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Crow Haven Observatory - a small nested ROR design

Started by Crow Haven , Jul 13 2009 05:20 PM

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493 replies to this topic

#51 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posts: 6,576
Joined: 09 Jan 2009

Posted 16 July 2009 - 11:17 PM

Doug, I'm excited for you too! You and your dad are making great progress, and I bet you can hardly wait to get it completed for your C6-R. :cool:

Thanks for your comments, also, Scott. Paul's philosophy is, "Do it right, or do it over!" :lol:

And we sure don't want to have to do it over! It's really a fun project though. :grin:

Carol, thanks, I agree that CN is truly a wonderful group, very helpful and friendly, and the enthusiasm for astronomy is so much fun. :flower: As my husband and I moved around the country with aviation Coast Guard tours, I tried to always join a local astronomy club, and always I've found the people in them to be wonderful. Now where we have settled permanently, a beautiful area in coastal Oregon, there are no local astronomy clubs, so Cloudy Nights has become this for me. Another great group of people. :grin:

Here's some pics of the slab showing the isolated pier support with the rubber sleeve edge at the top -- so far no cracks, everything is very level, the extra rebar reinforcing the corners has worked, thankfully. :jump:

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#52 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posted 16 July 2009 - 11:20 PM

One more view with the wall...

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#53 Crow Haven

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Posted 21 July 2009 - 01:02 AM

Well, it's back to work! The foundation slab forms were removed this past Sunday and the slab is perfect! :cool:

Today the holes were drilled for the rebar cinder block attachments. Tomorrow the cinder blocks will be set into place and the j-bolts, for the framing to bolt to, will be cemented into them.
Here's a few pics of the work done so far... :grin:

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#54 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posted 21 July 2009 - 01:03 AM

Another view...

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#55 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posted 21 July 2009 - 01:05 AM

One last until tomorrow...

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#56 csa/montana

Den Mama & Gold Star Award Winner

Posts: 118,167
Joined: 14 May 2005

Posted 21 July 2009 - 08:39 AM

You definitely are doing a fantastic job! It's so exciting for us to following along with another's dream in the making! It brings back the excitement & fun we had when ours was rising from our dreams.

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#57 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posted 22 July 2009 - 01:05 AM

Thanks, Carol! :grin:

Here's the progress made today -- more cementing of rebar and mortaring cinder blocks in place. Tomorrow the blocks will be filled with cement and j-bolts fastened in them... The electrical engineer will come over and help with the electrical plan also.

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#58 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posted 22 July 2009 - 01:07 AM

Another angle...

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#59 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posted 22 July 2009 - 01:09 AM

Ingredients -- mix well. :lol:

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#60 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posted 22 July 2009 - 01:14 AM

How the J-bolts will be placed into the concrete tomorrow...
Paul's design is coming along great. :jump:

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#61 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posted 23 July 2009 - 01:31 AM

The J-bolts were cemented into the cinder blocks today. Now the cement needs to cure a few days so the bolts will hold well. Framing will start Monday hopefully. :grin:

The electrical engineer/co. plans to dig the trenching 18" deep clear up the hill. The code requires conduit for the line and 4 grounds. The observatory will have plenty of outlets, a breakerbox, switches, etc. All the work will cost around $3000 +/- and take a crew about 2 days.

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#62 Dain

Boogie Man

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Joined: 24 Mar 2005

Posted 23 July 2009 - 01:52 AM

Wow!!! This is a place where all your dreams come true!

Excellent work! I can't wait to see the final product. You have me just as excited. Woohoo!

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#63 Crow Haven

Fly Me to the Moon

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 12:10 AM

Hi Dain,

Thanks, and I'm glad to see this project is fun for others to watch too!
The fun with framing will get started next week -- weather looks like it'll stay dry -- and we'll be getting lots of materials together, ordering the wheeled casters (poly type), etc. Once there's enough framing up the electrical work can get done.
The interior will be finished and painted a flat very dark navy blue. There will be a dehumidifier in the observatory used to keep things dry all the time(we have one running in a huge workshop and it works great). The warm room will also have pocket shelves making use of the space between the inner walls with rails and the outer walled section of the warm room.
The rails will have an adjustment feature allowing them to be kept aligned properly so the wheels roll easily. We occasionally get 70+mph "gusts" here which might shift things, so being able to adjust back to true alignment is a nice idea. There's a lot of details like this that will be explained better with pics as we go along. It's great to share the ideas and fun! :grin:

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#64 LateViewer

Apollo

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Joined: 17 Nov 2005

Posted 24 July 2009 - 12:38 AM

Wow. You guys are making something cool.

Love to see the photo's. Keep them coming.

Al

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#65 Jamie_b

Sputnik

Posts: 34
Joined: 06 Dec 2008

Posted 27 July 2009 - 03:42 PM

This is a magnificent construction and I am going to be keeping a keen eye on progress.

I hope that weather is staying away for the framing work.

You have a truly inspiring design, keep up the great work.

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#66 Crow Haven

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Posted 27 July 2009 - 11:03 PM

Thanks Al and Jamie_b!
The weather is staying great here -- it's in the mid-80's F while most of Oregon is currently experiencing record-breaking sizzling hot temps in the 100+ range. Whew! But nothing but good news for the framing.

Today, you can see in the pics, we got half the building framing done and bolted down. Tomorrow we'll finish the other half of the frame work and install the steel door. Then the roof framing will start. There will also be earthquake straps installed.

The electrical work is all set to go about August 12th and should take 2 days.

The casters/poly wheels have been ordered and ought to be here in a week. There will be 10 V-groove rigid track casters with 4"x2" polyurethane wheels of 300 lb. capacity each. We can get the angle iron railing and rest of the building materials locally.

By the end of August the building should be complete. :jump: