Shingles

Today I had another excellent day of construction.

I put the shingles on (including felt paper and metal edging):

I bought a single package of shingles from the Habitat for Humanity store (at my wife's suggestion), not knowing how many I needed.  Today when I installed them, I had 1 shingle left.  Sometimes things just work out.

I also got the gravel in and the pier mounting plate cleaned off in preparation for putting the hardware in:

and installed and leveled the pier and wedge:

I have to caulk all the seams and install some foam to seal a couple of joints, but short of being pressure washed I believe it is ready to use right now. With the singles on, it also needs a couple of handles so that I have something to grab a hold of to open and close it, but that will be easy.

I've been on the fence about replacing the bearings in my telescope.  It came with nylon bearings, and there is a really decent internet tutorial on how to replace them with stainless steel bearings.  I already bought the bearings, but have been trying to decide if I should break the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" maxim.

I've decided that before I put it in and spend the time to precisely align it, I should do any maintenance that I can to prevent me from having to take it out again anytime soon. So today I bought the grease I need to do the job.  The internet guide claims that people with absolutely no mechanical skills should be able to do it in less than two hours, so I'm figuring on 4... :-)

I did have to get the telescope out of its case and walk it past the Dogservatory, so I had it stop for a photo op:

As soon as I can get to it , I'll be able to mount the scope and start aligning. I still have to figure out where all the "stuff" gets mounted, but until then I can just cable/uncable the other pieces. I think I'm going to attach it all to a piece of pegboard with wire ties, and hang the pegboard from the wall.  That will securely hold it, but allow me easy access if I need to do some maintenance. 

I lowered the pier, shut the roof and called it a day:

Finally - A good construction day

Today I put together the front and attached the rails and put the roof on.   The roof even rolls like I had hoped. I will need to put on a bit of caulk and foam to make sure it is weatherproof, but things went mostly my way, and I'm really happy with the results. Here are a couple pictures of it open. I didn't realize how much my hard slanted until I opened it up.

I also did a bit of prep work on the interior - I had put in a bunch of dirt and drenched it (twice, actually) to make it settle, and the second batch of dirt didn't settle as much as I expected, so today I got to use a shovel to take out a couple buckets full of dirt.

I'm going to put some pea gravel on the floor - it should help keep the dust down, and I've heard that mice don't like gravel because they cannot burrow, so that is a plus.  A long time ago, we had some gravel delivered for a yard project, and there was too much so I put the extra the window wells. Today I scooped a couple bucket fulls out and rinsed it (it was really dusty, and dust and telescopes are not really friends).  I expect I have about half of the gravel taken care of.

Tomorrow hopefully I'll get the shingles put on, put in the gravel and I'll be pretty much done.  I probably need to put another coat of paint on, but that can wait.

Then it will be time to install the pier and telescope and start aligning aligning things.

Real men build with oak

My life gave me a few days off from Dogservatory construction, which has given me an opportunity to think about how to proceed.

I'm not going to change the plans radically in response to my wood splitting problems.  I think it was caused by the choosing the wrong wood and I'm not sure that making a bunch of changes is a smart thing to do.

I'm rebuilding the roof rails using oak instead of pine, and I'm going to get a couple metal L-brackets to reinforce the joint that had the problems.  I'm also toying with a minor change in the design that would eliminate the bolt holes that caused the split, but I haven't decided yet.

To get back on track, today I went to the hardwood store and bought a serious hunk of red oak (it was approximately 2" x 6" x 130" - 10 board feet for those of you who know what that means). I milled it, planed it, sawed it and then glued it up. Tomorrow I'll redo the fancy woodworking.