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How much should I pay for dovetail bar for a DIY project?


Giles_B

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Excuse the stupid question, but is dovetail bar the same all over? I'm astounded that it can vary in price so much. Dovetail bar seems to range from just over a tenner for something generic, to £70 or more for something exotic. Am I okay getting cheap bar or is the cheap stuff is cheap for a reason... Has anyone advice or cautionary tales?

If it's helpful, the bar only needs to hold about 600g in weight - I'm thinking about moving up and on from my Celestron Starsense Explorer 130az, Inspired by descriptions on this forum and elsewhere I'm looking for dovetail bar to help fashion something to attach the Starsense phone dock to a setup (not sure what scope, still thinking about my options there, so this is kind of a 'proof of concept stage'!).

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9 hours ago, Giles_B said:

the bar only needs to hold about 600g in weight

In that case why not make one from wood?

If you know someone with a table saw they can cut the angles correctly and you can have the bar whatever length you desire. Plus mounting holes (untapped) where ever you please.

If you worry that it will get indentations from fixing screws being too tight, put some sheet metal sides on it. Or use a hardwood such as oak.

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11 hours ago, Giles_B said:

Excuse the stupid question, but is dovetail bar the same all over? I'm astounded that it can vary in price so much. Dovetail bar seems to range from just over a tenner for something generic, to £70 or more for something exotic. Am I okay getting cheap bar or is the cheap stuff is cheap for a reason... Has anyone advice or cautionary tales?

If it's helpful, the bar only needs to hold about 600g in weight - I'm thinking about moving up and on from my Celestron Starsense Explorer 130az, Inspired by descriptions on this forum and elsewhere I'm looking for dovetail bar to help fashion something to attach the Starsense phone dock to a setup (not sure what scope, still thinking about my options there, so this is kind of a 'proof of concept stage'!).

I bought the £15 Astro Essentials dovetail to hold a Canon 300mm F4, ASI533 and lens adaptor - about 2kg in weight. No issues and the dovetail has a 'safety stop' bolt should the dovetail slip in the mount and the right mounting holes to attach to the lens. A quick look on Amazon and you don't seem to be able to buy anything cheaper - even the Svbony 210mm dovetail costs more than the Astro Essentials equivalent. If you are not able to tap extra holes into the dovetail, then probably flexibility of mounting holes in the dovetail is more important that the cost.

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2 hours ago, pete_l said:

In that case why not make one from wood?

If you know someone with a table saw they can cut the angles correctly and you can have the bar whatever length you desire. Plus mounting holes (untapped) where ever you please.

If you worry that it will get indentations from fixing screws being too tight, put some sheet metal sides on it. Or use a hardwood such as oak.

Thank you, but if you saw my standard of carpentry you'd think twice about the advice. If I can get away with £15 for a bar, that will save a lot of grief!

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yeh get the cheapest you can from ebay - it's a bit of aluminium. not unobtainium.

And for top bars (attached to rings for stuff), I just bought a 40mm bit of ali bar. cut it to size, drill as required. simples.

Also, stating the obvious maybe, but it's amazing how many folk seem to buy fancy bars so the bolts fit.*. jeez - buy a drill. the holes on most bars are a hellish combination of metric and imperial usually anyway - never where you need em. 👍

stu

*or even worse force metric bolts into imperial threads of visa versa!🤨

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