Finished pier.

[simon84]

I decided a little while back to build a pier and seeing as the Sky at Night magazine did an article on a fairly cheap DIY pier I thought I'd give it a go.

Here's my shopping list of everything I bought or borrowed:D:

1no 3m of 160mm diameter waste pipe

1no 2m steel lintel

6no bags of ready mix concrete

1no 12mm thick 200mm diameter mild steel plate

3no 25mm x 25mm x 50mm mild steel blocks

1no length of stainless steel m12 studding

5no stainless steel m12 nuts

4no stainless steel chrome dome nuts

9no stainless steel washers

1no 4" m10 stainless steel studding

2no m10 stainless steel nuts and washers

1no m10 stainless steel chrome dome nut

Total cost for everything I bought came in at about £60 but if you were to buy everything then you'd probably be looking at nearer the £100 mark.

Fairly straight forward, the only part that took any real work was drilling the holes in the plate but that went fairly well until the drill nearly took my wrist off.

Here are some pics of the finished project, there are some things I would like to improve down the road a bit but for now its rock solid and I cant wait to start imaging with it.

The only warning I can give about this is when you get to sorting out the bolt to hold the mount to the pier head is to only wind the same amount of stud into the mount as the bolt that you would use with the tripod as if you go to far the bolt will interfere with the alt bolts and you will end up with one like mine.

Time for some replacement stainless ones I thinks.

[simon84]

Sorry about the pictures, looks like I shrunk them too much. Here's a link to the pics on photobox if you want to see them full size.

Pier-photos.

[AndyH]

Nice one Sly.

A fine job.

Andy.

[merlinxlm]

Very nice. Good idea with mounting the camera onto a separate mounting plate, should get some nice wide angle shots. Will you be guiding with this set up?

[simon84]

Thanks, was advised by someone here that it was worth trying.

I plan to guide with this but not at the moment.

I promised myself I'd get some reasonable results unguided before I start buying a guide scope.

[gary1968]

Nice job there Sly, you wont be disappointed with it mate. A worth while effort IMO.

Gary

[simon84]

Cheers chaps for the comments.

Typical isnt it, finish building pier, clouds and rain.

Photograph pier and find out I've got a bent bolt, clear skies.

[Daz1969]

Nice one dude!

Have been following your progress with great interest - infact you were the inspiration for me to give it a go myself!

With the advise of Gaz1968 and some donated plate from Phil Fargaze iam about to begin mine:)

Enjoy

Clear Skies

Daz.

[simon84]

Wow, dont think I've ever inspired anyone before.

Glad you like it.

Thanks.

[joselin]

Good job Sly.

How much of the pipe is below ground and how much is above ?

[simon84]

Thanks Joselin, there is 1100mm above ground and 650mm below ground. The hole it went into was 600mm deep which gave me 50mm to hammer into the clay to just hold it up as I filled the hole.

[Space Bat]

A job well done chap

Chris

[simon84]

Cheers Chris. I'm very pleased with it.

[johnrt]

Sly, I am just about to build something very similar. Where did you get your 160mm pipe from? I can only find 110mm in merchants where I live.

You also say 6 bags of ready mix concrete, what size bags were they? I'm trying to work out how much I'll need and the best way to order it.

Cheers

John

[simon84]

Hello John,

I struggled to find the 160mm stuff aswell. Saw loads on a few building sites but never went and asked if they had some I could have so bought a lenth on ebay, here is the link, 160mm X 3mtr Plastic Drainage Pipe on eBay (end time 02-May-10 08:31:23 BST)

Its very good stuff, it has a 4mm wall thickness and if you include the delivery charge its still £8 cheaper than I could find it at a builders merchant.

As for the ready mix concrete I got them from Homebase, not sure on the size, 15kg maybe, but I did use some hardcore aswell.

I have some of the 160mm pipe left, let me know how much you need and I'll pop out and measure mine, I'm in Basildon if your near by.

I managed to get 6 bags of concrete in the back of my car, had a couple in the rear footwells and the rest in the boot. Seemed to be ok.

HTH and good luck. I had great fun.

[lukebl]

Where did you get your 160mm pipe from?

I've just made a pier of similar design (pictures to be posted soon), and I got my 160mm pipe over the counter from Toolstation for just under £20. There should be a branch somewhere near you.

[Psychobilly]

Nicley done

A pier is a very worthwhile "investment"

Peter...

[simon84]

Thanks Peter,

Much appreciated. So glad I decided to do it. It has made life alot easier, even though I have to take it apart when I'm done the setup time is only a few minutes.