neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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Yep...this is the guilty one.
This summer a fellow astronomer from our local forum donated me an old, pretty fragile aluminum tripod from an EQ 1 mount or something.
So finally after a couple of weeks with a rocky health I started to tune this baby up a little. Decided to change the hole base which is ridiculous tiny. So I went to my country house the last weekend and turned on my home made lathe some plywood disks which will be glued togather with epoxy to form a solid ~5" base.
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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The new base
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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Some drawings before tooling..
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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The plywood base is made of 4 sheets 7mm thick. The idea would be to cut the last one to insert the 1" aluminum brakets which will connect the legs of the tripod.
So I've started to drill 1" holes first and tommorow I'll finish to cut the hole thing. Then epoxy  ...lots and lots of epoxy.
In the end I'll bind all three legs by aluminum tubing to make the tripod as stiff as possible.
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
Edited by neo (10/27/09 02:58 PM)
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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..
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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wmyers
member
Reged: 01/23/08
Posts: 44
Loc: High Point, NC
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thanks for the pics Neo, looking forward to seeing the finished project.
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Orion 120 ED Refractor
Feathertouch Focuser
Orion Atlas EQ-G goto mount
Orion 80 guidescope w/Starshoot autoguider
AstroTech 2" quartz diagonal
Canon Rebel XT
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magic612
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/30/08
Posts: 556
Loc: Somewhere south of Chicago, IL
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Hey, I've got a tripod like that from a 4.5" reflector I rescued. OTA is on a GOTO mount now, so the tripod has been sitting there unused, because it's... well, as you said neo - old and fragile.
I'll be watching your progress with much interest. 
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- Celestron C8+, Orion 90mm f/10, Orion ST-80, 5" f/8 Dob, 127mm f/9.4 refractor, 114mm f/8 on DS GoTo, 60mm Sears 6333-A, 127mm f4.4 refractor lens (current project), 12" f/5 mirror (future project)
- Orion Vista 10x50s (5 deg), Sears #6207 7x35 (7 deg), Jason #138 Statesman 7x35 (11.5 deg)
Yes, I'm addicted to telescopes and binoculars. I am getting help. Every time I look at the heavens, it helps.
http://www.eyesonthesky.com
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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Thanks guys!
Well...a little update..
Today I've finished cutting the plywood disk and I've cut the three brakets which will hold the legs. This brakets are simply 1" aluminum tubing which will be glued and tied up with screws to the plywood base.
Some pics during fooling around with dangerous power tools 
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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...
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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The base with the 3 brakets in place.
I've drilled the holes for legs screws. In order not to wear out the thinn aluminum brackets because of the screws I plan to epoxy some 8mmOD x 6mmID round tubing on each of them. So the legs screws will hold on a much larger area.
Tommorow I'll finally glue the base togather and I'll drill the rest of the holes.
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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Happy-Idiot
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/06/06
Posts: 2818
Loc: 3rd Rock
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Outstanding work!  I love these posts.
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Brian
A small scope that gets used often is a better investment than a big scope that stays in the closet.
Unitrons, you spend more time looking at them than you do through them.
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magic612
professor emeritus
Reged: 09/30/08
Posts: 556
Loc: Somewhere south of Chicago, IL
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I'm liking where this is going.
What scope(s) are you planning on using with it, neo?
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- Celestron C8+, Orion 90mm f/10, Orion ST-80, 5" f/8 Dob, 127mm f/9.4 refractor, 114mm f/8 on DS GoTo, 60mm Sears 6333-A, 127mm f4.4 refractor lens (current project), 12" f/5 mirror (future project)
- Orion Vista 10x50s (5 deg), Sears #6207 7x35 (7 deg), Jason #138 Statesman 7x35 (11.5 deg)
Yes, I'm addicted to telescopes and binoculars. I am getting help. Every time I look at the heavens, it helps.
http://www.eyesonthesky.com
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deSitter
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/09/04
Posts: 2926
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This is nice, but because the entire scope weight is bearing on the interface of aluminum to wood, I think I would secure the leg bosses from below with machine screws - drill through the wood and aluminum then tap out to the needed size - cap off with a hex nut epoxied in place. Nice wood work!
-drl
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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Thnks again guys! You're to kind. I had no idea that a humble tripod would be so popular 
- drl...of course I have that allready in plan for today. I'll secure with two screws and epoxy each bosse...bracket...whatever ..thanks for observation.
Well...the tripod is mainly for my 70mm Rodenstok lens refractor which I'm currently trying to rebuild. But I believe that after all the tweaks are done I can load it with much bigger scopes in the future.
I still have to buy some more supplies for this project including a new set of thumbscrews and a nice blue bag from Telescope House 
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
Edited by neo (10/30/09 02:07 AM)
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 244
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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you could of course replicate the wood you already have and sandwich the aluminium sections between two lots of wood.
grendel
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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Quote:
you could of course replicate the wood you already have and sandwich the aluminium sections between two lots of wood.
grendel
I've thought of that too. But first of all I wanted a thick solid base, second, I wanted to keep the legs ends a bit beneath it to get more clearance for the rest of the mount. The problem is that the aluminum tubing is 1" thick and the plywood is 0.27" so in order to build a full base with that sandwich configuration it gets bit more complicated. I like to keep it simpe for this project  .
Ok boys...I'm out to buy some epoxy... 
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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All righty then ! 
Some progress today...
I've finished to drill all the holes (to many ) and to cut the small tubes which will hold the legs screws.
Then, epoxy time...
Today, while I went down to the local hardware store I jast got the idea of using some 1" table legs covers for the brackets. The result is quite nice, I believe.
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
Edited by neo (10/30/09 04:02 PM)
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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Before glueing...
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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neo
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/12/08
Posts: 618
Loc: Iasi, Romania
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Finally the big moment...glueing the base.
Tommorow will be the moment of truth . 
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Russian 15x50 binos
Home made 8" f/5 Newton on eq mount
Home made 70mm f/6 (Rodenstock Rotelar lens) Apo refractor
www.astronomy.ro
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droid
rocketman
Reged: 08/29/04
Posts: 4037
Loc: ohio
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neo..I hope your wearing a respirator or have lots of air movement while using epoxy, in some people , exposure leads to allergic reaction to the slighttest whif of it, Im in that boat from building rockets indoors in the winter.Just a heads up.
Very nice Job though,
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12 inch Truss Reflector "John"
102mm Celestron C102HD
Tasco 7TE5 60mm Classic
Tasco 9TE5 60mm Classic
Celestron Ultima 2000 SCT
Remains of an 8 inch dob
Celestron Comet catcher(orange tube)
1960 Edscorp Space Conquerer 6inch f/8
10x50 Bushnell Binoculars.
11T 4.5 inch Tasco reflector Lunograsso?
60mm Telescope Club
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