Home made tripod

[zcdawson]

I'm going to be making my own heavy duty tripod and I thought I would get some opinions about the material used. To start I'm going to keep the mounting plate for the mount. I was thinking of three possible materials, carbon fiber, aluminum or steel.

The carbon fiber is super light and super strong. It being super light is one of the problems I foresee but to counter that I have this big battery (series 27) and can put that on a plate attached to the bottom. The aluminum is pretty straight forward I just have to decide if I would use 1/8" or 1/4" wall. The steel would be heavy all by itself and would make a good tripod.

It's a hard decision for me to make because I think I could make a good heavyduty tripod out of either of these materials. I own a machine shop so making any custom parts would be no big deal.

Any thoughts?

[nightfisher]

Have you considered Hard wood for a tripod, very effective

[Starlight 1]

Stainless steel.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

+1 for wood (ash isn't bad, see Berlebach). I replaced the aluminium legs of an old EQ2 tripod with hardwood and it was completely transformed.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Just found the link to my fairly lightweight rebuild:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/106352-tripod-rebuild-from-aluminium-to-hardwood/

[zcdawson]

Every time I make something out of wood I am never happy with it. Just better at metal I guess.

[Merlin]

Metal is stronger and more stable. Ditto.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Each to his own, I do not have the kit for proper metalwork. Wood often damps out vibrations better than steel. I have both a wooden Berlebach and Vixen tripod, and both are nice and stable. The home-made one and p-mount are also very nice. Wood can warp, of course, so it should be properly seasoned. No warping observed in any of my wooden tripods

[AndyH]

How heavy duty ?

This one, in the link below, looks like it has 2.5 to 3 inch diam legs. These screw to a rather thick tripod top plate, with angles machined on to accept the threaded legs.

http://www.makolkin.ru/Gallery/About/about.html

The following is not for astronomy purposes, but could be a basis for working off. Just source seamless I/D tube for the top piece and a close fit tube for the legs. OR machine the top tubes internal I/D for a perfect fit.

http://www.bossbuck.com/product/tripod-header-ii-w-pulley83.html

If all items are heavy enough, any worries about vibrations through the metals would be rendered null & void

I use a modified Tal pedestal, ie: I bought a 5ft length of 4.5" o/d x 1/4" thk tube and basically copied the design on the Tal(2M) version. I toyed with the idea of adding an extension, but this way was less work and more cost effective. Super heavy but super stable.

Andy.

[spaceboy]

If I was to go metal I'd do a pier rather than tripod. Just my 2p. 

[zcdawson]

I was going to try and incorporate the same vibration dampening tech  the use in CNC tooling but I think the frequency is of the higher type. Also looking into a shore 70 rubber bushing. I'm going to keep the top plate but the legs will be able to go about 270 degrees, I don't want to use the top plate as a stop for the legs because it is cast aluminum and it tends to be brittle. I don't think the carbon fiber is going to work though (bummer) because it does carry vibration. I'm thinking 304L SS is the way to go. I can make some 7075T6 aluminum joints for the moving sections. It's snowing so I'm pretty sure I have some time.