Never say never ? bespoke wedge.

[LeeRich]

Templates went in today so hopefully steel will be laser cut and welded up next week. I will post as soon as I have parts ready for pics. ?

[LeeRich]

While I'm waiting for the laser cutting I thought I would knock up a custom decal for when the wedges assembled. Bit of free advertising for my mate as he will be doing the cutting and welding leaving me to drill, tap and paint and assemble to finish.

[LeeRich]

All steel laser cut. Let the build commence ?

[LeeRich]

Had some time this morn for some progress. I decided in the end to use 6mm steel as this will be more then strong enough for my LX90 set up. I will post some strength tests once assembled..... you may be shocked at the results ?

[LeeRich]

Stainless fixings, rubber buffers and PTFE sheet all here now. Back at metal shop on Tue to finish fabrication and then onto some photographic strength testing. Having tried a piece a few days back I am absolutely 100% confident that 6mm plate is more then up to the job but I will show this in before and after shots of my weight testing it in different orientations  ??

[LeeRich]

Bit more done on the big one this morn but as it's school holidays here I have to spend the rest of thus week with my little girl so completion will be next week now. Cheers for looking in ?

Lee.

[Davey-T]

Coming along nicely Lee, are you using just the centre bolt to hold the base ? I've got 3 bolts in the other holes on the bottom.

The top bolt is in a slot so that you can mount the scope with it in place then locate the other fixings, maybe you could do something similar with a keyhole slot.

Dave

[JamesF]

Some beautifully tidy welding work there.  I wish I could do it that well

James

[LeeRich]

2 hours ago, JamesF said:

Some beautifully tidy welding work there.  I wish I could do it that well

James

I'm old school James, I'm trained and good to go with stick, mig and gas but never tried tig so this beautiful tig job is all my mates doing at MDP fab, I will pass on your kind comment ?

Little bit of trivia for anyone...1" of tig weld on 6mm plate can hold 1 tonne of weight ? strong stuff eh. Probably over did it for this little project. Full seam weld on top and 1" on 1" off welds underneath.

[LeeRich]

3 hours ago, Davey-T said:

are you using just the centre bolt to hold the base ?

Thanks Dave. I did consider using a second plate to bolt perminantly to the scope base with a peg like you mention here but then thinking about it I decided not to for 2 reasons.

1. I will be using 2 rubber stoppers at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock to stop the base slipping while I hold a fork arm and screw up the UNC bolt with my other hand. As mine will be perminant this is really a one time operation so didn't warrant all the extra work.

2. The shorter one I'm building for a pal will adopt this same system. I thought this best as he will be putting his on and off his wedge everytime he sets up so having a base plate with a peg on it would hinder it sitting flat when not in use so as he has the 8" LX90 it's quite light to use this method each time ?

Of course it still needs a practical test run but hopefully my idea is these rubber stoppers bolted at the positions aforementioned on the angled scope plate should let the base of the LX90 just sit in place nicely leaving one hand to hold a fork arm to prevent the scope falling back and the other to hand screw the bolt in ??

Also, the LX90 has a different base to your beastie Dave and fixing 3 other bolts to it is more work that I think in this instance isn't worth it. I hope lol

[LightBucket]

31 minutes ago, LeeRich said:

Thanks Dave. I did consider using a second plate to bolt perminantly to the scope base with a peg like you mention here but then thinking about it I decided not to for 2 reasons.

1. I will be using 2 rubber stoppers at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock to stop the base slipping while I hold a fork arm and screw up the UNC bolt with my other hand. As mine will be perminant this is really a one time operation so didn't warrant all the extra work.

2. The shorter one I'm building for a pal will adopt this same system. I thought this best as he will be putting his on and off his wedge everytime he sets up so having a base plate with a peg on it would hinder it sitting flat when not in use so as he has the 8" LX90 it's quite light to use this method each time ?

Of course it still needs a practical test run but hopefully my idea is these rubber stoppers bolted at the positions aforementioned on the angled scope plate should let the base of the LX90 just sit in place nicely leaving one hand to hold a fork arm to prevent the scope falling back and the other to hand screw the bolt in ??

