: The Porch seems to work!!!!! (Bizibilder, of course, knew it would and is therefore most definitely NOT surprised at all!)
This pic shows “the new door problem” – both doors have bowed by about 1cm.  Bizibilder will have to make some sort of internal “frame” to try and get the doors flat again (and simultaneously strengthen the rather flimsy doors).
Another view of the “bowed doors” – there is no point in trying to seal these gaps until the doors are made straight.  Hopefully this will also ease the currently VERY jerky sliding action of the doors. They really are not very good at all – even for a shed!

The shot that I forgot!!

This is the shot that Bizibilder forgot!  It is quite important as the whole project depends on it!! Each of the four corner posts was cut to length.  BUT with the slight errors in marking out and setting the saw to the line all the posts were SLIGHTLY different lengths - if only my a millimetre or so.   Additionally Bizibilder required all four corner posts to finish JUST above the height of the metal wall panels – so that all the rails etc did not foul the tops of the panels. The solution he adopted was to use a strip of “damp proof course” (plastic tape 100mm wide and 0.65mm thick) folded over and over to “shim” the posts to the correct height – you can just see it, under the post, in the picture.  This worked very well, Bizibilder was able to control the heights of the posts very precisely, thus everything fitted as desired.

The Porch - I hope it keeps the rain out!!

Bizibilder’s Observatory now has a rather fetching porch – only a piece of OSB on a frame plus a couple of posts to make it look “posh”. It will be covered in felt to make the whole thing waterproof as soon as Bizibilder can scrounge a suitable piece. (By the way everything IS square – Its just that Bizibilder had to take the pic whilst standing rather too close to the Observatory.

The idea of the porch is to prevent rain from hitting and running down the doors straight onto the lower door rail and hence straight into the Observatory!! Bizibilder wants it dry in there! He decided that fitting the porch was easier (and cheaper) than trying to make the doors both robust and totally waterproof. This pic shows the final shot of the bracketry at the “front” (door) corner of the Observatory.

Another day done…

Bizibilder managed to do dozens of little jobs today. The most obvious being the bracing of the roof rails.
The ends of the rails will be cut and tidied up once Bizibilder is sure just how far the roof needs to go back in the most extreme case – no point in cutting now and finding that the rails are a bit short!!
Bizibilder has also stripped off the original silicone sealant that he used round the base of the shed – it did not stick to the concrete properly – hence the leakage seen when it rained. The new sealant says “sticks to concrete” on the label – We shall see!! He has also come up with an idea for preventing water ingress through the sliding doors – Build a porch!! The doors will then not require such a perfect seal to keep the rain out – He hopes.

(Especially for Ann.)

"Bizibilders Observatory Movie"

or "25 seconds of Pure Movie Magic"

(complete with wind noise and the Sun shining straight down the camera lens!!)

Boy did it rain today!!! But – Things GOT DONE!!

Today Bizibilder finally managed to get the last weatherboard in place. To be fair to him it must be said that the weather this morning was AWFUL. It rained heavily AND blew a gale – so little work was done until after lunch.
The rear corner where the weatherboard had to be cut away to clear the roof rails – the gap is less than 5mm – it looks bigger due to the light flooding in and the fact that Bizibilder has not yet painted the bare wood green yet!!
The effect of the extended weatherboards can be seen here from the inside. They do keep out a considerable amount of unwanted light – the camera is higher than my normal eye level in this picture.
The door showing the flood due to the rain pouring down the doors and straight into the shed via the lower rails – this needs fixing!
The open roof buffer stop – very gentle and entirely natural!!!

A Cold, Wet and Muddy day……………..

The doors have been assembled and installed – They are quite flimsy and definitely not secure!  There will need to be some strengthening done here.
The side weatherboards.  These are longer than the shed for a very good reason – Bizibilder had clamped his over-length plank in position to check for clearances etc when he realised that, with the roof in the open position, the over-length boards helped block out a streetlight that can be a bit of a nuisance at times – So over-length side boards it is!
Front and side boards in place – no fouls anywhere and only a gap of about 3mm all round the roof.
The front corner, to the right of the door, showing the structure.  There will be a metal brace put in at the top of the weather boards.  (It had been drizzling most of the day and was now getting quite cold - Bizibilders enthusiasm was waning by this time!)
The runners and rear corner.
The rear wall – the only weather board still to be fitted.  There will have to be some thought here to ensure that Bizibilder ends up with a good close fitting solution.  Whatever he does Bizibilder can do nothing about the rails sticking out through this wall!
Final view of the day. – Nearly finished now!

