Cutting a dovetail bar

[John]

I ordered a medium Skywatcher dovetail bar but was sent a long one instead. I was going to return it but I've had the thought of cutting it in half and creating 2 shorter (and more useful for me) bars instead.

Before I launch in with a hacksaw and drill, are these bars made of some hardened alloy or will they cut and drill fairly easily ?.

I just don't want to make a mess of it.

John

[George]

They are just normal alloy, at least the original one my scope was supplied with is.

Hope that helps.

[iancandler]

Just a quick suggestion.. make sure you can balance the scope on a shorter bar before cutting, especially if you are going to want to use a camera on it at any time, it can be suprising just how long the bar needs to be.

[saturn5]

Anodised Aluminium ,will cut and drill easily.

[Jamie]

Hi John

I have already done just what you have described mate.

It was easy and works a treat.

Cutting the longer dovetail bar in half is no prob and is easily enough bar to balance my WO ZS105 and any equipment i have used with it.

If its the Vixen you are going to use with it this should be spot on as its much the same size and weight as my scope.

[John]

Thanks for the advice folks and Ian's caution about cutting too short !.

Sounds like, with some care, even I should be able to sort this

Yep, it's for the Vixen ED102SS Jamie

Cheers,

John

[steppenwolf]

I have cut, drilled and tapped several of these bars and they are fine to work with. You could do with knowing that any holes you drill are vertical but I found an old Black and Decker vertical drill stand and my multi-speed electric drill worked just fine.