Observatory Construction Blog - page 10

Found a new friend this week. Richard did the CAD/CAM drawing that allowed us to start stick-framing the hipped roof. Thanks, Richard. Spent most of today getting the main ridge supports into place. This was quite a learning experience, but we succeeded to our everlasting sense of wonderment and delight. Give us good ole boys a compound saw and a nail hammer, we can skin a buck and run a trot line, cause us country boys can survive. (Sorry, I lapsed into a Hank Jr. song.)

We finished up with the joists that had outside angles and turned to the task we had been dreading: the inside compound angles. No mattered how much we studied the situation, we couldn't figure out how to make these cuts on the compound saw. Finally, Austin drew the angles on the studs and I got my Japanese handsaw and cut the pieces by hand. Once we figured that out, it went pretty quick. What a feeling to get the frame up, it's been bothering us for two months as to how it was going to happen.

And here we are at the end of a very long, tiring, but very satisfying weekend. Here you see the roof open and closed. Fascia is all installed and ready for the roof sheaths and shakes next weekend. I think we estimate three more full weekends to building completion. Then I can start getting the electrical, network and telescope support cabling installed. It's really starting to look like we might make it. WOW!