635 binoscope update= new mount and a kiln for making blanks

[twinhexydan]

Hi guys ,

another update to Hexy,s progress--I decided to completely remake the mount as the last one showed some unexpected flaws--the main bearing housing developed a crack .--the new mount now in place--

the mount is made up of a 12v wiper motor -speed controlled-- this turns a rubber friction drive which translates to a reduction gearbox gleaned from a mobility stairlift chair-- this drives the main spindle shaft via a ford cam belt and pulley,s --this is for the azimuth/ horizontal movement.===the main shaft now has double bearings and is super rigid ,minimum flexure--I also strengthened the large cage to stop flexure there-- when the altitude motor mechanism get,s installed there will be a big paint job to undertake.

Busy Dan

[twinhexydan]

Hi everyone ,

pics of my recent ebay purchase--

a 15kw kiln to make up to 29 inch dia. blanks

this used to be owned by a top porcelain figure maker

I,m planning on melting two 25 inch mirrors for Hexy

Dan

[JamesF]

Blimey. That's a bit of a beast I think if we plugged it in here the entire local area would go dark

James

[twinhexydan]

hI jAMES ,

thanks for looking , believe it or not the kiln is single phase electrics--we have overhead supply here so am not expecting the birds to sit for long on the wires !

electron dan

[JamesF]

Let's hope it all goes to plan. Given the trouble some people seem to have had sourcing mirror blanks from the UK recently it may be that the way forward is to make your own.

James

[twinhexydan]

Hi james ,

hopefully I,ll be able to offer blanks up to 28 inch diameter in any thickness soon kiln dried ,

dan

[JamesF]

What are you planning to use as a source for the glass, out of interest?

James

[fwm891]

I think the 100" Hooker telescope mirror was made from beer bottles?

[JamesF]

That was probably what they had to hand the morning after they thought of building it

James

[SamAndrew]

Awesome, I've watched a couple of kiln auctions on ebay out of interest, as it would also serve my brother in his hobbies

But I'd be jumping the gun a bit as I've only just started grinding my first 6"

can't stop me dreaming

You may need to raid the local bottle bank

[JamesF]

In our case it would save the embarrassment of visiting the bottle bank

"What, opening another bottle of wine this evening?"

"Yes dear. I'm saving for a new mirror."

James

[Chris]

This is amazing! so let me get this straight, your building a giant newt binoscope each with a 25" mirror which you are not only grinding yourself but your also making the blanks!! on top of this you are building a giant motor driven mount for it which looks like it belongs in Mad Max. And heres me worrying weather I should try strapping a couple a frac's together to make small binoscope:) I'll be following this thread with interest!

[woodbob123]

Hi all. Dan if it's ok with you i shall be selling tickets, the big Kiln switch on will be a night to remember, when the switch is pulled for the first time you may be in one of the darkest areas of the country and we would be assured of a good night's seeing lol. But i for one wish to book my place for the first viewing session but hope to be looking through mine before you even if it's only with one eye. ATB Bob

[SamAndrew]

Hi all. Dan if it's ok with you i shall be selling tickets, the big Kiln switch on will be a night to remember, when the switch is pulled for the first time you may be in one of the darkest areas of the country and we would be assured of a good night's seeing lol. But i for one wish to book my place for the first viewing session but hope to be looking through mine before you even if it's only with one eye. ATB Bob

I wonder If we all coordinated together and switched our kettels on at the same time we could take down the national grid ?

[JamesF]

I'm intrigued by the process. Do you actually melt the glass completely, in which case what gets used for a mould, or is it just a case of layering sheets of glass and using the heat of the kiln to fuse them together?

James

[sologuitarist61]

I always thought you were supposed to gently rotate the glass to give it its initial concave face, but I guess with a kiln it will be just a case of melting the glass down into a circular blamk and then grinding the face. That will be some job I can tell you!!

[JamesF]

Certainly some blanks come flat on both sides. The tutorials I've seen on mirror-making start off by explaining which side of the glass you should choose to be the mirror side. With a 25" mirror though, I guess anything you can do to reduce the amount of grinding has to be helpful

James

[SamAndrew]

This is the website by Michael Davis that inspired me to look into it making blanks,

http://www.mdpub.com/scopeworks/blanks/index.html

Michael layers round pieces of glass together and heats it to the point they fuse, however he still uses a mould made from firebricks

[twinhexydan]

Hi all,

and thank,s for looking in, I will reply in more detail later when I can stop laughing.

