First mount finished!

[toml42]

My dad and I have constructed an alt/az base for my first scope, the 200p skywatcher. He's an engineer, so had plenty of bits and pieces lying around in the garage, lol. the frame is constructed out of aluminium bars, and the base is some sort of plastic disc bearing against a wooden disc, quite happy with how it performs so far, pics coming soon!

[Moonshane]

looking forward to the pics. I love making things for nothing from bits I have - see http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/99448-home-made-wooden-tripod-refractor.html (my best effort so far with my father in law) and http://stargazerslounge.com/members-equipment-gallery/97962-observing-chair.html which is a bit (ha) rough and ready!

[toml42]

Pics:

A little rough and ready at the moment, but it's pretty functional

[Cornelius Varley]

That looks like a fairly unconventional design you have there Tom. If I may I would like offer a few suggestions to improve the mount.

1. The vertical extrusions are not very well supported at the top near to the telescope and look a bit on the skinny side. Personally I would have used the larger sized extrusion as the vertical members then used the smaller sections as bracing fore and aft to turn the support into a triangle. I would also have added a diagonal cross member across the front of the two supports to stop them twisting.

2. The telescope pivot point has a small contact area, conventional dobsonian mounts use larger bearing surfaces to aid smooth vertical movements of the telescope.

Peter

[toml42]

yeah, i would have preferred larger bearings and thicker verticals, these were the only bits i could scavenge at the time, hopefully i'll be ale to upgrade over time as more leftovers become available, lol

[Cornelius Varley]

You could stiffen the mount by adding plywood/mdf triangular or rectanglur sides to the verticles and then fill-in between with more plywood/mdf.

Peter