Plans, Blueprints Wanted

I plan to replace my aging simple backyard roll off roof observatory.
I am seeking detailed plans, sketches, diagrams, blueprints and parts lists for this new project.
My desired size would be at least 12' x 12' and more likely a 14' x 14' sized roll off roof style.
Willing to pay $$

Thank you
John Stewart
Pennsylvania

Hi John,
Did you ever come across plans?  I have a 10 x 12 shed in NC. There is a problem with the roof system.
Plans could help get it fixed.
Happy New Year!!!
Best,
Marcy

Hi John,

What exactly do you have now, and what type of observatory are you wanting to build?  Just a larger version of a roll off, or a more complete building with warm rooms and such?

If you have not already considered it or have it on your current building a good upgrade to consider is the addition in your plans for a powered roof movement system.  Not really as hard as it sounds a good gate opener with enough capacity to easily move your roof works well.  The rack and pinion style is actually the better option than a chain driven one as the entire unit, and drive track system can be mounted and operate actually on the external part of the roof and building.  This helps to remove any additional clutter and moving parts from inside the building, allowing for still having a lower wall clearance.

I currently have (since fall of 2014) a small 10' x 12' ROR observatory in the backyard.  Did all of the design and construction work myself.  Have not yet motorized the roof, but have the drawings and equipment listings around... "somewhere"...  I hope!  I built 2 new workstations a couple of months ago things should be backed up, but??!!

You can see the current obs via the link to the galleries.

Mark

http://thestardeckobservatory.com/piwigo/index.php?/category/2

Hi Mark,

If you do find the blueprints somewhere, I would be interested in seeing them.  Particularly for the roof and rollers.  I am looking at trying to build a ROR observatory myself soon.

Cheers,

Maurice

Maurice,

I'll give it a look about, may be in my CAD backup folder...  But I cleaned up a lot of the older since built or abandon designs and ideal drawings when i moved most of the backups and files onto the new main desktop workstation I built recently.  As far as the observatory in its self I'll try to get you a few shots of the existing structure along with some plan info.  The actual roof structure is a minor shed truss system I fabricated.  The simple trusses are mounted, braced, and tied into/onto a laminated set of side beams made from doubled 2x4 with a 1/2" 5 ply exterior plywood center.  Glued and screwed together to make 2 - 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 beams, which the trusses are secured to.  The casters were fabricated by me out of 1/4" x 4" A36 steel bar and 3 1/2" ball bearing steel V caster wheels.  They run on a steel reverse V track I fabricated from again 1/4" x 3 1/2" A36 Steel flat bar with as I remember 2" x 2" X 1/4" steel angle welded to the bar to make the running track for the V casters.  The track was mounted with screws to the top of the double 2x4 top plates of the side walls.  When I initially built the trellis with the beams for the roof to roll off onto I put a 3/8" fall from the point of mount in the building wall to the end beam for drainage.  The trellis beams are standard TD 4x6 with the support posts 6' on center.  Screwing the beam together was the easy way given I used an electric Dewalt impact, the rolling track screwing is a must so the track will not work loose with use.

As for the ideal of the power gate opener, yes i drew that up too and sill have to see if I still have it.  I've not done it yet, because for me just rolling the roof off manually is still working well enough for me to not drop the extra $500 - $600 on the Obs yet to get it done.  Maybe one day I will, it would be a pretty nice feature to have and I can fabricate the mounting brackets to get everything how it would work best for my particular setup.  Make a mounting plate and such to place the electric drive unit up where it needs to be to run the rack gear on the side of the roof structure.

This was the unit as I remember I was looking at to use for the powered roof roll off:

https://www.alekoproducts.com/ALEKO-AR2050-Sliding-Gate-Opener-p/ar2000acc-ap.htm

It basically takes fabricating a drive unit mount which the unit mounts "upside down" on to be able to run it Like I would want to...!  Workable, but a little more work than just setting up a base plate on the side of the observatory.