Also, the LX90 has a different base to your beastie Dave and fixing 3 other bolts to it is more work that I think in this instance isn't worth it. I hope lol

Yes spot on, I have the 8” LX90 and only ever used one central bolt to hold on my wedge, worked fine with no issue at all, mi Es now deforked and used on an EQ6 Pro...

[Davey-T]

7 hours ago, LightBucket said:

Yes spot on, I have the 8” LX90 and only ever used one central bolt to hold on my wedge, worked fine with no issue at all, mi Es now deforked and used on an EQ6 Pro...

Obviously it works fine with just the centre bolt to the extent that Meade didn't actually supply the other three bolts with the wedge but trying to lift the 10" onto the sloping wedge and get the centre bolt started while hanging onto it with one hand was far too dodgy for me, a bit easier to slot it into the one bolt then align the other holes.

Dave

[LeeRich]

Yer i see your point Dave but im a big strong lad and this is a one time operation i hope lol so even if i need an extra hand off the missus to fire the bolt in its

not too much of a problem, now if i was taking the 10" out instead of my 8" grab and go in to the field things may be different and your peg system would be

definitely adapted to my bigger scope

[dodgerroger]

Popped round to my go friend leerich’s house tonight to pick up my wedge. I have to say what a great job he has done with the wedges. I’m Really looking forward to trying it out. Lee would of added the pictures himself but he’s been a bad lad and has got himself banned..... Tut tut

[JamesF]

2 minutes ago, dodgerroger said:

Popped round to my go friend leerich’s house tonight to pick up my wedge. I have to say what a great job he has done with the wedges. I’m Really looking forward to trying it out. Lee would of added the pictures himself but he’s been a bad lad and has got himself banned..... Tut tut

Oh, silly chap :(  I wondered why I'd not seen him posting recently.

Funny how the wedge looks massive when it's on the bench, but stick that LX90 on top and all of a sudden it doesn't look so big at all :)

James

[dodgerroger]

I can’t thank lee enough, he has helped me out massively in my astronomy journey. A real talent for making and designing things

[dodgerroger]

Some more of lee’s handy work 

[JamesF]

Looks excellent.

James

[Sven71]

I see this on the FB astro DIY, and very interesting. Are you on that grouping dodgerroger ? I too am there and friends with Lee, great site as is this. I really want the LX90 8" but not sure about if I am needing this device? Are the wedge for pictures or viewing, many questions but much to learn. Many thanks.

Sven.

[dodgerroger]

Hi Sven, I do enjoy using my lx90. I have the 8” version and lee has the 10”. I use My scope for visual and some casual Astro photography. This wedge will hopefully let me expand into some longer exposures with my dslr. You can find lee on the cloudy nights forum these days, his name is plasma on there. Look him up I’m sure he would be more than willing to answer any questions you have in more detail than I can. As I said in a previous post Lee is no longer on this forum?

[dodgerroger]

Oh I’m not on that forum on fb but on the Astrophotography for beginners. Some of the beginners seem more like experts to though

[Sven71]

3 minutes ago, dodgerroger said:

Oh I’m not on that forum on fb but on the Astrophotography for beginners. Some of the beginners seem more like experts to though

Hey dodgerroger thanking you for reply. Yar I am browsing through here and in truth it's all a little beyond me if to be honest but a great place to learn. Good luck with your picturing. There are many groups on the fb and many expert results to follow with.

[dodgerroger]

1 hour ago, Sven71 said:

Hey dodgerroger thanking you for reply. Yar I am browsing through here and in truth it's all a little beyond me if to be honest but a great place to learn. Good luck with your picturing. There are many groups on the fb and many expert results to follow with.

Yes, I enjoy it very much but it can be a hard hobby to follow sometimes and very heavy on the wallet?. Your writing sounds like your not from England? If you don’t mind me asking

[Sven71]

Ha, yar you got me. I am from Switzerland but live here in UK for over 20 years. Funny enough I just came home from visiting family last week from there. I will try to write better ? my English is good I hope but maybe I write a little broken ? Hehe.