Home Made Pier

[Damo636]

Good advise bizibuilder, its a work in progress so all advise welcome. Anyone any thoughts as to the size of the hole for the concrete? A was thinking about 3' square x 2' deep or there abouts.

Damo

[Psychobilly]

It really depends on what you find when you start digging it... you can always get a couple of lenghts of rebar to be driven at an angle into the bottom of the hole to make it even more secure...

[acme]

Slightly different design but I thought I would post up a picture to

show the bolt on adapter in situ and how it looks mounted with my EQ6 Pro for all those thinking of building a DIY pier.

Acme

[Damo636]

Very tidy pier Acme.

[Bizibilder]

That sounds about right for the base dimensions.

Appended are a couple of pics of my own pier adaptor:

[swag72]

Great pics there - So you connect it to the pier top by the three screws? What's that sticky up bit for?

I guess it will be better to get the adaptor first so that I know where the holes have to go in the top plate?

[Bizibilder]

Yup! The three screws come up from under the pier base and hold things together. The "sticky up bit" is for the azimuth screws to push against - the two horizontal screws that help align the mount East and West.

[Gina]

I guess it will be better to get the adaptor first so that I know where the holes have to go in the top plate?

I think I'll do the same before I build my pier. I was wondering if I could make an adapter for the pier mount but I guess if I'm spending all that money on an EQ6 mount I ought to spend 10% extra for a proper adapter. No "spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar" I guess. I gather the Altair one is the one to go for?

[Bizibilder]

See if you can find an engineering firm that will make one for you - save a fortune!! Agricultural engineers may be local - they can do most jobs like that.

[Gina]

Good thought but I wonder if they would do it accurately enough - I presume the mount fits closely in the recess to provide a wobble free connection. I don't know of anyone ATM - would have to research.

EDIT... Anyone know a suitable firm in the Honiton/Taunton area (E Devon / S Somerset)?

[Damo636]

Nice job Bizibuilder. Did you machine that yourself? I reckon you'd have a market on here for those...

[Bizibilder]

I did machine my adapter myself. You dont have to worry about "accuracy", the tripod top, as provided, is "as cast" and painted to boot!

I made my adapter (if I remember correctly) 1mm oversize on hole diameter and around 3mm over depth. After painting, it fitted perfectly!!

[ncjunk]

Great set of examples from everyone...3 or 4 screws? hell if they both work who cares?

Nice adaptor Bizibilder they're really not too dificult to make (cough....like I made mine myself...I like going into my Machinists workshop he has so much cool "in progress" stuff lying around it's great...and that workshop smell...)

I'll post mine when I get home and you can all spot the deliberate mistakes.

[Damo636]

I just measured mine up. Will have a bash at work next week if i get lathe free for an hour or so. It looks straight forward enough on inspection.

[swag72]

I look forward to seeing peoples work. Then I wait in anticipation for someone to start making them on here. Altair are charging just shy of £80, surely it can not cost anywhere near that much to make?

[Gina]

I'm in the market for one of those (for EQ6)

[Bizibilder]

It doesn't cost anything like that to make! It does cost that to make, transport, sell and deliver with everyone making their bit of profit!!

To make your own:

The "lump" of steel would be around £6-10 depending on supplier. It took me around 2 hours to machine - (a professional would take less and I'm not counting the cost of machinery etc).

[Gina]

Very many years ago when my Dad was alive I used to do a bit of turning on his lathe. But he sold his 4" one and bought a much bigger one. The smaller one was quite easy to use, fully manual.

[Psychobilly]

Gary1968 used to make combined pier tops and adaptors...

I made mine of us Ally.. the "plug" cost around £10 and a couple of hours in the workshop at home to machine it up.. I made a funtional rather than pretty azimuth peg out of a piece of M10 stainless studding which I attacked with the grinder.....

Billy...

[swag72]

So if they are not hugely expensive things to make, why does no one do them on the forum? They sound fairly easy if you have the know how and the tools - I have neither!!!!

[Psychobilly]

It takes time and no one wants to pay the going rate and then shipping costs get stupid...

And Machining for "fun" is quite theraputic... unless you almost take the top of your finger off when somone taps you on the shoulder while your at the machine to tell you dinners ready... ...

If your mass producing them on a CNC Mill or lathe then they are faster to make... but you have all the other costs...

Billy...

[Damo636]

Ok, i got the concrete into the base on Saturday past. I also found a local machine shop to make the adapter plate for me. We agreed a price of £30 so well pleased with that. I'll leave the base to set well for about another week and then get the whole thing assembled. Will upload some pics of finished job.

Damo

[spaceboy]

Great job on the pier Damo. All that steel must have cost a fortune!

There's some cracking adapters on this thread as well.

[Damo636]

Great job on the pier Damo. All that steel must have cost a fortune!

There's some cracking adapters on this thread as well.

I was actually very lucky with the steel. Apart from the adapter i am waiting on, the only other cost was the concrete (£20) for the base and the threaded bar and nuts. The tube was the remains of a much longer length i found at work and my kind boss told me to take it with me if it was any good to me. Of course i jumped at it. The plates are all from either offcuts or bits that were cut wrong. I think the whole project has cost me around £70ish so far. I now have to decide what colour to finish it. White maybe ? Would match my scopes.

Cheers

Damo

[Adamski]

If you have power cables you could thread them through the hole and out the bottom so they don't get in the way. I'm going to see my old boss at a steel fabrication workshop and hopefully get the materials for a pier like yours, it's a very good design.Thanks.