DIY tripod for a heavy mount and scope

[Patrice Lanteigne]

Here is tripod I just made for my AR152 and Duo-T mount manual mount. Ugly but very stable! A hit on the mount attenuates instantly. There are no jiggles when focussing. As soon as we get a reasonable clear night I'll be able to give it a real first light.

[wrinkly]

Looks very impressive .

Are you any kin of Colin Chapman and his triangulated space frame period?

[Patrice Lanteigne]

Ha, Colin Chapman, engineer better known for his Lotus cars than his structures. Not related but the principle is similar - lightweight and strong triangular structures. My tripod is a 'test of concept' based on ideas from house trusses and truss type transmission towers. I'll be building an observatory next year and I've been investigating various means of telescope support. I had some offcuts of different varieties of plywood so instead of binning it I got a sketch pad out, a calculator and got to thinking, then cutting and assembly.

As it turns out it is surprisingly strong and lightweight. Five of these could be made from a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood. A few small changes would further simplify the cutting plan and reduce assembly time. Heck, I could produce these at a profit for about $160, including an aluminium top plate (I used the top of an old tripod on this prototype). The design does not require any third party tripod to pier adaptors. I could easily anchor this contraption for a permanent installation.

[billhinge]

Patrice

I'm all for innovation and trying new considered designs, looks good. Will be interested in seeing your results

[Patrice Lanteigne]

All right, I just tried it under my EQ6-Pro and it functions wonderfully. Here it is with 40 lbs of mount, 35 lbs of scope and 33 lbs of counter weights. Much more rigid than the stock tripod and spreader, still instant attenuation and no jiggles when slewing or focussing. Much lees expensive than upgraded tripods and piers from the likes of Burlebach, Vixen and Losmandy. The height of the saddle is 58 inches which puts the eyepiece of this scope at a very comfortable viewing height. My viewing pad is fairly level and any residual mis-levelling should not matter too much for visual as long as I polar align correctly. Time to put some velcro to hold the hand control and the SkyFi module, and a little filler piece inside at the 'bend' to sit my jump start battery on.

If I find I need a means of levelling then I'll manufacture some levellers from 19mm, or larger, machine bolts going through nuts welded to angle iron and attached to the bottom part of the legs, which have been made perpendicular to the floor for this eventuality.

Thanks for looking.

[billhinge]

Thanks Patrice

I have a Berlebach and I cant fault it but I dare say your tripod worked out cheaper - I have about 66lbs of scope and weights plus whatever the mount weighs on mine

I think I see what you have tried to do and given you can make it yourself it should scale up if you ever need to make a bigger one and it will be a lot cheaper than a really large size Berlebach etc

[Damo636]

Very nice work Patrice!!

[Bubbles82]

Nice,functional and interesting to look at admire the patience and thought that goes into any self build project:)

[Jessun]

Cool looking piece of kit! Never saw a design like that but it does look solid !