2009-02-20 Country Energy drilling rig on-site.
2009-02-20 Hole depth bottomed out at 4.7m (15.4'), when hard rock was encontered.
2009-02-20 Hole depth 4.7m, diameter 0.6m (15.4'x 2').
2009-03-08. There ain't no graceful way... Crawling in via the newly added roof hatchway, a chopped oil drum.
2009-03-08 Max at entrance. Max's assistance was invaluable with placing bolts through holes drilled though the tank's skin, so that they could be tightened from the inside.
2009-03-08 Adding steel perlins to the roof, to accommodate the large weight on the roof when the tank is buried.
2009-03-10 Roof strengthening complete.
Daddly's little helpers.
2009-03-19 Ladderway installed.
2009-03-19 Vault vertically oriented for the first time.
2009-03-19 Mounting bolts to be inserted inside concrete pier, (but not with Ben still attached).
2009-03-26 Fibreglass insulation in.
2009-03-26 Ceiling in.
2009-03-29 External plywood floor attached.
2009-04-04 Floor painted and floor entry port installed.
2009-04-06 Steel reinforcing lattice for concrete pier. Steel was bent into a curved shape to self-centre the lattice in the hole shaft. The plastic pipe running down the middle will permit temperature monitoring of the pier.
2009-04-07 Steel reinforcing for concrete pier is lowered into the shaft. The shaft diameter is 550mm ( 22" ) and the concrete pier vertical height will be 2310mm ( 7.6' ). Therefore the volume of concrete in the pier will be 0.56 cubic metres weighing around 1.3 tonnes. The pink-painted side of the steel triangle, is used to correctly align the lattice with geographic direction.
2009-04-11 Cable entry added. Power and comms will route via a vertical pipe connecting to this port.
2009-05-17 Wiring complete.
2009-05-17 Detail, showing (from the top) the [Larry Cochrane] 8-channel filter/digitiser, wireless bridge, and fully-solid-state PC. Underneath the table are two lead-acid backup batteries, one for the computer, and the other for the instruments/digitiser.
2009-05-17 Power supply area. At the top right is a 24:240VAC transformer, feeding various switch-mode supplies.
2009-05-17 Blue LED ceiling lighting.
2009-05-26 Concrete poured for pier.
2009-06-14 Glass fibre filling an old piece of air conditioner ducting, which will form a thermally insulated 'plug' to fill the vault entrance hatchway.
2009-06-14 Vault lid attached to the top of the thermal plug. This spun aluminium lid was originally a telescope lens cap, which blew away one night in a storm and was subsequently lost in the bush for a decade or so.
2009-06-14 The lid of the vault will eventually sit flush with the ground surface.
2009-06-16 Ben inspecting the site where the vault hole will be excavated,
2009-06-16 Neighbour Len Coulton arrives with a back-hoe tractor, and commences digging a large deep hole for the vault enclosure, down to the level of the concrete pier.
2009--06-16 Len excavates an additional long trench down the hill, to permit the laying of a vault under-floor drainage pipe.
2009-06-16 Although the local ground surface is sloped, the subsurface strata are horizontal. Rounded pebbles within the soft sandstone strata indicate the region's ancient history, of being ocean or lake bed.
2009-06-16 Max inspects the new hole.
2009-06-28 Base of hole showing vault under-floor drainage pipe, before burial with fine gravel. The second flexible polythene pipe is for an alternate air supply to the vault.
2009-07-12 Kids checking out the hole's base, now drained and levelled. The pink line indicates the tank's final location.
2008-07-12 Initial experiments by me and James Fleming, indicated that tipping and rolling the tank on an edge, would be too dangerous a way of moving it any appreciable distance.
2007-07-12 The tank was moved into position by laying it on its side, and dragging it longitudinally. Most of the motive force was supplied by woman and kid power.
2009-07-12 Helpers.
2009-17-12 Manhandling the tank into position prior to final lowering.
2009-07-12 Pushing the tank into the hole and allowing it to tilt toward the vertical.
2009-07-12 Tank in final position, ready for final nudges to align it perfectly with the bolts projecting through the floor.
May with Owen.
2009-07-12 Job done. This image shows the sheet of corrugated iron which James suggested that we bolt to the tank's side, permitting the easily-dented tank to be dragged across rough ground. The long polypropylene rope allowed many helpers to haul, and also for the tank to be gently lowered into the hole.
2009-07-27 Modifying an old fridge into a Poor Man's Stevenson Screen. This will house the vault's external temperature/humidity monitoring sensors.
2009-07-28 Ben with partially buried tank. Ladder and mast added, as well as extra corrugated iron external cladding.
2009-08-08 Max with polythene water barrier on roof.
2009-08-08 Polythene covered by a layer of fibro.
2009-08-08 Fibro covered by a layer of polystyrene foam.
2009-09-09 Backfilling trenches with Bobcat.
2009-08-17 Vault floor port showing mechanical isolation between pier bolts and vault floor. The base of the concrete pier is 2.7m (9 feet) below the floor of the vault. The plastic pipe within the triangle extends to the bottom of the pier, used for temperature monitoring of the pier.
2009-08-17 Vault floor port with vapour barrier installed, and with temperature sensors placed into concrete pier.
2009-08-17 Concrete slab resting on pier bolts. Seismic instruments will rest on this.
2009-09-04 Winter-like scene following a large hail storm.
2009-11-27 Volksmeter with covers removed, along with L-15B 3-axis geophone (orange), and a vertical geophone with 30kOhm coil (silver).
2009-11-17 Glass jar containing lumps of 1,4-Dichlorobenzene (AKA 'toilet lollies') used to repel insects within the Volksmeter. A 1mm diameter hole has been drilled into the lid to permit slow release of vapour.
2009-11-27 Insect repellant jar placed atop Volksmeter motherboard.
2009-11-27 Volksmeter with steel cover in place.
2009-11-27 Volksmeter with polystyrene foam thermal cover in place.
2010-01-02 During the last few days of 2009, and the first two of 2010, the local region experienced exceptional rainfall and associated flooding. The Vault's under-floor drainage system worked a treat, keeping everything perfectly dry within the Vault.