The clever sliding roof thingy…

Bizibilder had already assembled the metal roof and had cut out a kit of parts for the roof frame.  Assembly was comparatively straightforward – the only problem was that the roof was very flexible and not so easy to reach across – Bizibilder feels for those who make 10x10 sheds!
A corner joint showing the metal and wood bracing.  The longer screw is 120mm long.  They are taped here to show how the angled joint was made secure.
This picture is to show that you can buy “LONG SERIES” drills.  The lower drill bit is a normal or “jobbers” drill 3/32” by about 2.5” long. The upper drill is the same diameter but a full 4” long “long series”.  Bizibilder includes this as, unless you are familiar with engineers tools you may not be aware of these drills.  They are most useful!
The roof frame and wheels in place – nothing is fixed here – its all a bit wobbly!!
“Look – NO screws!!” You can also see the timber strip that guides the wheels.  There is one on each rail positioned outside the wheel.
Everything lines up perfectly – just as Bizibilder said it would – see yesterday’s post!! (Bizibilder is feeling quite proud!)
Like an over indulgent beetle – flat on its back with its wheels in the air! The assembled roof structure.
Details of the roof corner joints.
The roof in place for the first time.  Mrs Bizibilder helped lift it into position.  At a guess Bizibilder reckons the whole roof weighs about 70 - 80 pounds.
First opening – It actually works.  Bizibilder, of course, was not surprised at this success.  He always had complete confidence in himself. (His head gets bigger by the minute………)
A weather board temporarily clamped in place.  It fits and the deliberate off setting of the runners (see yesterday) has worked a treat – no fouls anywhere. The rails have also had a strip of timber added so that the roof slides in a perfectly controlled way (See pic above for detail of rail)
Bizibilder had to put the turnbuckles in today as heavy rain is forecast overnight, along with a good breeze.  The Observatory is not weather tight yet – at least the roof can’t blow away!
A final look at the days work.

All walls and Roof rails!!

The start of Bizibilders day – putting on the third wall.
Nice and square – so far all the shed parts have lined up perfectly, everything is square and straight.
Until now……. The door frames were PIGS!!!  There are two upright strengthening pieces, screwed front and back, at each side of the door.  The holes on these did not line up!!  Nor did they align with the predrilled holes on the green front wall pieces.  This job took Bizibilder (with help from Mrs Bizibilder) over two hours to sort out.  In the end he simply drilled holes where needed!!
Bizibilder’s first Boo Boo!  He had not realised that the doors and their slides are FULL WIDTH (on a 6 foot shed!).  So he had to chop away a small piece of frame at the top of the walls.
Another view of the full width door runners.  The lower parts of the doors will, Bizibilder hopes, just miss the frame without having to cut more away.  The top piece (that runs from on top of the upright off to the right) originally extended all the way to the front wall (on the left of the pic) He had to cut about 30mm away to get the runner in place. This is only a problem on the 6 foot shed – doors on wider sheds don’t go right into the corners!
The first roof runner in place.
The roof runners are 1,5cm OUTBOARD of the top frame – thus the outer edges of the rails are 3cm wider than the roof frame.  When the roof is in place, weatherboards will be screwed to the outside edged of the rails and will therefore not foul the sliding roof. (Says Bizibilder, with great confidence!!!)
You can see the offset here, looking along the rail.
A better view of that pesky front corner,  by the way, Bizibilder NEVER swears when this sort of thing happens – he just mumbles “Tut tut” and “Oh! Dear me”.
The rails in place, along with their corresponding uprights.  Bizibilder used “post-fix” to fit these into the ground – amazing stuff!! it sets solid in about 10 minutes.
Everything nice and level – Bizibilder is felling proud of himself!
Going dark!  One final look at the days work.

A Grand Day of Progress:

The first parts of the “kit” that Bizibilder had made for himself laid out ready for the day’s work to start.
The corners and basic frame erected – all a bit wobbly at this stage.  Luckily Mrs Bizibilder had very little to do today (!) and was able to help hold things as and when needed.  The metal centre braces of the shed walls have been replaced with wood.  The uprights are 75x75mm and the braces 45mm square.
Lower braces in place just above the metal base plates.
Close up of the lower brace joints.  The wood is EXACTLY the same width as the metal base so that the walls will just touch the braces as well as the base.  The wall will be screwed to the base and the braces.
The “half way up the wall” brace, again exactly the right width.
The top rails in place.  These overhang the uprights so that the walls can be screwed directly to them.
Top rail brackets from below.
Top rail further strengthened by an additional corner brace.
The first bit of wall in place – this was the awkward one – not much room for Bizibilder between the wall and the fence.  There was some choice language at this stage of construction!
The back wall complete.  This took over an hour! (The carrier bags are there because Bizibilder had to put a temporary brace across the top rails.  He then proceeded to bang his head several times!! Hence the carrier bags)
Second wall complete – A twenty minute job!! (The “open end” with the temporary brace and carrier bags is where the door will go)
This shot shows how the braces fit between the uprights and the wall panels.
Similar view but this time the top rail. All in all a good eight hours hard work.  Bizibilder is tired and is going for a short nap!