jdownie
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/24/06
Posts: 721
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Hello,
Discmount has been granted a patent on its alt-az mount, so the drawings are available online. As far as I can see, the mount uses a fixed aluminum disc, with a teflon(?) disc affixed to it. A second, rotating aluminum disc is held against the teflon disc with an adjustable tensioner. Has anyone built a mount using this sort of design?
John
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ATM project - a terrible waste of good Pyrex.
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Chriske
Kijkerbouw Urania
Reged: 08/15/04
Posts: 1937
Loc: Boechout, Belgium
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Could we have a URL to that mount.
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Chris
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jdownie
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/24/06
Posts: 721
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Bien sur...
http://www.discmounts.com/
http://discmounts.com/gallerys/DM6_GALLERY/index.html
John
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ATM project - a terrible waste of good Pyrex.
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Trondur
member
Reged: 03/09/07
Posts: 61
Loc: Cumberland County, Maine USA
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I've been using something like it for the past year. I got the idea from John Hills of NZ, here on Cloudy Nights. He built one out of aluminum.
Mine's a "proof of concept" version made of plywood. I used a Walmart $2.99 cutting board instead of Teflon.
I have another plywood disc sandwiched between the cutting board disc and the disc that's permanently attached to the mount. That disc has a 12" pan handle attached to it. Between the pan handle disc and the mount disc I have a disc of thin rubber gasket material.
Setting it up this way allows me to bump the scope to fine adjust the altitude, and slew it with the handle. It also allows me to keep the handle in a comfortable position, depending upon the scopes altitude.
It's not finished, but I'll try to get some "in process photos" on here this weekend.
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Terry
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60mm f11 Sears 2419 Refractor on Homemade Alt-Az Mount
80mm f11 Surplus Shed Refractor on Homemade Alt-Az Mount (Usable, but still Under Construction)
100mm f6 Orion Refractor on modified Majestic mount and tripod
114mm f9 Tasco Reflector on EQ-1 mount (Apparently, a rare Tasco, because it seems OK)
7x50 Swift Swiftfocus Binoculars
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Wes James
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/12/06
Posts: 2418
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Any links to the patent drawings? This type of mount seems so basic as to almost defy rights to a patent. Universal Astronomics bino mounts use the same principle- a teflon washer between two discs- with a nut to control tension, and I utilized it in my heavy-duty binocular P-mount head for elevation movement. Seems DiscMount just put two together- one for Az, one for El- in a small package.
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Wes
Atlantic Beach, FL
Some bino’s from Miyauchi 5x32 Binon's up through Garrett 20x110 Signature's,
Some telescopes from a Stellarvue 80mm NHNG up through a couple of 8” reflectors…
And a wonderful 4.25" Delmarva Shiefspiegler!
Some good friends, made here on C/N.
Oh- several cats and a wonderful wife!
Anyone want a cat???? :-O
"When your work speaks for itself- Don't Interrupt" -Gamble Rogers
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Wes James
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/12/06
Posts: 2418
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...and the finished product-
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jdownie
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/24/06
Posts: 721
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Quote:
Any links to the patent drawings? This type of mount seems so basic as to almost defy rights to a patent. Universal Astronomics bino mounts use the same principle- a teflon washer between two discs- with a nut to control tension, and I utilized it in my heavy-duty binocular P-mount head for elevation movement. Seems DiscMount just put two together- one for Az, one for El- in a small package.
Here is a link - you have to sign up to see the drawings, however.
Discmount Patent
The patent includes, among other things, the tensioning mechanism as well as the ability to add encoders.
John
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ATM project - a terrible waste of good Pyrex.
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Almagne
member
Reged: 02/25/08
Posts: 28
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I've built a 6" disc mount type Alt-Az mount for a 6" Antares refractor. The discs are made from plywood. I use Teflon pads against diamond star Formica. The discs are tensioned with Belleville spring washers. This arrangement is different from Teflon against aluminum, and it is slightly too slippery for the application. The scope has to be rebalanced a few time during the night depending on the eyepiece weight. Increasing the tension does not increase the stiction enough to eliminate the need to rebalance. It has been increased to about 350# but it did not solve the problem.
The design is good in terms of damping time. It is a about 1.5 second time for the scope with a set of Denk binoviewers (25 pounds.)
I was actually going to replace the Teflon with UHMW Polyethylene today and see if it the friction increases a bit to eliminate the rebalancing issue. It would be interesting if anyone can comment on how the teflon/aluminium combination works. As it currently stands, though, the teflon/diamond star is usable.
