Sunday, January 4, 2015

Shed construction day two

DATACENTER SHED CONSTRUCTION

Today was dedicated to work on the shed, leaving no time for work on the 1130 system.

I finalized the positioning of the 12 concrete pilings upon which the base of the shed will sit. Since the shed just fits into the space on the side yard, between the wooden fence at the property line and the living room fireplace chimney, the pilings have to fit against the fence. Each upright on the fence is set into cement in the ground, thus the piling can't be sunk into the ground at those spots. I worked out a siting and spacing that clears the sections of in-dirt cement and fits along the chimney brickwork.

The pilings have to be flat and in line, so that the wood framework will sit in the notches of the pilings and be level in all directions. The terrain was not flat, requiring some excavation under each piling. The pilings are roughly at the same height, based on using a large beam and bubble level, but some fine tuning is still needed.

I also cut all the wood for the framework to size, then began nailing in the cross pieces. I have all the cross pieces completed for the side that will fit against the fence, since there will be no space to swing a hammer once the framework is in place. Three crosspieces on the other side must be put in before the framework can be placed on the pilings, since these holes are partially or fully blocked by the chimney brickwork. The remaining cross pieces can be installed while the frame is in place.

Tomorrow I have to finish the leveling of the pilings, install three cross pieces, then haul the heavy framework over to its final site and place it onto the pilings. It shouldn't be too long from that point until the flooring is in place and I can start erecting walls.

I completed the right door assembly as well, so that all the sub-assemblies are complete and ready to put into place. Another task I did in between carpentry and digging was to plan out the placement of the 1130, its peripherals, the keypunch and storage for cards and disks. Since the inside space will be approximately 89" by 146", it will be tight inside. I have a workable layout. 

3 comments:

  1. Very cool. Hope to see it someday.

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  2. Do you intend to heat/cool the building when the 1130 is inside? This is a metal building, right? I would think the temperature fluctuations (especially heat during the summer) would be devastating to the machines. It would seem the previous storage location in a basement provided stable temperatures year around and that helped prolong the life of the machines.

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  3. The building is plastic, not metal, on a platform raised off the ground by concrete pilings. The climate almost always is within a range of 35 to 90 degrees F, with just a few days that have spikes slightly outside the range.

    I believe I will add a thermostat driven exhaust fan to ensure that internal temperatures don't get extreme in the summer. My garage, where the machine is currently sitting during its renovation, drops to about 40 F inside on the coldest mornings and can get to 90 F on the really hot days, so the machine is already subject to these ranges (passively, with no power applied).

    For operation, I will roll a portable air conditioner into the building and get the temp to a reasonable level.

    The biggest issue for me is condensation and humidity. Fortunately the climate is generally low humidity, but during rainy days in the winter we will have days with very moist air inside the shed. I could add a dehumidifier if needed. I will monitor the inside of the shed to see how it fares. My garage does not have a problem with moisture and it has similar conditions to what I expect in the shed.

    The shed is shielded from direct sun most of the day by trees and my house, which limits direct heating.

    A basement would have been good but here in California basements are very rare. My house is a single level ranch style building.

    Ultimately, I can decide to leave the machine off during bad days, when temps or air moisture are at undesirable levels. It is a hobby not a production site, after all.

    My replica 1130 system is much less sensitive to temp extremes, giving me an alternative physical machine to work on when the real system is kept off, and my laptop can run Brian's simulator at any time.

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