Pier and Pier Base Construction

[souls33k3r]

6 hours ago, Kev M said:

I would suggest using intermediate plates ( couple of car brake discs are popular and cheap ).

Bottom disc has holes to match pier studs, top disc has holes to match pier adaptor.

They are bolted together using threaded rods ( the length of these are easily adjustable to vary height of pier).

Also if you ever change your adaptor ( different mount ) you only have to change or re-drill top brake disc.

Plenty examples of this on forum.

Cheers Kev, that puts me in to that rats nest (not sure what else to call it) category which i'm very much trying to avoid.

5 hours ago, Bukko said:

Hi Ahmed,

Do you need access under the mounting plate to secure the mount (like a Skywatcher..) or does the mount secure directly to the top of the adapter ?

If the former, then some sort of access will be required. Either, as you say, a rats nest, or you could cut a piece out of the pipe to allow room for a nut and washer. If the latter and no access is required, then the mounting is easier.

If you take a look back on page 1 of my build, 2/3 down the page is a picture of my mount on a pier. The 3 studs are threaded into the pier top with another plate holding the adapter and the NEQ6. Once the mount is attached to the pier, I can reduce the height of the rats nest to just 3 or 4 cm, so reducing any issues with that method. This was the easiest method to do, as the pipe is 20cm bore and very heavy walled ( 8 or 9 mm thick).

Hope this helps.

Hi Gordon. No i will not need to access the mounting plate from from underneath. The mount gets secured directly on the adapter using the two pegs which sit 130mm apart. There is a peg in the center but that's more superficial as the mount only pivots around it. Now since the adapter will sit on the top of the pier plate, the issue is that the bolt which goes through the adapter will not only touch the walls but they perfectly line us with pipe diameter and adding a nut even more so. Now you also mentioned that i could cut a piece of the pipe to allow room for nut and washer which to be honest is what i've also thought of but wouldn't that expose the inner side of the tube which eventually legs to rust? Since i'm using the metal paint and doing this myself with hand, i'm not sure how to cover the entire inner area now. 

How about if i tap the holes and then rather than using the nut to tighten the bolt, i screw in the M8 bolt or whatever size it is up to 10mm inside the top plate.  

Sorry about the crude picture below but i just wanted to explain what i meant or thought what you meant as well. So the green is the pier adapter and black is the pier. The white are the bits that i would cut out at the top of the pier to accomodate the bolt and it's thread and the nut to tighten it. This now leaves a gap in the pier.

1 hour ago, spillage said:

How are you going to attach the bottom plate and will you not need an owls nest? 

Hi Mark, the bottom plate? I assume you meant the top plate. If so then this will be welded on the top of the pier and then i will (is the plan) be screwing on the pier adapter on the top of that plate. Here are a few pictures of what the pier will look like. (Please ignore the hole on the side of the pier as this will not be done)

40 minutes ago, StarDodger said:

Hmmmm, maybe should have measured those hole spacing before getting the pipe..?? Would have saved a lot of work...

Lesson learned

[spillage]

If you are going to weld the top plate on then I would cut out slits in the pier to allow room to get a nut on the bolts and a ring spanner on the nuts. 

[Bukko]

It's not the end of the world...

Good news you do not need access from inderneath, the easy thing to do is to drill the holes in the plate to attach the adapter then tap them.

Fit the adapter to the plate and screw them together. Mark the threads that protrude then cut them back a couple of mm's too short. You don't need more than 8mm of threads to secure the mount to the pier.

Then weld the top plate to the pier, remembering to take care around the North position for the mount... Does this make sense?

Gordon.

[Gina]

50 minutes ago, StarDodger said:

Hmmmm, maybe should have measured those hole spacing before getting the pipe..?? Would have saved a lot of work...

Do you have a 3D printer?

Edited July 18, 2019 by Gina

[souls33k3r]

1 minute ago, spillage said:

If you are going to weld the top plate on then I would cut out slits in the pier to allow room to get a nut on the bolts and a ring spanner on the nuts. 

Yeah that was another way i was thinking of getting it done but wasn't too sure if it was a clever way of doing this? I mean the whole purpose of painting it with metal spray is to avoid rust on the pier and assuming cutting out the slits will introduce the exact same thing that i'm trying to avoid on the inside now.

2 minutes ago, Bukko said:

It's not the end of the world...

Good news you do not need access from inderneath, the easy thing to do is to drill the holes in the plate to attach the adapter then tap them.

Fit the adapter to the plate and screw them together. Mark the threads that protrude then cut them back a couple of mm's too short. You don't need more than 8mm of threads to secure the mount to the pier.

Then weld the top plate to the pier, remembering to take care around the North position for the mount... Does this make sense?

Gordon.

That absolutely does indeed makes Gordon. This was always going to be my Plan B but i just wanted to run this past you guys first to see if there was any other way that i might be not thinking of.

1 minute ago, Gina said:

Do you have a 3D printer?

I don't but i can very very very very very very very nicely ask @angryowl for something

[Bukko]

For your Plan A... I would not worry too much about rust on the inside - there is enough metal to last for decades. So long as it doesn't fill with water that is.

Once built, it is easy to pour some paint into the pier and then roll it around, the paint will coat the inside and any excess will pour out.

Simple.

Gordon.

[souls33k3r]

22 minutes ago, Bukko said:

For your Plan A... I would not worry too much about rust on the inside - there is enough metal to last for decades. So long as it doesn't fill with water that is.

Once built, it is easy to pour some paint into the pier and then roll it around, the paint will coat the inside and any excess will pour out.

Simple.

Gordon.

Really good shout. Didn't think about that tbh. 

