Pier construction suggestions please

[mckinnell]

Hi, Can the forum members who have or, are in actual build in respects of pier's re, permanent locating of scopes, give me any/all idea's of the ways a person could actually start to make a pier as, as i have stated many times, the ready mae piers one can purchase are very definitely way way over priced, true, they are of metal coated construction etc etc etc, myself having little money to spare, will be one of the vast many who go about making their own style of pier; telegraph poles, the discarded GPO style, i have already thrown out as that, the few sites that offer these posts are way to far away from Rugby, my home town and carriage via a courier has shown to be obscenely expensive  and thus, not eligible for contemplating.

 

I am hoping for a goodly amount for me to peruse over, as, the start will be a little way off at the moment so, this is where i can do the homework and get it correct so to speak, thus, giving me a good start, many thanks guys;  BTW, if any of you have good ebay uk addresses for any of the materials you might suggest, i would be grateful for as, here in Rugby we are alas, sorely lacking in outlets that stock much in the way of practical materials, i know, i spent a weekend checking out the few companies we have and some were true plumbers and builders merchants, Rugby is the pit from beyond..............YUCKKKKKKKKKK.    lol lol lol..........

 

                                                                                       My very best regards to all,             Tom.

[Gina]

I used reinforced concrete poured into a cardboard tube at the same time as I poured the block.  Probably about the cheapest but very permanent.

[wxsatuser]

All I did was dig a half metre square hole, rammed in some cut off water pipe in each corner.
In the centre of the hole I dug a smaller hole that could take a length of industrial drain pipe,the big brown stuff 8inch dia.
Set the drain pipe in the smaller hole with Postcrete, as soon as the Postcrete went off I filled hole and pipe with bags of ready mix concrete.

Before I did this I bought two round 10mm thick steel blanks of ebay and drilled 4 holes to accept 16mm
studding about 500mm in length. This blank and studding was pushed into the pipe of wet concrete.
A second blank sits on more studding about 5inches above the first.

Edited March 17, 2019 by wxsatuser

[JamesF]

I am in the process of constructing "Todmorden" piers in my observatory.  Concrete blocks bolted and glued end-to-end and (in my case) bolted and glued to a concrete cube in the ground about 50cm on a side.  My intention is to clad them in ply as they'll be inside.  Peter Drew has a number that are just fixed to concrete slabs on the ground outdoors.  If you search the forums for "Todmorden pier" you'll find a few examples.

Really cheap (I paid about £3.50 each for the blocks and you may only need a couple), very stable and not too hard to remove should you need to.

James

[wxsatuser]

All the materials I got off ebay except the concrete which was from local Wickes.

The pipe was 3metres long from Plastic Express on ebay.

[pete_l]

7 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Concrete blocks bolted and glued end-to-end and (in my case) bolted and glued to a concrete cube in the ground

I built something like this a few years ago.
Before you start, make sure that the blocks aren't too wide. I used standard 40 x 20 x 20 blocks. With a small GEM on top, the blocks were too wide to allow a telescope to move unrestricted. There were positions when the OTA would bang into the corners of the blocks.

[mckinnell]

Thanks for the replies up to now, Plastic Express on ebay, had a look at this site but, alas, i am rather baffled as to what or where i am supposed to navigate to in respect of tubes, i would very much like if i went this way to get a tube at around 10" dia by 6ft in length, the 6ft would give me plenty of leaway in cutting, and, also a lot to go in the ground, but with the differing sites advertised on the net re ebay uk, i find it very daunting as to understand their size and lengths etc etc when trying to get the type of tube i really want to get, if you get my drift ok !! ????, sorry if i am not to good at putting over what i am trying to find, thinking a thing and then putting down in typing i find quite a world apart well for me at any rates.........

 

                                                          Best regards to all, keep the ideas coming and i hopefully will achieve my pier!!!

 

                                                                                             many thanks to all,          Tom.........

 

PS       Notify me of replies ticked on but STILL, not working at giving notification, wonder why ???????...............are well.

[Peter Drew]

What telescope are you going to use and is the pier to be a permanent one?, from your appraisal of Rugby it appears you might want to move in the future.    ?

