Are there any DIY Fork Mount Plans out there?

[skyguynca]

I am looking for a set of drawings or plans either free (naturally preferred) or purchase .

Anyone have leads on such items?

Thanks

David Mikesell

San Jose, CA

[malc-c]

It might help if you stated what size OTA you plan to use..... 

[skyguynca]

For most plans I can scale up or down. I have alot of experience in building tooling and jigs for my cnc shop, to building the machines in my cnc shop. I have also built 9 airplanes from scratch, plans only.

I can handle a fork mount.

Thanks

David

[Peter Drew]

I would have thought that with your skills and facilities you would have preferred to design your own fork.  This is what I did when making mine.   🙂

[skyguynca]

I am in the process for doing that, but not alot of time.

Plus there is not alot of info on fork mounts so finding available plans is a plus.

It is amazing that there is so little information on fork mounts

 

David Mikesell

San Jose, CA

[malc-c]

1 hour ago, skyguynca said:

For most plans I can scale up or down. I have alot of experience in building tooling and jigs for my cnc shop, to building the machines in my cnc shop. I have also built 9 airplanes from scratch, plans only.

I can handle a fork mount.

Thanks

David

Pardon me... I lack the clairvoyant skills to have known you are so talented 

[saac]

Don't know if this thread is of any use to you .    There are also lots of images on the likes of Pintrest which, while not offering plans, may give you some inspiration for reverse engineering.

Jim

 

]

[Rusted]

The problem with equatorial forks is that lateral, tine sag cannot be easily corrected.

When I were a lad.. I made a matt black, Formica laminated, plywood fork for my [entirely home made] truss 8.75" f3.8. 

Alas, it was before photography had been invented for the impoverished amateur.

The trick is to make the bends really beefy. Not your usual [very amateur] two bars stuck on a crossbar.

Here is an example of a well designed fork: Much like my own in form but mine cost peanuts:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Petr-Kubanek-2/publication/242570411/figure/fig2/AS:298531953889281@1448186972225/The-D50-telescope-on-its-equatorial-fork-mount.png

[Cosmic Geoff]

When I was a lad I made an equatorial fork mount for a 8" F7 newtonian.  I used sections of 3" diameter steel pipe screwed together with standard angle and T fittings., with roller bearings for the 'shaft'.  It was not as rigid as I hoped, IIRC.

Another suggestion is to look at the design of the Celestron CPC range of mounts and copy them.  They use an alt-azimuth turntable which can be wedge mounted. You can find out from published materials how the axes are clutched and driven.

[Seelive]

Here are a few photos of a fork mount I made for my 10" f6 Newtonian back in the mid 80's that may give you a few ideas?  The fork was constructed from welded 3/4" square 16 SWG steel tube covered in 16 SWG steel sheet (I didn't have the facilities to weld aluminium at home otherwise I would have used that instead).  The fork was supported on 14" diameter cast iron wheel (a concrete mixer wheel I found at a scrap metal yard) running on 2 rollers and a 2 1/2" steel shaft into a thrust bearing.  The base was made from 6" x 3" x 3/8" steel angle, 4" x 2" x 1/4" steel 'U' channel and a 3/4" thick steel plate (all picked up from scrap metal yards).  All the metalwork was 'machined' using a hacksaw and hand file but all lathe work was done at a weekly model engineering evening class at the local college.  It did have the hand written plans but they went with the mount when I gave it away on UKABS.

This is the mount and scope at its prime inside my observatory circa 1985:

This the RA wheel and rollers (taken when I was dismantling the mount circa 2010 prior to demolition of the observatory - everything has suffered from several years of being unused and a leaking observatory roof!)

And finally the RA shaft and thrust bearing (the white disk is the 12" diameter 360 tooth RA drive gear, also made together with an identical declination gear at the local college).

 

[skyguynca]

Thanks guys, now this is what I am talking about, Ideas and leads to getting the project going.

Great and thanks again!!!

David Mikesell

San Jose, CA