Obsy Qs??

[Paulus17]

I am thinking of either building a new obs in the garden or using part of a shed that's already in the garden,i have built a shed extension onto the back of the garage and was thinking of using that,leccy is already there so that helps plus it would be cheaper to do it this way.??

But the roof is a sloping roof,boarded,18mm ply, and felted.

So if i was to use that how could i make an opening and still make it water tight when closed??

Its about 7 feet wide and about 10 foot long.

When i put a pier in,i am thinking of using the 10" galvanized ducting,how do i attach the mount to the pier.?

I have seen in the old obsy builds and whats used but haven't figured out how they are fixed to the pier??.

Can you buy the mount brackets??

Cheers.

[swag72]

To attach the mount to the pier you need an adaptor, something like this http://www.altairast...04&cat=0&page=1

I bought mine off of a member on here, Gary, who makes them.

Check out this thread http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/78361-pier-adapter-for-eq6/page__hl__+pier%20+gary#entry1555132, There's a link to Gary who makes them and also some dimensions of you want to make your own.

[Paulus17]

Thanks for that Sara,unfortunately some of those links in that thread no longer work??

But i've got a better idea now

[Gina]

I'm all ears (or should that be eyes? )

[RogerTheDodger]

When I made my pier I used the top part of the tripod to make the pier adaptor.

[ollypenrice]

Although not very elegant I have always welded up adapters between pier and the mount flanges that formerly held the tripod legs. It has always worked fine. I bolt the adapter plates to the old tripod head first then weld them in place onto the pier.

You may not have a MIG welder but someone will do it, no doubt considerably more neatly than I did!!

A proprietory mount adapter is smarter but living in the sticks encourages you to improvise...

Not sure about your roof. Could it fold open, maybe in two halves for lightness?

Olly

[Paulus17]

Thanks Roger and Olly

I did used to have an arc welder but sold it as it wasn't been used,not that my welding skills were anything to write home about,but i do have a friend who welds?

So what i need to do for the mount is get an Ali or steel plate fixed by bolts that are set in the concrete pier and attach the mount to the plate using the bolt on the underside of the mounts taht fixes it to the tripod??

Would a wooden pier work,which i would be happier working with,i have read it has its pitfalls as well but some seem to think it works?

[r3i]

Check out this thread http://stargazerslou...ry#entry1555132, There's a link to Gary who makes them and also some dimensions of you want to make your own.

The Delrin block adapter that I made and posted about in the above thread is still going strong and is now back in operation at our new house after several months in storage:

[ollypenrice]

The thing about wood, at least as a pier, is that I'd expect it to warp. Wooden tripods are much admired though. It's Takahashi's tripod leg choice.

One thing not to worry about is accurate levelling. Many assume it's necessary but it isnt.

Not many use Roger's brick idea but it looks attractive to me.

Best of luck!

Olly

[pete_l]

The thing about wood, at least as a pier, is that I'd expect it to warp.

I don't think warping would be too much of a problem, after all you don't see many warped fence-posts. It may even add "character" .

Warping tends to be worst in centrally heated houses where the humidity changes by large amounts - making the wood dry out and shrink across its grain causing internal stresses than bend or split it. If you use properly weathered timber (very rare these days, where everything's kiln dried) or pressure treated, then it should be OK provided it's left out-doors and doesn't get too hot in an obsy in the summer.

If you have heavy enough tools for the job, a cut-down railway sleeper could be the ideal choice.

[malc-c]

This was the adapter that I had made by a local machine shop.... £80

[Paulus17]

Nice pier Malc and a great build you did.

If i was to use an old oak sleeper would it be ok to attach that to a godfather,either side concreted well into the ground do yoi think??

[malc-c]

Thanks for the comments. To be honest, IMO I wouldn't use wood as a pier, at least not an old sleeper. From my experience they are quite open grained caused from the weathering and flexing when in use to support rails. Personally I would opt for either a brick built pier on a decent foundation, or the traditional concrete filled pipe, the latter costing less than £20 plus the concrete.

[Paulus17]

My mate popped in earlier,he tinkers with cars,so i mentioned about using car discs to use for attaching the mount too,which i had seen been used on someones site,might have been in one of the above links?.

My mate said he could get a pair of discs and get the hub hole cut to whatever size i need,which is 60mm i believe,he might even be able to get the whole thing made up for me??.

