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10" truss dob build... yep, yet another one!

Andy_E

By Andy_E
in DIY Astronomer

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Andy_E

Andy_E

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Frustrating times. Waiting for a delivery of bolts meaning things grind to yet another halt!!!!! fingers crossed for a delivery tomorrow. Aluminium poles cut and waiting (a tad longer than calculations suggest just in case :tongue:)... fingers crossed for a trial fit tomorrow, and hopefully a couple of pics.

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Andy_E

Andy_E

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AHA! Got a knock on the door today only to be greeted by a friendly neighbour saying “the postman left this package for you at our house the other day”. Turns out all the bits and bobs I'd ordered arrived on Friday but the postie neglected to post a little 'left with neighbour' slip... ah well, all's well that ends well.

Now with a full set of nuts/bolts I've managed a bit of work of the truss organisation... thankfully all the pre drilled and cut poles fit perfectly!

Here's a quick pic of the trial truss fit (below) with the lower part of the UTA (the rest has been stained and currently drying). Looks good so far, everything is good n' solid, plus it's surprisingly light weight. I was hoping to attach the lower section of the truss with T nuts inside the mirror box, but there just isn't enough room between the adjacent poles to comfortably get your fingers in.

The plan for the next few days is to give the UTA its final fix and attach the bearings to the mirror box. Fingers crossed, and all going well, the main structure of the whole scope might be finished for next weekenpost-23686-0-39877500-1374419034_thumb.jd...

here's to hoping!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Andy_E

Andy_E

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Life's been pretty busy of late (too much family too little time!) so haven't managed to update as much as I would have liked. Anyhow, made quite a bit of progress this past couple of weeks; UTA finished, mount and light shroud half made.

I've had a last minute change of heart about the bearings... I originally decided on smaller bearings with counter weights to keep the COG low. These are the bearings in the picture (below) and although I've managed to get the scope nice and balanced, the counter weights in the mirror box made for a seriously heavy scope... kinda defeats the point of a 10” portable dob. Having mulled it over, I've decided to remove the counter weights and simply go for bigger 'sledge' style bearings. The whole set up is now a little bigger but I've saved five kilos by raising the COG; swings and roundabouts I suppose.

As for the light shroud, I managed to pick up a black out roller blind for £6 (the fabric is fine but the mechanism was broken). It's great material... nice and stiff and a wonderful mat-black finish, plus it blocks pretty much all stray light. As it's non-stretchy material the whole thing is being tailored to the truss shape... a bit fiddly but I'm happy with it so far.

All that's left to do now is fit the new bearings, finish the light shroud and flock the mirror box and UTA (the truss poles have already been flocked with the mat-black shroud material). Really excited now! I can almost smell first light :laugh:

post-23686-0-87719100-1375535764_thumb.j

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Andy_E

Andy_E

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New bearings have now been cut... the whole thing balances beautifully without a single counterweight, bliss! UTA and mirror box are flocked, only two sides of the truss left to do (lost the will to live after the first two!). The light shroud is also finished and fits nice and snug around the poles.

Minus dotting a few 'i's and crossing a few 't's I now declare my new dob finished! Rejoice and let us pray for clear skies!!!! I'm awfully tempted to treat the scope to some new green and black (The Eps not the chocolate) but we'll have to see how that goes down with the missus first :grin:

seriously though, there's still a couple of bits and bobs left to do, like the aforementioned truss flocking plus I'm hoping to fit some height adjustable feet to the base. Excitement causes this post to be a little premature, so I've only got a couple of pics of my new friend. Hope to write a follow up post after first light and any tweaks and adjustments made, plus a few more pics.

Who knows, might have some clear skies tonight! post-23686-0-25013900-1375820132_thumb.jpost-23686-0-73486300-1375820186_thumb.j

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  • 3 weeks later...
Andy_E

Andy_E

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Well, Everything's finished! Light shroud sorted (stitched a line of Velcro on to it so it's an easy strap on strap off jobby), plus I've added a support to the bearings which really helps with stability. This has been a great journey... made PLENTY of mistakes along the way but nothing too devastating and mostly easy to rectify, just the way it goes on a first build I guess. Everything is lovely and stable, plus I'm pleasantly surprised with just how smooth the operation is... fine adjustments at 200x are really easy. It's had a brief first light but seeing wasn't really good enough to write about... not that I cared, just so happy to be using it!! I'd finally like to thank everyone for your kind words and advice on the way, plus for posting progress of your own builds that really gave me the inspiration to go ahead and do it... SGL is great aint it! She aint the prettiest, biggest scope on here but she's mine and I love her! Right, where do I get hold of a 14" mirror then :grin:.......... post-23686-0-88038800-1377298290_thumb.j post-23686-0-03348200-1377298334_thumb.j post-23686-0-13778500-1377298378_thumb.j

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Andy_E

Andy_E

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superb job! it looks really great I think. my own 12" f4 don will be getting this treatment soon but with everything other than trusses going inside the rocker box so I can take it camping :0)

I saw the 10" you built like this recently... a super neat way of building a travel dob!

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