Bigger Dovetails

[SniffTheGlove]

Hi,

I am looking at mounting my Canon 1100D directly to a small piece of dovetail, however the sw dovetail does not sit flush with the top of the EQ6 Puck, it is a few mm's short so my quick release camera mount can not fit proplerly. I  am currently using a piece of planned wood in the shape of a dovetail to mount my camera to but this is not ideal as I would prefer a proper dovetail.

Does anyone know if there are any thicker dovetails on the market.

If not does anyone know where I could get one machined up out of a billet etc.

Thanks

[RT65CB-SWL]

http://www.astroparts.co.uk/

[laser_jock99]

TBH a piece of planed hardwood will probably be fine at camera lens focal lengths.

[quaoar]

If you have access to a compound mitre saw and a tungsten tip blade you can easily make dovetails out of thick aluminium stock any size you want. Like a hot knife through butter. ( please wear safety glasses and clamp the stock first though just in case it goes pear shaped ).

[SniffTheGlove]

If you look at my avatar you can see what is on top of my ST80 is what I want (I don't use the ST80 at the moment on my rig). On the one end of the dovetail is a SW Illuminated Finder scope, then centrally mounted is the Canon 1100D with lens, then on the other end of the dovetail is a SW QHY5 FinderGuider. This dovetail needs to be about 18inches.

I do have a compound mitre saw in my garage, but I don't think it would work (well can't actually think at the mo) as I would need to cut along length of 18inches to get the angle.

My wooden dovetail is only made out of simple pine painted black. It works well when imaging but would like to swap out to a harder material as the EQ6 dovetail bolts as slowly crushing the wood when they are screwed up tight plus there is the disadvantage of the wood warping over time.

[quaoar]

Maybe cut say 3 x  6" pieces and screw them together  under an 18" length?. Pics not to scale but just to give a rough idea.

[wuthton]

Maybe cut say 3 x 6" pieces and screw them together under an 18" length?. Pics not to scale but just to give a rough idea.

I just can't believe that I've never thought of that. I'm off to make a side by side, thanks!

[Alien 13]

I use something similar to this I got off e-bay http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p237_TS-Dovetail-Mounting-Bar-Vixen-Style---buttonhole-and-1-4--Screw.html It can be used on its own or with a camera ball head fitting to allow for better image framing.

Alan