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Achernar
Postmaster
Reged: 02/25/06
Posts: 5025
Loc: Mobile, Alabama, USA
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That incident was a result of my own lack of experience, since then I use feather boards and other tools that let me feed small pieces through the blade safely without kick back. Even with all the safety features put on these machines today, one can never be too careful if he wants to take all ten fingers and both eyes with him to the grave. I still have all of mine, and intend to keep it that way.
Taras
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15-inch F/4.5 Dob under construction
10-inch F/4.5 Discovery Dob
6-inch F/8 Homebuilt Dob
4 1/4-inch F/4 Homebuilt reflector
A whole bunch of eyepieces, filters and other accessories....
Two curious cats
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Undermidnight
Pounder of Brass
Reged: 05/25/04
Posts: 2426
Loc: Hilliard, Ohio
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I use a splitter at all times on my tablesaw. And I paid for a really nice blade (cost me 150.00) with carbide teeth and everything (A Woodworker II I believe). The key to safety on a table say is to pay attention where your fingers are, square your blade to the fence and miter slots, and a splitter (or a Riving knife). I use the Micro Jig full kerf splitter.
Jason
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WO Megrez 90 on EZTouch Mount
WO Zenithstar 66 on Microstar Mount
PST
8" F/4.2 Ball Scope, "Marilyn"
12.5" F/4.3 Ultralight, "Ada II"
11x70 Oberwerks
6" F/6 Polishing
Pans, Orthos, and Naglers
"We who cut mere stones, must always be envisioning cathedrals." - The Quarry Workers Creed
http://www.undermidnight.com
http://undermidnight.blogspot.com
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Jim Romanski
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/02/05
Posts: 843
Loc: Guilford, Connecticut
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Some of what you will need depends on what kind of Dob you intend to build.
If you build a Dob like John Dobson did with Sonotube and plywood you need fewer tools than if you build one like the type in the Kriege book.
The more sophisticated designs generally (though not necessarily) require more wood working tools.
Also, you may be surprised to find out how many of your neighbors and/or family members have nice tools sitting around waiting for you to borrow them.
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Jim
17.5" Dob "Project"
13.1" Coulter
8” Cave
NP 101 on a CG-5
25x100 binos
Naglers, Ethos, etc.
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roscoe
super member
Reged: 02/04/09
Posts: 192
Loc: Northwestern Mass
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Buying power tools is a lot like buying astro-equipment....you could consider hand-held power tools to be sort of like EP's and stationary tools to be like dobs........a $35 EP (orthos excepted) will give you the same level of performance and satisfaction as a $35 jig-saw, for instance, while $150 will buy an EP or a tool that is a joy to use. Same applies to big tools, in that a $135 table saw is about equivalent to the $135 telescope over in aisle 9, $600 will buy you a very nice saw or scope, $1200 will buy you a pro-grade in either category. Keep in mind that the tool-head down the street could easily have $10 or 20K worth of toys in the shop.
One of the best ways to get the work done might be to ask that totally tooled up neighbor if he would like to swap a six-pack or bottle of his/her favorite beverage for an hour's time cutting parts out, another option might be to take an adult-ed woodworking course at your local tech school, and ask the instructor if you could build a scope as your project. There, you'll have a full shop, and valuable instruction on safe and efficient tool use.
If do-it-yourself is the way to go, a jigsaw, a random-orbit sander, and a cordless drill (and a patient approach) will get the job done.........if you want to tool up, even a small bandsaw is pretty close to laser-cutting technology, they excell at curves, and with a bit of practice do straight lines quite well, and a drill press not only drills holes nice and straight, they can be outfitted with sanding drums that create smooth, even edges. They are very useful tools, but also are pretty safe compared to jointers and table saws, both of which are quite capable of firing wood at you at warp factor 8, or changing your method of counting to ten in an instant. And always remember, quality takes time...........
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Antares/Vixen 812 120mm f/8 on reworked CG-5,
Celestron/Vixen C-80 80mm f/11 on Polaris,
Sears/Towa 60mm f/15 on reworked Towa,
assorted Ultrascopics and Orthos
homemade tripods, chairs, EP cases, observatory
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sailor70623
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/12/08
Posts: 944
Loc: Ok.
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I built my 127mm strut dob with a screw driver and a dremel. And a good assortment of dremel bits.
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Corornado PST
LB 16" & 12"
Z 10"
LX50 8"
8" CPC
ETX127
102&90mm MAKs
80mm Richfield APO
70mm refractor
ETX60
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