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Sunday 16th. 37F. It is 8.00 and still far too dark to see anything outside.
The task today is to bodily lift the remaining shutter. It slipped as I removed the last screw holding the upper drawer slide. The bottom of the shutter is resting on the ground. With the upper end inside the zenith board. I propped it with lengths of timber to ensure it didn't fall right off during the night.
It was already pitch black by the time I had finished the struggle with drawer side removal. There was no direct line to use the power drill screwdriver even with driver extensions. Nor even a Torx screwdriver. I was using my largest, straight bladed screwdriver to lever the last screw out. I had to hammer the screwdriver in behind the drawer slide. Fortunately there was no damage to the shutter woodwork. Even the drawer slide seems to have escaped unscathed.
The lift requires I hook the top board over the zenith board. Meanwhile the bottom bogie will hook itself under the base ring. The shutter is far too heavy and too far out of reach to do a straight, manual lift from inside the dome.
Well, it's a plan. Not a great plan. I am still trying to insert the boat winch somewhere into the equation. I have an hour or two to come up with a better idea. Showers are forecast with gales later.
Just had a look in daylight. Drizzling steadily. I need a long diagonal board from outside the dome. To slip under the shutter top board and over the zenith board. Then I can control the lift from the bottom. It sounds far too easy! 😎
The diagonal 2x4 ensured the shutter did not drop inside the zenith board during the big lift. Once I had the bottom of the shutter off the ground I could get my hands underneath. There followed a huge, manual lift. The shutter was safely hooked at the top but still badly skewed. After much heaving and levering the shutter rib was lifted outside the slit rib. The skate wheels then dropped down into the channel. Which, incidentally, is still unsecured. See image above for proof of my success.
Now I want to push the bottom channel under the skate wheels. This will [should] provide the vital stability to the shutters. Until the top channel rail is properly stabilized with stays.
15.00 42F. It brightened up. W-NW Gales forecast for all of tonight and early tomorrow.
It soon became overcast again with drizzle. So I cut short my time outside as the light quickly failed. I have shortened the bottom channel and run it under the skate wheels. There is a difference of about 15mm in the distance from the channel to the 4' level. Which I have hanging from cords from the zenith board as a reference. This difference can be adjusted out by changing the height of the relevant bottom bogie bracket[s.] Lowering them on the ribs will push the channel further out.
I finally have the inner, shutter ribs parallel and close together. Which is a first. They have always been out of level with each other when supported by the drawer slides. No to mention bowed away from each other. They were easily clamped together just now. For security during tonight's potential stormy weather.
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