February 7th, 2026
As usual, I didn’t accomplish as much as I hoped in the time I had. I had to finish prepping the rail pockets in the observatory, starting with cutting off all of the remaining screws. Next, I added a one-inch spacer to bring the side wall face out even with the corner of the warm room ceiling (and the warm room paneling in the lower corner). Then I cut the rail cap back to match that.
I hammered in wedge spacers between the wall top rail and the roof rail to take pressure off of the V-groove wheel and keep it from pushing the angle iron down.
I then topped the middle two posts at the marked height to ready them for adding the first rail section.
I then cut two H-beam rails to 16′ – 1/2″ long. This has the first one done, and the second almost cut through.
That leaves a couple of 3′-11.5″ pieces cut off of the 20′ rail. It’s a shame to have that much waste, but ah well. I’ll likely cut a small piece off of this to test fit at the observatory rail slot.
Moving the rails over to the work area in preparation for some welding. These weigh 225 pounds each. I still need to cut some end plates to bolt it to the observatory and install the first sections of the 1×3 tube that will serve as the capture mechanism.
Stay tuned for the next steps!