[spillage]

You can also use some silicone to fill the gaps.

[Xplode]

You have already found the best and easiest solution, tap holes in the top pier plate 😃
If you want to add sand or something in your pier remember to make a hole in the middle of the top plate.

[souls33k3r]

Apologise for the delay in the update (had a few hiccups along the way) but the pier is now complete. Some changes were made to the original plan which I'll explain. 

The drawings were created using fusion 360 by @angryowl who I have to give a massive shout out for doing all the hard work (one of which being bearing with much of my nonsense but I'm happy to report he is tough as nails and has survived )

The pier now does not have a hole on the side for tightening and loosening of the center bolts.

The pier now also has 4 slits on the pipe because the bolts from the pier adapter were falling perfectly in line with the pipe walls so slits had to be cut to accommodate the bolts. The slits were made slightly wider so that the nuts can be tightened using a wrench.
 

The base plate is 12mm thick and a 460mm x 460mm. The corners were rounded off because i didn't want any accidents when the kids would be playing in the garden.

The holes are 16mm and 300mm apart

The total height of the pier from the base plate to the top of the pier adapter will now be 1150mm which means the pipe will now be cut down to 1096mm. The inside of the pipe has been given 2 coats of black hammerite paint.

The center bolt as i mentioned will now act as a pivot and the top pier plate is tapped. M12 bolt is used

Here's the pier now getting it's final 2nd coat and drying

Edited August 14, 2019 by souls33k3r

[souls33k3r]

So here I guess is the final update 

Had a few hiccups, couldn't find the resin in Wickes (even though it showed 8 in stock in this particular store closer to my home), then I was waiting for my next door neighbours availability and just on the day (Saturday) when I wanted to drill the holes, my neighbour told me that he didn't have a M16 drill bit, the next one up was a M20 he had. I was at Lakeside shopping center and no way was going to be able to make it to my nearest Toolstation on time. A quick call to @angryowl and the legend he is and his dad, they managed to pick one up for me. We decided on a M18 drill bit to give the threaded rod enough clearance. The same night, my neighbour managed to find another M16 drill bit which I took off him. 

Yesterday @angryowl came around and helped me drill the holes. We started with the 10mm pilot hole and then went 16mm and then 18mm for the M16 studs. We both under estimated the time it would take to drill the holes. Part of it was due to me being complete useless and part of it being the dull drill bits. Took us a good few hours because not only we kept on cleaning the holes but also putting the pier as we drilled each hole.

Once drilled, we put the pier on the top to make sure everything still lined up and then started to pour the resin in. First hole done, screwed in the M16 threaded rod and got busy clearing the excess that came out. Went for the second hole and the nozzle dried up... Eek!!! Good thing I purchased two of the resin tubes so without delaying, @angryowl kept pouring the resin and I started to screw in the threaded rod. Cleaned up the excess that came out. Here's what it looked now. 

Time to put the pier on and see how beautifully the pier sits and looks. Picked up the pier, tried to guide the holes through the pier but the holes on the south would now not match the rods. Wonder what happened, we knew one of the holes had slightly more clearance but the rest were all fine. Picked the pier off and poor @angryowl started to make the holes wider using the HSS M16 drill bit. It took us a while and trust me when I say this that picking the pier 10 times was no fun at all but finally everything was perfect. I took the tooth brush and painted the underside of the pier that has been sitting on the concrete for a few days and the newly widened holes. Gave it a few hours before putting a couple of washers on the underside of the base plate and then slapped on the pier. The end result is

 

Edited August 27, 2019 by souls33k3r

[JamesF]

Looks excellent now it's in place.

James

[souls33k3r]

11 minutes ago, JamesF said:

Looks excellent now it's in place.

James

Cheers James. I knew this would be a summer project and will need careful thinking but I'm so glad it's all behind me. Now a new story to get the new mount balanced and get it working begins

[Alan White]

Very nice job indeed, worth all the work by all concerned.
Hate to tell you, Toolstation just round the corner to Lakeside!!
Motherwell Way RM20 3EH

[souls33k3r]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Very nice job indeed, worth all the work by all concerned.
Hate to tell you, Toolstation just round the corner to Lakeside!!
Motherwell Way RM20 3EH

Cheers Alan. 

🤦‍♂️if only I had checked but then again I wasn't driving so not sure how long it would've taken me to get there. 

[bottletopburly]

Looking good 😎👍

[StarDodger]

Yes, all looks good now, worth any hassle you had..

[souls33k3r]

Cheers guys. Yes my garden looks occupied, yes I took away some space from the kids to play, yes it was some back breaking work but I guess we all spend a little more to find the ease to carry on with this hobby but I'm sure it'll be all worth it. 

This weekend, I plan on putting the scope on and find the right balance points on the new mount. 

[Bukko]

Well done on the pier - you are right, everything seems to take longer than you expect, but there is a lot of satisfaction to be had once done.

Looking forward to the next instalment where the mount and scope is fitted...

Gordon.

[souls33k3r]

On 28/08/2019 at 22:07, Bukko said:

Well done on the pier - you are right, everything seems to take longer than you expect, but there is a lot of satisfaction to be had once done.

Looking forward to the next instalment where the mount and scope is fitted...

Gordon.

Hahaha you're absolutely right there Gordon. I knew from the get go that this will be a summer project and I wanted to be ready before winter falls upon us and now it's all done. 

The installment for the mount and scope fitted will have to wait for a little while because I need to get this balance this right with the new mount. Its a new design which I'm not used to. Took me a couple of hours tonight getting the Dec balance sorted out and now RA seems to be playing up but I'm hoping by tomorrow I should be able to fix it too (if I can find all the necessary bits)