[laser_jock99]

5 hours ago, mckinnell said:

here in Rugby we are alas, sorely lacking in outlets that stock much in the way of practical materials, i know, i spent a weekend checking out the few companies we have and some were true plumbers and builders merchants, Rugby is the pit from beyond..............YUCKKKKKKKKKK.    lol lol lol..........

This company in Rugby made both my steel tube piers from stock lengths of tube

https://www.charleswatts.co.uk/

The price was much less than some of the comercial piers availble. I also bought a of lot the hardware (e.g. 1m long M18 threaded bar to sink into the concrete) for my obsy project here.

Another Rugby company I found usefull for the concreting operations at my observatory was Lemon Groundworks- good for re-bar etc.

https://www.lemon-gs.co.uk/contacts

 

My steel tube pier bolted to a block of concrete.

Edited March 17, 2019 by laser_jock99

[mckinnell]

Hi Peter, yes it would be nice to move, like over to East Anglia, but at my wife and i , our respective ages and health, the tremoil would be way to much; my scope is as follows,    Sky Watcher 300PDS on NEQ6PRO goto syncscan and tripod, but, want it to be a static stay where it is as, i do not have any transport now a days and really want it to stay where it gets put, hence, an observatory and pier, in Rugby we have an Travis Perkins and a Homebase Jewsons and some others as like, but when you ask for a given tube type, length, diameter, you get, "ERrr, sorry mate, not here you won't, mmmmmm, perhaps another outlet" it is really MOST depressing to say the least.........

 

""company in Rugby made both my steel tube piers from stock lengths of tube"" 

 BTW, it would be a bit of a push money wise i think for me, any rate, i tried to get some assistance from the local society in Rugby, told me they are not allowed to help !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and i won't join a group to part with money till they show their worth, this would of been the correct and timely point to do so on their part , could not get to their venue anyway, to far to travel etc etc etc, but then, that's Rugby for you !!!!!!!!!!!

 

                                                                                              Best regards to all,          Tom..

[Gina]

I used to live in Rugby - well just outside the town around two thirds of the way to Hillmorton.

Edited March 17, 2019 by Gina

[JamesF]

Just now, Gina said:

I used to live in Rugby - well just outside the town around two thirds of the way to Hillmorton.

Well, if we're into coincidences, so did I :)  I don't remember it though.  We moved when I was still very young, perhaps even before my first birthday.  My dad was at college there, though he tells me the college is now a housing estate or something similar.

James

[Gina]

Amazing coincidences...  I was there between the ages of about 7 and 17.

[mckinnell]

The old college is now a new building called technology drive, many students there in but, in Rugby we have a strange thing of having twice as many shops close to house builds, i have lived in Rugby for 45 years, no time off for good behavior, ha ha ha!!!, still, that goes no ways to sorting out my pier problems.

                                                                              My very best regards to all,            Tom.

 

PS.   Hillmorton radio masts are now all gone, the Kent is now built on yet another housing project and, they are talking of putting a loop on the as called OLD ROAD rail speak, on the main LMSR route and make a new station for this new housing area Gina, you would be horrified at the changes, so upsetting.....Tom.

  

Edited March 17, 2019 by mckinnell

[Gina]

I often think it doesn't do to go back to where you used to live.  Many places you knew well, gone and replaced by housing estates or industrial works.  We were swamped by the radio waves from the Hillmorton transmitting station.  The call sign GBR could be heard on a rusty bedstead - "_ _ .  _ ...  ._." is embossed in my brain forever!!  Some years ago I took a friend to see where I had been born and spent my first nearly 7 years.  Where we used to play, out the back gate of our garden on the edge of a town, Wotton-Under-Edge, in Gloucestershire, had been completely built over with a housing estate and the Tabernacle (chapel) where my grandfather was buried, is now an auction house and sometimes appears in antiques programmes on TV.

