Wednesday: New veranda doors continued 2.

Wednesday: I shortened the trapdoor by a couple of inches to move the hinges nearer the pier. Which meant that the floor boards needed to be extended to throw water well outside the door area. So I cut all new boards from larch for the area where the trapdoor lays flat when open. I undercut these new boards on the sliding miter saw. So they sloped downwards and outwards to drain through the slot between the boards of the veranda floor. Now I shall have to make some rain bars for the outside, bottoms of the doors.

 I have struggled with the tightly fitting, warped doors for so long that it will take some practice to deal with the freely swinging doors. Replacing the handles on the inside would be sensible. I'm still thinking over what would be most useful and where. When the trapdoor is standing [fixed] and nearly vertical it blocks easy access to the doors and any door furniture.

The larch trapdoor is heavy so I want to minimize handling. I keep thinking back to an earlier idea of counterbalancing via weights and levers or cables. It wants to be effortless, foolproof and simple with zero friction.  There may be times when I want the veranda doors open to scavenge heat build-up out through the slit using the prevailing, W-SW winds.

When the trapdoor is opened out flat it stops the veranda doors from closing. It would be so tempting to have the big stepladder outside with access only though the veranda doors. The problem then becomes security of access in all weathers and while carrying loads. The weight of the trapdoor presently sets up a mental hurdle.

The big hole in the observatory floor is an obvious danger when I am using the obs. in the dark. Though it is often the case that the telescopes are hanging over the void when I am solar observing in the morning. Counterbalancing the trapdoor is the obvious way to go. Then I need no longer resist closing it for safety through sheer laziness.

Thursday: I smoothed the floorboards into a slight step and fitted an inner door stop of aluminium angle. Once I had a fixed reference for both doors, I could re-fit all the sliding door bolts. The doors actually open on demand.

*