Lab Build: End of Week 3 - 02/04/17

It seems like every time I check the progress of the lab, the builders are getting faster and faster with their brick laying. Now when I go inside, nearly all the walls are higher than me. Its very easy to get a feel of the size of it now and so I continued planning where most things will go.

Hopefully. next week all the bricks will be done and the roof can begin. I suspect the entire building will be done in about 2 weeks time, then its just a task of running power to it!.

Harwell Laboratories

Last weekend I decided to visit Harwell laboratories in Oxford as it was their free open day. I got to see their particle accelerator and had a short tour of the facility. Although it was much smaller then CERN (I visited the LHC in 2015), I was allowed to get a much closer look at the conduit itself where the stream of electrons are fired through. The size of the quadrupole magnets surrounding the accelerator tube made me wish I could own some of them myself. Despite this, I did leave the facility with many more ideas to include in my lab when construction finishes in a few weeks time. More on that next post, here are some pictures of my visit.

Lab Build: Day 8 - 27/03/17

Another extremely successful day today. Over the weekend more bricks arrived as well as the beams and bracing for the roof. As usual we spent the day shoveling soil but with a difference, the end was in sight and we knew in a few hours the task will finally be complete.

Just before dark the last wheelbarrow was loaded and tipped into the skip. It took us over a week but the entirety of the soil dug up for the 1 meter deep footings had been moved by us and us alone into skips; 3 and a half to be exact.

After another KFC, we spent the rest of the evening moving the final pieces of scrap metal/wood and debris that I have had lying in my garden for a long time into the skip. Not only is all the hard boring work out of the way but the garden looks better then ever (minus the big patch of dying grass).

And as promised, here are some picture of the structure so far.

Now that our work is complete, there is not much for us to do until the builders finish meaning the blog posts and video logs will be uploaded and updated less frequently. Don't worry though, I'll be sure to upload any part of the construction process that is interesting as well as keep you all updated with any other progress made. Estimated time until completion is about 3 weeks, then the fun can commence.

Luckily we had a good few dry days to move the majority of the soil and let the builders lay the bricks, however as you may tell from the pictures the rain is setting in once again. For this reason, construction may be delayed until it warms up a bit.

Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for video logs documenting the entire project - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbYNLXCvqlCoLev-WvJ37oQ

Lab Build: Day 6 & 7 - 23 & 24/03/17 

Another couple of successful days of digging soil, were so close to finishing now! The builders are making excellent progress as well, every time I go down to have a look the walls are another layer higher. The insulation has also started to go in between the walls, before long it will be time for the roof to go on.

On Monday the skip will be replaced yet again ready for the final load of soil and some of the old pavement slabs we don't need anymore. After that the hard labor is done and we can move on to more exciting things.

Sorry for there being no pictures for today's blog post, as we have been making time lapses of us moving the soil, the camera hasn't been available for use to use to get pictures. Now that the soil is pretty much done there wont be anymore time lapses for a while so i'll be sure to get many photos for the next post tomorrow.

In the mean time, check out the video logs for more detail of our activities:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbYNLXCvqlCoLev-WvJ37oQ

Lab Build: Day 5 - 22/03/17

If there's something worse then shoveling tonnes of soil, its shoveling tonnes of soil in the pouring rain. It rained like cats and dogs all day long but as the skip was due to be emptied tomorrow, there was no choice but to push on. 

We spent the majority of the day trying to shelter ourselves by setting up a tarpaulin over our work area but that was made redundant as the sun finally came out just as we finished putting it up.

Needless to say it was quite a dismal and unproductive day. At least we got some of the work done.