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Rob; hey I was just checking your video page, a dozen people have now watched your videos.How cool is that.

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I think that is awesome. I have been distracted as of late with my rental house...and getting new tenants in...sorry. But business before play. I hope to be getting to your mirror soon..maybe even this evening(It is so hot in the shop)

I plan on adding lots more videos to my site. Videos of more mirror stuff(cutting them out) and videos of my electric focusers, and the elevating pier of the my 6"f/15.

Currently...I'm very much redirected toward business.

Thanks for the update.

Rob

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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.

www.vimeo.com/6014031

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Yeah I know all about hot....Ive sent nearly 22 years slaving away in a foundry, the summer it gets well over 125 degrees inside the foundry.And when the humidity is high, heaven help us.
I await your next installment of getting to droids 12.5 inch, errr slash that, 13 inch plate glass mirror.
Id really be interested in knowing more about how you cut a mirror out of a square sheet of glass.

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I hate hot. you can only take so much off before you begin to have a stroke.....

I went out inot the shopt to check on things and MAN! Oven!

anything that is painted in there now has very ccured paint....

Took several more videos of shop stuff..it will take a bit of time before they are formated for viewing....maybe in a hour or so. some videos of my electric focusers on my scopes and a walk through my shop.(nothing much really).

Rob

--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.

www.vimeo.com/6014031

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ok, well just watched your video, yeah you need to low that focuser down,looks like me ,lol.

if its electric, would a regular dimmer switch help????

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I intended for that demonstration to be faster then actual use..because it would be very slow and not as impressive.

Slowing it down isn't a problem..and I was trying to show that but trying to show ice freeze is...well boring.

Speeding it up demonstrated the function and extension of the draw tube. General focusing only requires taps from the control button to get that perfect focus. Holding it down gives you quick fast motion for your application.

Rob

--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.

www.vimeo.com/6014031

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Just finished watching your new videos....way cool.
Tons of questions...the 5 inch binos, homemade???
Being legally blind in one, makes binos useless to me.
But I bet with a short focal length lens and 5 inches of clear aperature the milky way explodes.

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Thanks.

Yes those binos were made by my father. they use 2 5" f/5 Yaegers objective...4 flats and 2 homemade inverting systems.

These binos are award winning...Check out my photo gallery here on CN: ..rwiederrich.. to see more pix.

These binos are literally 3D imagers....outstanding for rich field work. I grab them quite often when I want to take some quick views.

Rob

--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.

www.vimeo.com/6014031

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nah wasnt remindin yah, just after no cloudy nights for a couple days was wonderin how you was gettin along thats all.
Here in Ohio this has been one of the coolest summers in a while, typically 60 or 70 degrees, raining or hazy, and cool.
Been playing with a 4.5 inch Tasco, from the 1970s, having a ball, I had forgotten how nice it was to stand up and look in the eye peice not stoop or bend,

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Good glass(no mater the era) is a pleasure to look through...especially if your viewing in a compfortable position.

Last night I was out taking pix of the moon and Jupiter with my 6"f/15 classic and boy it felt good.

Rob

--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.

www.vimeo.com/6014031

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Just moving this back ot the front page so a freind can check out the stain glass wimdow mirror, lol, thats what I call it.

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Yeah...I worked on it and a students 8"f/6 yesterday for about 4 hours. Nearly have it cut out...because the cutting tool wasn't completely parallel, I had to do some tinkering and some hand cutting to finish getting that blank out. The person I got the cutting machine from didn't reinforce the drive on the machine so the cutter bends under pressure and then cuts the glass slightly of parallel. No problem when the blank is out and done...just getting it out is the hard part.

I'll post some pix when I finally get it out and I clean up all the edges.

The 8" ground in very well too and I am ready for very fine grinding.......It looks great. Yours will be there soon.
Here is a link to some other of my scopes on my video site.

Check it out and let me know what you think of my homemade 6"f/15.

Rob....www.vimeo.com/6014031

--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.

www.vimeo.com/6014031

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ok questions abound.watching yall cutthat 8 inch blank was cool.
Will you follow the progress of the 8 inch from start to finish??
Is that a car lift??? or was it once upon a time?
And no to be to picky ,but since I have never seen you in person, im left to guess your the guy in the green jacket and gloves?
Is it that cold there...lol?

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We are building the 8" from glass slab to final product...just what I'm doing with your 13"

The hydraulic pier was built exactly for what it is. It uses a hydraulic ram that was also built for the pier. It utalizes leather seals and a single in and out falve.

I'm the nut in the green jacket....no it wasn't cold..it was a bit rainy outside.

Did you enjoy the videos?

I plan on adding more as I go.

Rob

--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.

www.vimeo.com/6014031

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I liked the videos a lot, I liked the comradery that was exibited in the video of the 8 inch mirror , around here I have few and far between people to talk astrnomy with.
Please assuming your students are willing , video everything.
I thought maybe you had converted a car lift ,lol.
Leather seals??? didnt those go out with invention of cork....

come to think of it, where does one find a large hydraulic cylinder???
Im some what familiar with hydraulics as my father used a hydraulic log splitter when I was youngin, ohhh back in the day,lol.

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These particular students are brothers and one is going blind...so they want to make a telescope before that happens.

Leather seals work very good and as long as they are charged(oiled)they will work for ever. Actually the pier itself has a long ram inside it...right up the center. No very long rams were available at the time so we had to build one.

Most rams have in and out fluid ports..because you push from both sides of the ram head(inside the ram). Ours works simply by injecting fluid on one side(bottom) and lifting the scope....to come down we simply allow the fluid to release controlled. The weight of the head/scope is the activator. It's not just a simple release valve..open a little to release a little. we have to control the speed and not permit the pier to drop any faster then the dampening system will permit. The whole thing is pretty slick actually.

Rob

--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.

www.vimeo.com/6014031

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