Building an observatory. Construction #16

The next step in the roof construction was to join some of the roof frames together. If I’d joined all four however I’d have ended up with something too big to manage, so I’ve paired up the four frames to make two sections of the roof. I’ll join these to the sides of the roof individually and then fit the horizontal centre sections afterwards.

The nights are closing in now and again I had to go out to photograph the results after dark 🙂

The next step is to make up the frames for the sides and decide how I’m going to fix the wheels on.

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Building an observatory. Construction #15

Time to start welding!

This took somewhat longer than I planned (what doesn’t? :D. In part because it’s years since I did any welding and most of that was stick welding, not MIG. But perhaps the biggest problem was cleaning the (anti-corrosion, I assume) coating off the steel so the weld would form properly. Joining cut ends together was no problem at all, but butting an end to the wall of a tube was very awkward unless the steel was cleaned well.

I did at least manage to get all the roof frames made up before darkness fell.

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Swimming, 11th September 2018

Another attempt at my 51s USRPT set, and another sorry failure 🙁

Better than yesterday however, in that I managed one more 50 and my first failure was later in the set. Still not good though.

USRPT distance this year: 54,250m
Total distance this year: 136,800m

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Swimming, 10th September 2018

Back to the USRPT sessions then. And sadly not good news. Keeping hitting the 51s target was very hard and by rep 18 I’d had three failures 🙁

Another attempt tomorrow…

USRPT distance this year: 53,450m
Total distance this year: 135,600m

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Swimming, 7th September 2018

A novel experience for me today. I had to visit the dentist this morning and the pool is on the way home, so it seemed silly not to take advantage of the opportunity. The anaesthetic used by the dentist was still very much in effect when I got into the water which made both breathing and having my head under water quite strange. It doesn’t feel entirely sensible to go completely under water without being able to tell if one’s mouth is closed 😀

Anyhow, I didn’t drown so I clearly did an ok job. I did nearly skewer someone during the underwater phase off a push though. It was fairly quiet at that time of day so there were no lanes, but the four of us in the pool were each swimming lengths down separate lane lines. Then someone else got in and decided to walk to halfway, after which he repeatedly crossed the pool at right angles to the lanes regardless of what anyone else was doing. During my underwaters I’m face down, arms out front, one hand on top of the other with the upper thumb hooked over the lower hand. And that was how I hit him. He did apologise for getting in the way, but didn’t stop crossing the lanes 🙁

Anyhow, more tumble turns. If I feel good on Monday then I’ll try to get back to the USRPT.

USRPT distance this year: 52,700m
Total distance this year: 134,450m

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Swimming, 6th September 2018

Another day of tumble turn practice. Not really feeling up to USRPT yet.

USRPT distance this year: 52,700m
Total distance this year: 132,950m

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Swimming, 5th September 2018

Back to the pool for my first session in a week 🙁 Work has interfered with my swimming somewhat, but so have Better. They don’t do paper pool timetables any more; we’re told to use the website for the centre. But recently the website has been a total disaster with either no sessions showing or multiple incompatible sessions showing for the same time. I phoned last Friday to check, was told the pool was open when I wanted to swim, only to be told it was closed for life guard training when I arrived. Not happy.

Anyhow, I wasn’t feeling too bright today so I just carried on working at the tumble turns.

USRPT distance this year: 52,700m
Total distance this year: 131,450m

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Very little helps

Recently we have received a number of 10p/litre off fuel discount vouchers with our Tesco shopping delivery. My wife attempted to use one when she was in Taunton today, only to be told that the petrol stations at Tesco in Taunton don’t accept them. Apparently if we want to use them we have to go to either Minehead or Tiverton, both round trips of about 35 miles.

I’d be better off selling them on ebay…

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Seven years of solar PV

Seven years ago I blogged about us having a 3.64kW solar PV system installed on our roof. I thought it was about time I went through the figures to see how it has performed from the figures I submit each quarter for our FITS payment. This is how it works out:

I’m surprised by the huge difference between the winter quarters and the summer quarters, all except for the last few quarters which are fairly odd-looking, the last quarter of 2017 being far better than any in previous years and the second quarter of 2018 being quite poor. I’ll have to submit the next quarter figure shortly and I expect those to be back over 1,400kWh.

Average generation per year is somewhere around 3,500kWh, well above the estimated figure of 2,900kWh we were given when the survey was done before we decided to go ahead and higher than the national average household annual consumption figure, I believe. The total generated over the seven years will probably come in at somewhere just over 24,600kWh.

With hindsight I think I’d probably consider having more panels installed, but as Western Power don’t appear to be keen to allow domestic installations to feed more than 4kW back onto the grid I’d probably have to find some way to store the power purely for use on-site.

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3d printing project for this weekend

My 3D printer kit came with a PSU, power connector socket and power switch, but there’s nowhere on the frame to attach them even if I wanted to and nothing else is provided to stop you getting a “tingly finger surprise” when switching it on and off. I made this to fit the switch and socket with the end of the PSU that has all the connectors on resting on a ledge along one wall above them. Estimated print time was eleven hours but it worked out nearer thirteen for some reason.

I’m pleased with how this has worked out. The supports for the holes came out very easily and the holes themselves were a near perfect size for the switch and socket. All the cabling tucks inside neatly and I no longer need to worry about electrocuting myself when I’m switching the printer on and off.

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