Last mods to the Tal1SLT(t)

[SteelRat]

Just finished altering the Tal tripod for the Tal1SLT setup.

Took 7 inches off the tops of the outers, 3 inches off the bottoms of the inners, lost the original spreader and swapped my added SW tray and it's DIY spreader for the SLT instant quick fold jobbie set on the old Tal brackets. The mega rigid pod has lost about 1kg and gained some instant folda/portability. The setup is now a better height for my site and my comfy seat too - no more horrible kitchen chair and no more blinding flash of streetlight when I look up from the eyepiece.

Have also mounted the handset bracket on the battery cover so the hand control follows the scope instead of staying on a leg.

All done now

[GazOC]

Looks great Matt!!

[FLO]

Looking good 8)

[Whippy]

Nice... I have plans for one of them myself .

Tony..

[zhgutas]

Seams like this is how it should look like! Nice tripod and an awesome overall look! Hope you will have some fun with it

Marius

[beamish]

Seams like this is how it should look like! Nice tripod and an awesome overall look! Hope you will have some fun with it

Marius

Agreed ! Nicely designed/thought out mod, very professionally finished.

Karlo

[saturn5]

Great job,looks the business.

[anthony]

Like the torch holster!

Anthony

[AndyH]

Lovely.

Nuff said.

Cheers,

Andy.

[SteelRat]

Like the torch holster!

That's a phone pouch off a free backpack thing we got from a garage a couple o years back. SWMBO got the backpack for work, I got the phone pouch. It's been a torch holster ever since

Thanks for the nice words folks. It's good to finally have the pod finished. Very happy with.

cheers

Matthew

[rawhead]

Having the controller up out of the way is great idea. I've overstretched mine several times and popped the power supply out. Looks good Matthew.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Superb job Matt.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[SteelRat]

Cheers gents. Yup, the contoller mount should work out pretty good - just need some clear stuff now Anyone been buying stuff?

[Rob]

Nice mate. could you share some details on how you mounted the SLT arm on the tripod?

Thanks

Rob

[Rob]

If you could PM me some stuff.... that would be great!!.. Thinking about the 90mm Skyscout as a project now!

[SteelRat]

No worries Rob. It was a pretty simple approach really - will jot it all down shortly mate. SLT should handle a 90mm f7 pretty comfortably yeah?

[Helen]

Could you post details here too please? - I've got an SLT mount lying around....

Think I might try mounting the ETX125 on it (got to be better than the ETX mount )

Helen

[Rob]

Nice Helen... that 125 will sit well on there. Fantastic idea.

[jgs001]

Good Mods Matt, I like how you got the handset.

[SteelRat]

Right then, here we go - simple instructions;

SLT ain't the most rigid mount around due to arm flex but the Tal pod is a really decent improve as it gets rid of vibration from the overly lightweight standard jobbie with it's very flexy plastic leg lugs.

The mount and wooden tripod go together pretty straight forward. It's just a case of removing the metal cup from the top of the Tal pod (the bit that the Tal mounts sit in) by undoing the 3 screws under the hub;

The bottom of the SLT mount has 3 small teeth that slot into corresponding teeth inside it's standard tripod hub. These need to sit between the Tal hub's 3 shoulders for maximum surface contact. The SLT mounting plate's two retaining screws (see pic2 below) need to be replaced with low profile countersunk headed types as the large standard heads foul against the Tal hub (I used some strong Tal ones and IIRC they might have been 2 of the 3 from the Tal hub - sounds like the sort of thing I'd do ).

The mount plate has a whitworth type thread at the centre. I rethreaded it to take an m6 bolt that I had to hand which I used with some strong washers (one being the original piece from under the hub) to bolt the SLT and pod firmly together making sure I'd got the mount sat nice and central on the hub.

Hope all that reads OK and hope it helps.

cheers

Matthew

[Helen]

Thanks Matthew :salute: I've got the ETX out of its fork arms and onto a dovetail bar for the SLT. Seems OK, but the tripod is oh so wobbly...so a mod coming on I think...

Helen

[John]

That looks great Matt - nice job

A mod that I've had in mind for ages is to get one of the tall TAL wooden tripods and replace the alu tripod legs on my AZ-3 mount with the TAL legs. When you get time would you be able to let me know what the width of the TAL hubs shoulders are - ie: how far apart are the top of 2 sections at the top of each leg ?.

Thanks for posting the pics :-)

John

[barkis]

A well thought out, and executed job Matt. Whatever makes observing a more comfortable experience has to be a good thing. I think you may have started a trend mate.

Ron.