Byclops Dan

[twinhexydan]

Hehehe!,

I,m baaaaaaaack hehe!

thanks guys having humour like that at midnight when tired sure stops the lids from closing for another hour or so --thanks to you lot I finally managed a slumber at 1.20am--due to clouds I aint stopped up that late for a while --it was more affective than strong coffee--

Hehe! now where was I ?

oh yeah GLASS ! it,s horrible stuff to mess with -- did you know ?? cuts like hell if if you disrespect it --burns like hell if you magnify it --shrinks like hell if you don,t melt it properly--goes bang on it,s own accord when least expecting--and creates the most embarrassing moments of shock if you forget to pull the curtains -- neighbours funerals aren,t pleasant .

still can be fun thing if you manage to master the stuff--my scopes will be kept exterior--so using ordinary glass is fine for me and I,se got ton,s of the stuff -freeeeeee--recent hail storm here took out enormous-no ginourmous green house roofs at my daughters workplace --brooksby agricultural college in leicester. They now have a silicon gem floor covering which sparkles in the sunlight --about five tons of the stuff-waiting insurance clearance-- to re-instate to former glory.

My plan is to get permission to scoop up a wee bit before they tip it . then it,s head down for a big melt . after I,se cleaned it up a bit . plan is to completely melt the glass crush in special preformed moulds to various sizes seeing I has plenty of seethrough. I can kiln up to 4x 28 inch dia -2 inch thick at a time .my kiln will burn at 1300c has digital controller -window glass melts around 1100c properly . so I,ll balance up the planets glass disc content seeing the earth has a slight wobble !!

I,ll then use my big turntable grinding machine to generate the curve by the diamond disc method--very fast and easy

hows it looking now starfox ? madmax didn,t paint his stuff too well eh ? and the "giant" motor is only a ford wiper motor all doable -have a go or at least put yer eyes in one , you might get a shock !

Hi woodbob ,

company making blackout blinds might be sending me hatemail soon--and one eye ain,t no good pal, two is the place to be, Byclops style. so you better get moving on that mirror of your,s -christmas is coming !!!i did you know ?? missus is wanting up.

merging for bino viewing ain,t as hard as some make out just need to understand the principles well ,--and I ain,t an educated person

Boy --am I gonna stop the neckaches changing from mono to bino viewing

monsignor Hexy

[JamesF]

I look forward to reading more about this. There's not enough eccentric ambition in the world. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

James

[Chris]

Well Dan I must admit it looks a lot less madmax with paint not that madmax was a bad thing:), I'm just trying to get my head around the whole thing like the two large circles which I'm assuming are the base supports for each scope tube, they are very interesting in that they are made up of lots of small tubes welded together, looks like a piece of art! are these just what you had at hand or is there another motovation for using them? hehe and I didn't mean giant motor, I meant giant motorised mount. I would love to look through a binoscope, I dabbled in visual for 15 years or so before getting into imaging last year, but since i've discovered the joys of using two eyes with a recent small ebay driven binocular collection I'm well and truly enjoying visual in a whole new way! As mentioned would certainly like to build a binoscope of some sort, might start with something like a couple of 60mm fracs so I can get away with not having to use 6 well colluminated diagonals to get the IPD right.

p.s. I was born and bred in Leicester, it looks like your building its next land mark:D

[twinhexydan]

Hi james ,

am def not eccentric in the head -just in the hands . I saw a few binos up to 22 inch and the desire grew rapidly as I grew tired of squinting with one eye-just so uncomfortable.

have you read my other posts ? of Hexy or seen my gallery - help yourself.

Tis been an incredible journey so far and today I reassembled the tubes back in the mount pics will follow shortly

byclops dan

[Gina]

If you do imaging you see the resut with both eyes

But I certainly admire your efforts and that massive pair of bins

[twinhexydan]

hi starfox,

mad max was brill might happen for real one day eh!

I let you into a leetle secret --my project Hexy was inspired by multiple ideas from others but it,s uniquely mine that,s for sure .main functional idea was gleaned from JMI,s 16 inch bino of america

I used the cage idea because each scope tube has to have independent movement i.e. one tube pivots horizontally and the other pivots vertically --this is to make merging the image at the eyepiece accurate and easy -they are motorised independently and controlled at the eyepiece zone by a control centre box as is all the scopes movements --I sit at the eyepiece and collimate everything while looking through both ep,s -- binocular style

if you are near or in leicester when Hexy is functional anytime feel free to alert me and have a peep but --BEWARE !-- these things are very contagious once viewed through--have a friend in USA who has the JMI 16 incher I can tell ya right now --the three days I stayed there consisted of three hours sleep --my first view was with a can of bear in hand --it didn,t get drunk.. I very nearly purchased one while there but got challenged to make one for laughs. came back and gave birth to HEXY -- hexadecagon==sixteen sided

lots more pics available Byclops dan