Chris

Good shout Dave, I don't need to worry too much about getting it where I shouldn't if it's clear lol If I can't find any in the garage I'll take a trip to the shops. I'll be honest and admit I didn't realise marine ply was LITERALLY marine 🤣 I thought it was like a damp conditions material.

Thanks Gina, I'm sure I have some fence treatment in the garage which should do the job.

There is one thing I'd like an opinion on. I was hoping to get marine ply for the flooring, but the ply Wicks had was simply labelled ply! I picked up 4 sheets of 12mm which should be plenty thick enough as the floor frame is about 10" between centres. Is it worth weather treating the underside plus sides of the ply if it's going to be sitting 4-5" above the ground ?

In today's episode the weed membrane and decorative stones are down, and the sub frame has been loosely positioned ready for fixing. I just need a bit more timber.

All I know guys is that there was a large amount of vibration coming from the actual 110mm tube itself, not the pier adaptor. I know this because I repeatedly tapped the pier at different heights and with the pier adaptor completely removed the tube vibrated quite noticeably. Also as mentioned installing the 8" diameter tube section completely stopped any vibrations. I can always upgrade the M12 bar to something a bit more substantial and this is good advice, but in the name of science why don't we see how the M12 rods actually do before upgrading?

Hi. The idea is that the pier is very adjustable. You have the plates far apart (the pier higher) for a refractors, and close together (the pier low) for Newtonians. My last pier had very little adjustment and I couldn't use Newtonians. The fixed pier was just too high so I've used a lower fixed pier section with longer bolts with this MKII version Indeed, I can always upgrade the threaded bar, I just happened to have some 12mm so we'll see how we go

Thanks Stuart, it's pretty good now I've built up the footings a couple of inches extra and added the 8" tube over the top with plenty of rebar. It's made a world of difference which is a relief My last pier was 8" all the way up in an 18" cubed footing and was rock solid. This is a smaller obsy than my last so I thought I could just down scale the pier and footings along with everything else. Lesson learnt.

All sorted, it's now rock solid. On with the build👍

Will do Alan, thanks for the suggestion

Heart wrenching

I bit of remedial work done today. Made some shuttering so I can sink the 8" tube in concrete and drilled rebar into the footings and lower half of the pier ready to help everything bond together. BIG discovery! when I drilled into the side of the pier the concrete was still really wet in places. This might be more of a culprit for the vibrations than the 110mm diameter tube and slightly shallow footings.

Cool. I'll head over to PM's

Excellent suggestion! 😆 Cheers!

Here's how I built my pier and how I'm going to fix some vibration issues.

Thanks, I did pretty much that I bought an 8" diameter 500mm long tube to go over the top. It goes almost 2/3rds up the 110mm tube and I plan on having a little eyepiece shelf where the step is.

haha you never know hey. I tried B&Q and they officially don't sell any tubes larger than the one I already have. They didn't have any box section that would have worked either. Currently checking the net for something that would work without breaking the bank.

Thanks Rob, well never a dull moment, the first drama has reared it's head already lol I've just finished the pier plus pier adaptor and the whole pier vibrates like an EQ3 when you tap it I thought 110mm diameter of concrete and rebar would be ok but this was a hard lesson learnt. I'll be nipping to B&Q this evening to try and find a solution. Maybe a larger pipe over the existing pipe or maybe metal/wood truss supports. I'll think of something

Nice comment Sean, you're right! So many benefits to re using what you have, or what others don't want. Us humans don't tend to do the planet many favours on the whole so anything we can do to help we should do. My work is only 3-4 miles away so luckily I can cycle to do my bit for the planet and my health too

Thanks Jeremy, Yeah I think I would have been asking for trouble if I'd left them there. Getting the roots out was hard work though lol

Video logs for the obsy built so far. I'll be making a detailed "how to make an adjustable permanent pier video" shortly.

Some progress pics:

In the spirit of recycling and cost cutting I've decided to upcycle the old 8x6 shed at the bottom of the garden. The OSB floor is rotten and has holes in. There are a few feather boards which need replacing but as luck would have it the previous owners of the house left a bunch of feather boards behind the shed and plenty of concrete slabs which I can use for the foundations. Other freebies which came with the house include a roll of felt, some weed membrane, and some bags of decorative stones, all of which I can make use of for the build. I've spend around £100 so far on pier materials and treated timber to build a sub frame for the floor. I just need to buy new flooring materials, plus rails, wheels and timber for the roll of roof. I'm sure I'll be able to scout out some off cuts of wood to help re in-force the shed. I have a bunch of metal brackets in the garage that will help too. I'll post all my progress and ideas here. I built an observatory about 7-8 years back and I needed loads of help from SGL'rs. I've learnt a lot since then so I can just crack on with it. Hopefully the info here will be useful for anyone wanting to convert their old shabby shed into an obsy.

Cheers Paul yes, the moto can often be - HEQ5 & ED80 minimum or go home. But as long as you're happy never having a shot at an APOD, you can image with pretty much any scope and mount. E.g. I captured the Ring Nebula with the Heritage 150p mini Dob and a ZWO planetary camera a week back.

lol Thanks Rob, I honestly don't know what to say mate 😬😆