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John Hill
member
Reged: 05/06/07
Posts: 94
Loc: New Zealand
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Quote:
I've been using something like it for the past year. I got the idea from John Hills of NZ, here on Cloudy Nights. He built one out of aluminum.
Someone got a patent for that? 
Here is the picture of my effort 
Edited by John Hill (08/24/08 12:02 AM)
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Chriske
Kijkerbouw Urania
Reged: 08/15/04
Posts: 1937
Loc: Boechout, Belgium
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Build one to about 25 years ago. I've mounted it on top of a small boxmount. Maybe I got a picture somewere in a drawer....
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Chris
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Chriske
Kijkerbouw Urania
Reged: 08/15/04
Posts: 1937
Loc: Boechout, Belgium
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In the ad there was a picture showing two of these mounts on top of each other. A smaller on was sitting on top of a larger mount.
Made me thinking... 
Buy two of these mounts and install them like in the ad on top of each other. Use the lower mount to adjust the top mount's main axis(Az.) to polaris, add a tracking motor to the RA axis (you just created) and you got yourself a nice equatorial mount with an adjustable polaraxis.... 
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Chris
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Gary Fuchs
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/22/06
Posts: 612
Loc: Easton, PA, USA
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Wes wrote Quote:
This type of mount seems so basic as to almost defy rights to a patent.
I was wondering the same thing.
The details can also be viewed here.
Gary
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gatorengineer
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/28/05
Posts: 725
Loc: Hellertown, PA
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Quick someone patent the GEM design....... Patent would never stand due to the amount of prior art. Waste of tax payers dollars...
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16" & 20" Dobs
4" Triplet Refractor
10" LX200R OTA
8"F20 Dall Kirkham
12.5" F3.5 Newt
CGE
Lots of binos---
Nikon 8x30, 10x35, Prostars,10W/18 x 70 astrolux; 10x50 Fujis. Collectors items 12x60 BLC, 10x80 Flaks, Gas Masks, US Mark 28, 30, 41, 43's
Telescopes Past - 8" Stf Mak, C8, Meade LX10-10", SN8, TAL150K, Orion 150MC, Jason 60mm refractor, ATM 6" F8, WO 110FLT, 92mm Off Axis Newt, Nikon 20x120 bino's, 15x110 Boarderguards, Kuhne Flaks
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Wes James
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/12/06
Posts: 2418
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John-
Nice looking mount... could you show a picture of the other side- with the drive details?
Wes
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John Hill
member
Reged: 05/06/07
Posts: 94
Loc: New Zealand
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Hi Wes, the mount is described in topic "My Alt Az mount" in this, the ATM,Optics and DIY forum.
Click here.
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Wes James
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/12/06
Posts: 2418
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John-
Amazing! I love it. Yes, I have restrung radio dials... no fun!
Wes
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Tom Andrews
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/25/07
Posts: 600
Loc: Homebase - Albuquerque, NM; c...
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Here's my homemade version:
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Tom
The Secret To Life:
Focus on what you have, not on what you don't;
Focus on what you can do, not on what you can't.
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Tom Andrews
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/25/07
Posts: 600
Loc: Homebase - Albuquerque, NM; c...
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Second view:
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Tom
The Secret To Life:
Focus on what you have, not on what you don't;
Focus on what you can do, not on what you can't.
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Tom Andrews
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/25/07
Posts: 600
Loc: Homebase - Albuquerque, NM; c...
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Third view:
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Tom
The Secret To Life:
Focus on what you have, not on what you don't;
Focus on what you can do, not on what you can't.
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Mr. Bill
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/09/05
Posts: 2740
Loc: Just passing through.....
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Well this is irony writ on a large scale....
I posted pictures a year ago on a thread on CN of a homemade mount that was locked and deleted by Tom Trusock after complaints by Tom Peters (Diskmount) that I was infringing on his patent which was still pending.
Gosh, I built it out of $10 worth of oak and Teflon and some parts off my G11 eq mount.
I bet it works as good as his $1200 mount....in fact, I'll bet its better, but then I guess we'll never know as I am banned from showing it on this forum.
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10x50 Fujinon FMT-SX binos
15x70 AP binos + Paragon p-mount
Oberwerk 100BT 45 degree + Hercules fork mount
120mm f/5 Orion achromat + Moonlite focuser
140mm f/5.7 Vixen NeoAchro Petzvel refractor
150mm f/6.5 Antares achromat
150mm f/8 homemade achromat....EE Barnard MW Sweeper
8 inch newt with f/5 Swayze mirror
10 inch f/4.7 Orion newt + Paracorr
15 inch f/5 Discovery split tube
35mm Pan, 26mm Nagler, 17mm Nagler, 13mm Ethos, 8mm Ethos
Member IDA
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