AZ3 Dovetail Clamp conversion

[Bagnaj97]

I wanted to mount my Skymax 127 on an AZ3, but the AZ3 doesn't have a dovetail clamp- I ordered one of these without looking at the measurements, with a view to bodging it on somehow. I got lucky and it turns out the spacing is identical between the holes on the clamp and the holes on the AZ3. I tapped the AZ3 holes to M8 and the dovetail clamp bolted straight on, but you could use smaller bolts with a nut on t'other side.

Hopefully this will help if anyone else is in a similar situation.

[Knighty2112]

2 minutes ago, Bagnaj97 said:

I wanted to mount my Skymax 127 on an AZ3, but the AZ3 doesn't have a dovetail clamp- I ordered one of these without looking at the measurements, with a view to bodging it on somehow. I got lucky and it turns out the spacing is identical between the holes on the clamp and the holes on the AZ3. I tapped the AZ3 holes to M8 and the dovetail clamp bolted straight on, but you could use smaller bolts with a nut on t'other side.

Hopefully this will help if anyone else is in a similar situation.

Well done. I did a similar mod on my AZ3 mount too using the AZ3 camera adapter, and then bolting on top of that  a dovetail clamp to it. Didn't require any extra holes, or taps to be done as the centre camera screw fitted into the dovetail clamp, and was room on either side in the slot for two extra securing bolts to be fitted to make it extra secure.

[Bagnaj97]

7 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Well done. I did a similar mod on my AZ3 mount too using the AZ3 camera adapter, and then bolting on top of that  a dovetail clamp to it. Didn't require any extra holes, or taps to be done as the centre camera screw fitted into the dovetail clamp, and was room on either side in the slot for two extra securing bolts to be fitted to make it extra secure.

That's probably a better way of doing it, the way I've done it all the weight is on one end of the AZ3 bar/bracket. I think I'll put some sort of spacer on the other end so the dovetail and OTA weight is supported evenly even though it's only clamped in place at one end.

[rizwanahmed24]

@Bagnaj97 great idea

[davyludo]

I found @Knighty2112 mod which gave me the inspiration to try something similar to @Bagnaj97. I just used a smaller nut and bolt instead of tapping the holes. My ST102 is a bit back end heavy anyway....so I found that the bracket being mounted forward actually helped me out a little. Don't have pictures right now - bit it's not going to show anything that you guys haven't already shown us all