Edited March 18, 2019 by Gina

[wxsatuser]

19 hours ago, mckinnell said:

Thanks for the replies up to now, Plastic Express on ebay, had a look at this site but, alas, i am rather baffled as to what or where i am supposed to navigate to in respect of tubes, i would very much like if i went this way to get a tube at around 10" dia by 6ft in length, the 6ft would give me plenty of leaway in cutting, and, also a lot to go in the ground, but with the differing sites advertised on the net re ebay uk, i find it very daunting as to understand their size and lengths etc etc when trying to get the type of tube i really want to get, if you get my drift ok !! ????, sorry if i am not to good at putting over what i am trying to find, thinking a thing and then putting down in typing i find quite a world apart well for me at any rates.........

 

                                                          Best regards to all, keep the ideas coming and i hopefully will achieve my pier!!!

 

                                                                                             many thanks to all,          Tom.........

 

PS       Notify me of replies ticked on but STILL, not working at giving notification, wonder why ???????...............are well.

Most of the sewage pipe comes in 3 or 6metres.

Plastic express seem not to have anything apart from 110mm.

Do a search others supply this type of pipe.

[mckinnell]

Hi all, many thanks for the great replies and personel off subject ones ha ha ha !!; i don't know if its me or my age but, i really DO get confused with ebay uk when i am looking for certain items, tube of a plastic, OR, mild steel or Aluminum i put the needed sizes, lengthy and OS diameter and give it a 3mm wall thickness, klick and i then get so many A  N  OTHERS in the returns, i get so confused and very agitated because they or I just can not decipher which i am looking at/for, most irritating indeed!!!!! ; looked a i chaps build, it was mild steel and 1500mm length and about 200mm round O/S dia with 3mm thick wall, so this is what and where i get stuck, as such, i'll put it down to old age lol lol lol!!!!!.

 

                                                                   AS always people, best regards and thanks,         Tom.

 

 

[Gina]

I too find the search engines in ebay and Amazon amazingly inept at finding what I want - a list of totally unrelated items generally ensues!!  It sometimes seems to need imaginative thinking to come up with a search phrase that comes anywhere near!

[Skipper Billy]

I used a piece of high pressure thick walled steam pipe off a decommissioned submarine - simple flange welded onto each end.

Cost was zero.

£20  bung to the welder.

Fastened down to the concrete block with M14 studs epoxied into holes drilled in the concrete.

Top end M14 bolts welded to the steel plate that pass through the top flange giving some adjustment.

If we move house it can be removed and the studs cut flush with the concrete.

Photos here - https://sites.google.com/view/astro-imaging/micro-observatory

[mckinnell]

Cor Billy, been a bit worrying if the tube you got happened to have a detonator at the end, mmmmmmmmmm, i think these tubes are called TORPEDOES !!!! he he he he!!!!!!!!!!!!.....................

 

                                                                     Being silly i am, regards matey,       Tom........

[Jkulin]

If it helps I can give you the plans for my pier that a mate designed for me: -

[mckinnell]

JKulins, thanks my friend, i would be most happy to receive a copy; can i just point out to all assembled here, i can not get any one due to cost to have any metal tubing welded etc, the only pro to this is that, i would use a metal tube of 8/10" external dimension and, approximately 5/6 ft in length so as to give a very good depth when sinking it into the excavation ready for concreting work, hope this gives a good reason as to why i won't be envisioning welding work in total, all screws and bolts and the like!.

 

                                                                                         Grateful thanks and regards to all,         Tom.

[bottletopburly]

ask at the local college im sure the trainee welders will do the job 

[Jkulin]

4 hours ago, mckinnell said:

JKulins, thanks my friend, i would be most happy to receive a copy; can i just point out to all assembled here, i can not get any one due to cost to have any metal tubing welded etc, the only pro to this is that, i would use a metal tube of 8/10" external dimension and, approximately 5/6 ft in length so as to give a very good depth when sinking it into the excavation ready for concreting work, hope this gives a good reason as to why i won't be envisioning welding work in total, all screws and bolts and the like!.

 

                                                                                         Grateful thanks and regards to all,         Tom.

Just PM'd them to you Tom,

[mckinnell]

John, thanks mate, just sent you thanks in PM,

 

                                         Regards,              Tom.