Eyepiece & Diagonal Case

[Nomad Z]

I've been thinking about a case for my new eyepieces and diagonals (a 90° for astro, and a 45° for terrestrial). after some musing, it occurred to me that fishing involves all sorts of weird and wonderful special -purpose cases and bags, so I went mooching around the Glasgow Angling Centre's web site, and found this...

https://www.fishingmegastore.com/tronixpro-lead-bag~34245.html

It's for storing lead weights used in sea fishing, and looked to be the right sort of size, so I went to the Edinburgh branch, had a look, and decided I could do something with it. The photo on the web site doesn't show it very clearly, so here's another view...

As noted on the web site, the bottom part is just a hard material of some sort. It looks like compressed fibrous stuff with fabric on the outside. The lid is padded.

Having recently made a dew shield from a Sports Direct yoga mat, I have plenty of mat left over, so I reckoned some could be used to add some padding to the base and to make some internal dividers. The bits were going to be glued together, and I found that Bostik Leather Glue worked really well - it seems to act a bit like superglue with the yoga mat, in that there appears to be a chemical bond rather than simple adhesion. A little test with two scraps revealed that the bond is very strong - pulling them apart resulted in the foam mat giving way rather than the bond. It also bonds pretty quickly - holds together within a few seconds, although needs some time to fully cure (was able to withstand handling for gluing more bits after 5 minutes or so). Unlike superglue, it remains flexible.

Here's the result...

The main part of the padding is a tray - there's a layer at the bottom, and the four sides come up to be bonded edge-to-edge at the corners (one of the joins is fairly clear at the bottom right). The divider bits are only glued to the main liner at the upper halves of their vertical edges, apart from the one between the two diagonals, which has a touch in the middle at the bottom. The criss-cross between the EPs was made by cutting a half-height 4mm wide slot in each part and gluing all four the half-length edges to the mating faces. The padding/divider insert isn't glued into the case, but is held in by friction, so there's always the option to change it out for a different one later.

It's nice and compact - it just fits into the supplied carry case for my Mak 127, and looks like it will sit on the accessory tray of the EQ3's tripod. The case itself seems to be well made - the zip in particular runs smoothly.

Can't complain for a tenner and about a square foot of yoga mat leftover.

 

 

[Dave In Vermont]

I've found that if you have something like a 'Padded-Case' and it's for sale and costs £10.00, and you put the name 'ASTRO' on it, like so: 'Astro Padded-Case' the price will now be: £17.50!

Keep this in mind when you need to purchase for your astronomy works. Adjust names accordingly to find whatever you need - but find it - if possible - earmarked for a non-astro purpose.

Have fun!

Dave

[Floater]

1 hour ago, Nomad Z said:

 

 

It's elegant, practical, versatile and inexpensive. What's not to like? (I believe that's the idiom ?.)

Good job!

[davyludo]

Good job, that looks like an awesome wee case and I love the dividers you've built for it 

[Azbec]

Nice work! I might have to look into getting something similar for lugging my glass around.

[Dave In Vermont]

Oh yes - how remiss on my part! That is a cool little case! I have something similar, called a "[removed word]-Pack," and it was free for renewing my membership in AARP. But yours is nicer!

Can't beat 'free' though -

Dave

 

p.s. Oh dear! A sanitary word for the place in back of one's front? Hmmm.....

[Floater]

1 hour ago, Dave In Vermont said:

Oh yes - how remiss on my part! That is a cool little case! I have something similar, called a "[removed word]-Pack," and it was free for renewing my membership in AARP. But yours is nicer!

Can't beat 'free' though -

Dave

 

p.s. Oh dear! A sanitary word for the place in back of one's front? Hmmm.....

But, but - there is one, Dave. ??

[Dave In Vermont]

6 hours ago, Floater said:

But, but - there is one, Dave. ??

Not really one that would be in general usage by marketers. To avoid such in the first place, I suppose it could just be called a: "If you took GIANT-PLIERS and twisted your waist around backwards-Pack" to ensure no mistakes would befall the item.

But I personally doubt it would a.) Sell. Or b.) Fit on the label.

Phaw!

Dave

 

Next time I'll aim for a free one that's called, simply, a 'Padded-Case.'

[Alfian]

Nice Job! Looks a really practical set up, well done.