NEQ6 Pro Pier Adapter Design

[Paliadon]

Hi all, just a quick one for you really. I have finally, after months of deliberation, put pen to paper and committed myself to making a pier for my NEQ6 mount. I have drawn a schematic (no I am not an engineer so please be gentle). I am after some constructive criticism if at all possible. This adapter will be mounted to a 275mm 10mm steel plate and that plate will be attached to the plate that will be concreted into the pier itself. This is so I can use it to level the top plate should the need ever arise. The top plate will have 25mm long 12mm wide grooves cut into it on order to allow me to pivot the base slightly for fine tuning when finding SCP.

Anyways, all ideas and comments are welcome. Oh, and yes, I have read all the other threads on pier adapter design and tried to culminate most of those ideas into this design.

Cheers

Kris

Edited February 17, 2011 by Paliadon

[Paliadon]

Well, the design has been sent off to the engineer. Here's hoping it comes back all nice and shiny with no errors.

[astroimpulse]

Subscribed to this earlier. Surprised nobody has chimed in.

Looking forward to seeing the results.

What's the cost to you?

[mrmoo]

I'm a Mechanical Engineer and started as a draughtsman. So don't want to point out all the technical drawing bits as it would very boring, but I think that's a fantastic effort. One thing on the plan view, you show a 29.9mm diameter with no corresponding c'bore depth on the sectional view?

Edited February 17, 2011 by mrmoo

[Paliadon]

@astroimpulse;at this stage it looks as though the guy I am going through is quoting roughly $200 Australian just for the adapter. Including posting. Will post the actual price when I get the invoice. :-)

@mrmool; hoping that is not a mistake on my end, I had a look and the 29.8mm measurement and it should be the deep part adjacent to the center hole on the sectional view. If you step it down with the corresponding flat edge on the plan view I am pretty sure it is still there. But thanks for the heads up... hot flushes now abating. lol

[mrmoo]

Thought that would be it, but I did wonder. Cross section is well out of scale, lol makes me want to draw it. Don't worry, I'm sure the machinist has all he/she needs. Have you tried using a CAD program to draft it? There's loads of free ones around. I can't see anything dimension wise that's obviously missing, other than the plates could do with PCD's for the 12mm holes.

If you don't mind a tip or two. Try to use centrelines to tie it all together. Especially on hole centres, for instance the note for the 6 x 8m holes. The machinist is going to place them mid way between the two dimensions 140 & 114 , which may or may not be what you wanted. So it could read "6 off, Ø8mm through holes equispaced on 127mm PCD" The other thing is avoid cumulative dimensions like the stepping of the bores. Use a total depth from the top surface for each bore. The guy with the lathe will face off the metal and wind in the cutter from zero, it's just more accurate and less prone to mistakes. Umm what else, ah the thread I'm assuming you want 30mm of actual thread so "1 off, M12x30 (min) on 87.0 PCD" as he'll need to drill in a bit further for a bottom tap in a blind hole. See I said it would be boring!

Btw, did you say what the material was?

Edited February 18, 2011 by mrmoo

[Paliadon]

Some good tips there MrMoo. Thanks for that. As for the material, I am getting the adapter made out of aluminium. As for the two plates, powder coated steel plates are going to see me through. The bolts that will join the two plates will be encompassed in a small bit of electrical conduit to hide the thread as much as possible and the mounting of the adapter onto the top plate will be done using counter sunk hex head bolts.

Love the tips though MrMoo, thank you very much.

[mrmoo]

Just for a giggle I redrew it to CAD so you can see what it looks like to scale. Follow link for the DWG and PDF versions.

Edited February 20, 2011 by mrmoo

[Paliadon]

Wow MrMoo, that is fantastic. Nice job indeed. I now see what you meant by the depths and the centers. makes much more sense to me, even if I am just your regular run of the mill lay person. :-)

Thanks again mate, hope you don't mind if I download that and throw in my file.

Cheers

[mrmoo]

Wow MrMoo, that is fantastic. Nice job indeed. I now see what you meant by the depths and the centers. makes much more sense to me, even if I am just your regular run of the mill lay person. :-)

Thanks again mate, hope you don't mind if I download that and throw in my file.

