Garden Pier :-)

[JemC]

Hi all,

Picked my pier up today,now remember this is not engineering finese, more like metal butchery so basically what i have is,

Pier total length 4ft-6in

1 x 10in diameter plate 1/4in thick with hole cut out in centre welded flush with top of pier

1 x 10in diameter plate 1/4in thick with drilled centre hole for fixing mount to(this plate will be bolted flush with plate welded to top of pier there will be no extension leveling bolts)

I will be utilising the top of the EQ tripod with the mount when fixing to pier (so basically just removing the tripod legs)

all metalwork has been coated in Hammerite silver paint protection (once installed i will probably paint white)

The weight of the pier as it stands is 75Lbs (34kg) (still need to fill tube with concrete)

my intension is to place this into a wooden and metal cage within the hole and fill with concrete and to hopefully get it as level as i can(fingers crossed)

ONE question i have though is instead of filling the tube with concrete, could i fill it with say pea shingle and would this give me same/similar effect as concrete or should i just use concrete? for more rigidity?

will update more when installing

Regards

[Pan Euro]

I filled mine with fine sand it fills and leaves no spaces. I think pea shingle is not fine enough and will leave little spaces. Just a thought.

[laser_jock99]

How about a mix of dry sand (sold as play pit sand) and oil- at least it won't rust internaly!

[JemC]

How about a mix of dry sand (sold as play pit sand) and oil- at least it won't rust internaly!

I like that idea Laser_jock99,

so much so that i think thats what i will do

Regards

[RichM63]

If you are already mixing concrete for the hole, why not mix a bit more at the same time and fill it? Don't forget to hammer in some reinforcing bar before dropping the pier tube over it in the hole.

[JemC]

just being a cheap skate on the concrete  but having said that i still have not worked out how many bags i need for hole yet? knowing my math i will probably end up with to many

[RichM63]

5:3:1 or 5:4:2 for a very strong mix and if just bog standard building 5:1. (sand/grit/cement) minus grit.

[laser_jock99]

Don't forget to hammer in some reinforcing bar before dropping the pier tube over it in the hole.

I made sure my piers were unboltable from the concrete mass- just in case the next owners of the property are not into astronomy.......

[JemC]

I made sure my piers were unboltable from the concrete mass- just in case the next owners of the property are not into astronomy.......

I did consider bolting to concrete, but will probably concrete in ground, to be honest i'm not planning on moving from where i am, well not for the forseeable future anyway!

i suppose if i did i could always cut it of at the concrete, or i could just leave it, after all it only cost me £30 to have made,

but until this rain goes away pier installing is on hold

[JemC]

Well, thats the pier finally in, just a little bit of tidying up to do to finish it off proper, then next job will be to sort the shed out with power install a few shelves for pc and other bits

Have fixed the mount to pier tonight and polar aligned it the best i could, i suppose i am now going to have to read up on and get my head round drift aligning  please tell me it's easy

Regards

[Pompey Monkey]

Well, you learn something new every day. I had always assumed that you needed the base to be perfectly level

A level base gives a good start point for an easily repeatable "rough" PA using the polarscope.

If you only ever do a polarscope PA, even then it it only important to get the East-West axis level, so that that the reticle in the polarscope actually does its job. North-South leveling is always compensated for by the elevation adjustment on the mount.

There are so many misconceptions about PA, many of which, sadly, get passed on as "wisdom" from source to source. PA is just that: Aligning the 'scopes RA axis parallel with the Earth's axis. No more, no less.

EDIT: I'm a bit late here! lol.

Second edit: Nice pier too!