7.04.2021 Marking out the spare segment for the shutters.

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 Wednesday 7th 34-50F A day of short sharp wintry showers and sunny periods.

I decided to arrange the spare segment horizontally so that I could mark it out for the shutters. The effort involved was quite unbelievable. I had wrapped the spare segment around the assembled dome. Both to make it as compact as possible and to avoid wind problems. Which made moving it a trial despite the planks I had laid out on the ground. The segment wanted to move lengthways but wouldn't let me drag it sideways, away from the dome.

Once clear, I was able to lay it upright on blocks. Though it didn't seem remotely stable. As I levered it higher on even more wooden blocks. Eventually I had it high enough to be able to slide the car trailer under it for widespread support. I added a couple of heavy duty ratchet straps for wind security. Fortunately the wind is from the most sheltered direction at the moment.

I could then use the profile gauge to mark the centre ridge with a pencil. Finally the marked dashes were joined up with a long steel rule. All the while it kept hailing or raining or brightening up at short intervals. Though with hardly any wind. I had to repeatedly use a window squeegee to remove the wetness from the GRP. Just to be able to use the gauge and pencil. Which ended up being done in several stages as the next hail shower soon arrived.

I have received an email  confirming the heavy duty, drawer slides are on their way. These will be used to support the shutters and allow them to slide open and closed. The slides are rated at 120kg per pair. A whole segment is 70kg. There will be quite a large area of segment left over from the shutters. So I should have a fair, load safety factor when spread between two pairs of slides.

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