Tripod Resurrection

[lenscap]

I do most of my observing with a 200p/EQ5 but am looking to add something a bit more portable in case we are ever allowed out of our houses again. 😉  So when I found a second-hand kit including an interesting 6" scope, an old but pristine EQ3-2 mount & a broken EQ3-2 tripod, locally for very little money, I grabbed it.

The tripod had none of the scuffs you would expect from normal use but two of the plastic leg-connectors and two sections of the leg-spreader had been shattered as if someone had used them for Karate practice!

 

Having read much on SGL about the near legendary properties of a certain steel-reinforced epoxy, it looks like this is a job for  🎺🎺 JBWeld.

Glued, clamped and left to cure for a couple of days at room temperature. Then excess adhesive filed off & sanded.

Now I reckon the maximum load I will put on this tripod (mount, scope & counterweights) will be about 15kg.

Best put a bit more on for the load test.

Thats 45 kg!

No signs of distress to the repairs so I reckon that's job done.

For JBWeld the legend continues. 😀   (Other brands of two-pack epoxy are available.) Now if only the skies would clear.

[Robindonne]

Scary. 😬

[DaveL59]

Nice neat job 🙂 

I think given the optics that would be balancing on this I'd have used some glass/carbon fibre to reinforce the joins, by filling the voids in the moulding rather than rely on the thin edge holding up under load. Then again I guess it is mostly under compression load for the leg joint and once the tripod is set in place the prongs on the feet should reduce the tension loading on the spreader arms some. Hope it works well tho and looks like reinforcing can always be tried in repair-II if that's ever needed.