Advice on home made pier

[Neo_uk]

Hi,

I have aquired some aluminium ducting around 10 ft long and 8" round would this make a good pier ?. Or would it be too wide to mount a heq5 pro mount on i.e would the counter weight bar catch on the tubing .......Any body know ?

many thanks Chris.

[beamish]

Should be fine with tit.

[Psychobilly]

Bury a few feet of it in a concrete filled hole, fill it with concrete to ground level and then the rest with sand maybe?

[SteveP]

Chris

I assume when you say '8" round", you mean 8" diameter. If so, it will be ideal so long as the alu walls are thick enough for the bending force exerted by your scope & weights.

In addition to what Psycho says, have a think about how you will attach the EQ5 head to the mount (you will need some sort of adapter plate) and how you will level the top - you may be able to get away with this depending on what you intend to use your scope for

Good luck

Steve

[Psychobilly]

A nice hardwood Cap fitted to the tube and one of Gary's adaptor plates maybe...

Peter... (sorry Psycho)

[gary1968]

Hi Chris,

If you are still interested in one of my pier tops I am 'trying' to get a hold of steel for the job, let me know mate.

As for the pier, as said above, dig a 2 foot cube hole then bury 2 of the pier in the ground an fill the hole to groun level with concrete. You then will have to fill the tube with concrete if yo want to use one of my pier tops mate.

Hope that helps,

Gary

[Neo_uk]

Thanks for all the replies !

i was thinking about placing a dinner plate or something similar into the top and using a round spirit level to get the tube level ?.

and yes gary would still like one of your pier tops m8 !.

many thanks again chris

[michaelmorris]

I'd second the advice about filling the whole thing with concrete, not just the base. A few things I'd like to add.

1) You should put some reinforcing rods in the pier.

2) Remember that if you pour the concrete into the pier when the base is still sloppy, all that may happen is that the concrete in the pier will sag down and flow into the base, which will then rise! Depending on how sloppy the mix is, I'd leave the base an hour or two before pouring the concrete inot the pier. However, you should pour the concrete in to the pier whilst the concrete in the base is quite wet else you risk the two not bonding together properly. This could lead to real problems later with the upper part moving independently of the base.

3) You will probably be mixing up to a tonne of concrete - hire a small cement mixer it's surprisingly cheap and makes life so much easier.

4) One tonnes of concrete weighs a lot! Make sure your pier tube is really well braced to prevent it moving.

5) Embed you securing bolts in the concrete at the top of the pier immediately after the pour so that they become properly bonded into the concrete firmly.

You can see how I constructed my pier on my observatory web site (www.almiraobservatory.co.uk) Go to the link to Construction and go to page 3.

I hope this helps

[blinky]

That sounds exactly like what I have - see here http://stargazerslounge.com/members-equipment-gallery/82181-new-scope-8-sct.html

[Psychobilly]

Doesn't one tonne of concrete weigh one tonne...? Which I suppose is a lot...