My Observatory.  10. The cladding Home

The cladding is 6-mm plywood fixed to the frame with round-headed screws.  The height of the walls (1500 mm) is slightly greater than the width of the ply (1220 mm) so I had to fill the gap at the top with another piece of ply.  The join is sealed with a flexible sealant forced into the join.  If this proves a problem in the future, I shall just have to fix a piece of wood on the inside along the join.
A minor problem was that I had to remove the coach bolts that hold the frames together.  Having fixed the ply I had to drill the ply to take the bolts.  But I don't have an 8- or 10-mm drill long enough to go through the two posts and the ply;  how to find the right place to drill the ply?  I do have a long No.10 masonry drill that I bought to drill through a cavity wall, so I clamped a piece of scrap wood on the outside and used this bit to drill through the ply from the inside (and it took longer to get though 6 mm of ply than it had to go right through the cavity wall).  Then I could drill from the outside with the correct drill which was guided into the right place by the hole in the post.
I've not put in a window.  What is the point?  If I want to work in there in the daytime, I shall have to open the roof.  If it is raining, I probably won't want to work in there in any case.  I shall have electricity laid on so, if the worse comes to the worse, I can put a light on.  At night with the roof closed, it will be almost totally dark in there;   a rare treat.
1st October 2009

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