Cheers

No problem, they're all yours. If you give me the missing pitch circle diameters for the plates I can do those for you as well, won't take long to do. The slotted bit, 30mm long, is that 30mm in total or 30mm centre to centre?

[Paliadon]

Hmm, just had to draw that to scale, but I am assuming the PCD you are looking for is approximately 240mm. The inside holes on the bottom plate are just to hold the bottom plate in the concrete so I would hazard a rough estimate of a PCD of 120mm. As for the adapter mounting holes on the top plate, they are the same as the adapter @ 127mm. The width of the two plates is 10mm.

Edited February 20, 2011 by Paliadon

[mrmoo]

I've left a hidden view on the RHS plate so you can see how close the holes are. If you're happy there is enough clearance etc and dims are correct. I'll post the finished drawing without the hidden detail. Forgive my ignorance, I haven't seen an assembled version. How are you fixing the adapter to the plate? From the adapter - 6 off 8mm holes: On the plate - 8mm right through or smaller or M8 tapped?

Material, I've put gauge plate. There's two ways to get the plates made. The first is from a round billet. They chop saw a length, then turn the plate down. I wouldn't do that myself in-case the plates warped from strain relief. The other is ground flat stock (gauge plate) the machinist would mill/turn a diameter on the flat plate. Much less chance of the plates moving. Up to you, I'll change the note. Finishing, this is going to be outside right? So powder coated, painted or thought about stainless steel?

Edited February 20, 2011 by mrmoo

[Paliadon]

Mate, that is excellent. Thank you very much. Do you use a free CAD or if not, do you know a good free one. I should really start to learn how to do them. :-)

[mrmoo]

Finished files > Linky

I use AutoCad LT, not cheap but I've been using it since I was a Kid. There are hundreds of free CAD programs. Have a look at FreeCAD or Google Sketchup

[Paliadon]

For anyone interested. I have received my quote for the adapter and mounting plates, they have given me a price of $280 for the lot which I am happy to proceed with. The $280 is in Australian dollars too so make that roughly $125 pounds in the Mother Land. :-)

[Paliadon]

Okay, it's been a while, illness and injury has precluded me from doing anything on this project for over a year. back on top again and into it once again. I have posted some pics to this old thread to show exactly what has happened since I was last on here.

Hello to everyone that I haven't spoken to in a long time.

Here's hoping I can get a few pics of "out there" for you in the next little while.

[Gina]

Great looking pier Glad you're back to full health now - must have been very frustrating (as well as painful, no doubt). Good luck with the rest of the build

[mindburner]

a bit of a thread revival but does anyone know the pitch and size of the tap needed for the AZ peg hole?

[r3i]

Welcome back and good to know that you're over your illness & injury - that looks like an excellent, well built pier.

[kirkster501]

Looks great mate, look forward to a report on it! Quick question though? Why is it so high? The mount is at head hight so placing a bahtinov mask etc when at the zenith is going to be tricky???

Steve

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[laser_jock99]

Why is it so high? The mount is at head hight so placing a bahtinov mask etc when at the zenith is going to be tricky???

Steve

Might be using refractors? When building a permanent pier you almost have to make a decision as to whether you're mainly going to be using refractors or reflectors!

My permanent pier is head high. But my 12" Newt is set at waist high at the shortest tripod setting- and that's still too high. If I put the Newt on my obsy pier the business end would be some ten feet off the ground! Now I could have made a shorter obsy pier- but then I would not see over the obsy walls and I like to opperate my cameras at about head high! Lots of things to weigh up when making a pier.....

[Paliadon]

Hi Steve, I have made it so high so that I am able to build a deck around it. When fully erected (I will post pics shortly) I will stand and it will be a comfortable height. :-)

Looks great mate, look forward to a report on it! Quick question though? Why is it so high? The mount is at head hight so placing a bahtinov mask etc when at the zenith is going to be tricky???

Steve

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[richardcav]

Hey guys, I am going through almost exactly the same process now, do any of you have the original .DWG files that Mr Moo posted, it would save me a decent amount of time recreating them in Solid Works - I´ve tried clicking on his original link and they are not longer available :-(

Regards

Richard

[mrmoo]

As requested in a recent message see attached cad files from the deep distance past.

SCOPEMOUNT.zip