Home made mount for Bresser 10" Dobsonian

[Astronomist]

Hi everyone

Here's some pics of the new rockerbox I've been building for my 10" Dob. The original particle board base has served me well for a while now, however it is starting to fall apart and go rotten. I managed to get hold of two sheets of 1" beech faced ply for free recently, as I figured it would make a good rockerbox for my scope.

The design is heavily influenced by @Moonshane's build, linked here: Home made Dobsonian Base. - DIY Astronomer - Stargazers Lounge

The new base is very stiff, as well as being significantly lighter than the original. I have reused the azimuth bearing ring and pads from the old base, in addition to the aluminim bushing thingys around the centre bolt. The eyepiece tray has also been retained, albeit in a more convenient position. 

All I need to do now is stuff up the gaps left by my shoddy carpentry skills with filler, and give it a few coats of varnish, or else it may end up just like the old one quite shortly. 😨

 

clear skies!

 

 

 

Edited April 9 by Astronomist

[saac]

Nice work, looks to be solid.  

Jim 

[Stu]

Very nice. I remember Moonshane’s thread, he built some excellent stuff 👍

[Alan White]

That's a nice job, good on you. 👍

I need to build a base like this for my 6" Newtonians and as a challenge, 
for me it will be a challenge as Wood Butchery is my level.

[Piero]

Well done! It looks better than the original 👍

[Saganite]

Great job Harry, last forever now ...

When it is all varnished it will look awesome, so show us the finished product please.

Edited April 10 by Saganite

[Rob]

Looks great. Always like to see some good Astro DIY.. seems less these days!

[Astronomist]

Thanks for your kind words everyone, I was able to test the new mount last night (thankfully the grass was dry) and I can confirm it works very well, dampening time after a nudge is pretty much halved from the original version, and the square cut outs make it much easier to lift the scope in one piece when dodging trees. Unfortunately there is a little excess stiction on the AZ bearing, which I will attempt to sort out today.

12 hours ago, Alan White said:

Wood Butchery is my level.

Likewise...  look closely at the pictures if you don't believe me. An electric sander and some filler can cover up almost anything.🤣

[Astronomist]

Here is the finished article, after 3 coats of Everbuild clear satin varnish. The varnish has darkened the wood a little, which I am quite pleased about, and hopefully should keep the mount safe from the elements for years to come.

 

 

I also made a matching Telrad finder shoe adapter thing with some offcuts, as my old one (visible in the picture in the first post of this topic) was a bit loose fitting and didn't always stay put.

 

 

clear skies!

 

Edited April 12 by Astronomist

[Giles_B]

Wow that looks great!