Explorer 300p Dob base

[Magnum]

I recently purchased a used Explorer 300p newt, and decided to turn it into a Dob. I was just about to start making the base when a friend of mine said he had a Lightbridge base from a 10" brand new in a box, it turns out it was a review unit for sky at night magazine and for whatever reason had been thrown into a skip. All the main parts were in the box except for the screws and fixings, so I was ready to go.

I decided to make very large altitude bearings as I had read that the larger the bearing the smoother the motion, so I got my friend to cut 2 x 17" discs out of marine ply, which I then laminated with ebony star formica. Next I hat to reshape the tops of base walls to accept the new bearings.

Its now pretty much complete, I just need to by a nice focuser for it hopefully their will be some bargains at astrofest.

Lee

[brantuk]

Looks wierd but fabulous

[Magnum]

Cheers LOL

I cant wait to try it out at our clubs observing nights and at kelling, but now I just need to buy a bigger car to get it there.

[brantuk]

I'll be at Kelling so I'll look out for you 'n' the beast

[Magnum]

Ok sounds good.

[scogyrd]

I've been planning on making a new base for my dob and just wondered how you fitted the altitude bearings to the tube rings. Are they bolted straight onto the plywood or are you using the dovetail bars in the first pic?

It looks good btw.

[Magnum]

I was going to bolt to the dovetails but the base was not wide enough for tis to work, so I had to bolt them directly to the tube rings, that was one of the reasons I made the bearings 17" diameter. I used large plate washers to stop the bolts damaging the plywood.

Lee