He also said that he could get me the 10" ducting.

Does that sound a good plan do you think??

Is the 10" ducting too big could i get away with smaller??

[michaelmorris]

^{With permanent telescope mounts there is no such thing as 'too heavy'. Heavy = stable. I would avoid wood because of the tendency of wood to 'ring' when hit.}

[Zakalwe]

^{With permanent telescope mounts there is no such thing as 'too heavy'. Heavy = stable. I would avoid wood because of the tendency of wood to 'ring' when hit.}

Don't go round hitting it then

my fear with wood is that it is a natural substance that will move slightly as it absorbs and looses moisture. As long as you periodically check the polar alignment every few weeks then I am sure that it would be fine.

[laser_jock99]

Avoid using 'wobbly bolt' pier head 'adaptors' if you can.....

some good advice in there.

[Paulus17]

Thanks for the video LJ,thats certainly threw a spanner in the works??

So going by that all the self builds i've seen are no good,according to that??

Is all that really neccessary from all the builds i have read??

My backs aching just thinking of digging that size hole out

[Zakalwe]

Avoid using 'wobbly bolt' pier head 'adaptors' if you can.....

some good advice in there.

There's more snake-oil in there than good advice. He's dressing words up to sound pseudo-scientific...what exactly is torgueage? Rotational shear vibration? It sounds impressive to someone that knows very little, but in reality it's made-up guff.

His comments about the welds? Absolute rubbish.

And the slots making the base plate less rigid? Rubbish. There's a million steel-framed buildings held up and loads of them have slotted end-plates (I used to be involved in engineering and steel-framing). Those base plates look like 12mm steel.

[Zakalwe]

@ Paulus17: I recently put a pier base in recently, and the best advice that I can give is to get someone in that does readymix concrete. Local to me are this lot:

http://quayconcrete.co.uk/

They roll up, mix the concrete and chuck it into a barrow. I filled in nearly a cubic metre in about 30 minutes. That would have taken all day to mix with a mixer. Total cost? £120.

Also, stuck some rebar into your pier hole...concrete by itself is prone to cracking. A sheet of A193 weld mesh costs less than £30 from Travis Perkins.

[Gina]

When I built my pier I was under the impresion that the top had to be level and I needed to get underneath the pier plate to screw in the fixing bolt for the mount but I also knew that the top needed to be rigid. The compromise was four M16 bolts with a 25mm high pile of large washers between the two plates. This setup enabled me to screw the mount to the top plate with it's central bolt and then lower top plate plus mount down onto the bottom plate and tighten the four nuts firmly onto the bolts.

There are several things I would do a bit differently with my pier if I were making another but the current one works pretty well. I don't believe I got to the limit my pier and mount can provide - there are currently weaker links in the chain. I did take note of experienced imagers and put plenty into the pier and mount which I've never regretted.

[Paulus17]

Zak.

I had a similar company when i done the floor to the garage/workshop 16'x16'x6" all dug out by hand on me lonesome.

It was the only way to get to the site so it all had to be barrowed in.

So a good solid base is essential,but if i was imaging just using the supplied tripod with the HEQ5 would i still get similar sort of results if imaging off the tripod??

Gina-What would you do differently now?

[Zakalwe]

Imaging on a tripod? Nah...it's rubbish

Ask Olly. I'm sure that loads of his customers rock and roll up with tripods and produce stunning images.

I made my base 3' x 3' for that reason. I have the shed up and will be chopping the roof off to make it slide. At some point I'll sort a pier out. Until then, the tripod is going to sit on the base.

Here's the pier base poking through the shed base

[Gina]

Gina-What would you do differently now?

For a start I'd make the pier higher - I had to add an NEQ6 pier extension to give me enough height. Just the one top plate screwed down directly onto the concrete with the 4 threaded rods that go a metre down into the concrete. I'd have a hollow in the centre to take the head of the mount fixing bolt and washer. Mind you the double plate pier head unit was really solid and a really good thump didn't move the mount. The pier extension did reduce the performance slightly though it's still pretty solid. The extension is a solid steel tube 5" diameter and 1/8" thick.

[fwm891]

I've made the pier slab on mine like a truncated four-sided pyramid. 900x900 at ground level, widening out to 1200x1200 about 750 down (after watching a program about the pyramid style base to the post office tower) proportionally mine is much bigger! Size matters