Telescope Reviews: Backyard wood Pier

I decided to build a wooden pier in my backyard for the times I don't want to drive out to my dark site. I live in the city but can look at the brighter objects. After seeing the posts about other wood piers I decided to copy the setup.
My goals was to build the pier for under $200, have it so that one person could build it and also give the future owners of my house the option to remove it without too much work.

I bought 4x 6x6 pressure treated wood from the local Home Depot. That and the hardware to bolt them together was less than $100. I also bought 2x 12x12 inch steel plates from the local metal shop for $20 each, much more than I expected but that is ok.

My first task was to cut the 8 foot 6x6 down to 6 foot and then glue and screw them together. I used glue to make sure there was no shifting of the wood. I bolted all four together using 12 inch bolts from Lowes.

Here is a photo of the finished 6 foot pier. It weighs in at 220 pounds!!!

I used my drillpress to drill the holes for the plate used to mount the G11. If you do this by hand make sure you mark each plate to make sure the holes line up later.

I painted each plate with two coats of paint, but expect some rusting in the future since the steel is not coated.

I then dug the 3 foot hole with the help of my nieghbor using a power digger. No, I am too old to try that with a post hole digger. The bottom of the hole was lined with gravel to help drain water and a large brick was placed there to sit the pier on.

I used a hand truck to move the pier to the hole and lowered it in. I aligned the axis of the pier to the north using a compass. Made sure that it was level and poured in the concrete. I only put enough in the hole to come up halfway, the rest filled with rock and dirt. Future owners can cut the pier below ground level or break the concrete if needed.

The bottom plate was next. I used 8 inch long bolts to connect the bottom plate to the pier, one for each section. I had cutout spots on the pier to leave room for the nuts that holds the top plate on.

The top plate went on next with the mount for the G11. I had to move the G11 controller a few degrees to clear the edge of the 12x12 plate.

I like the way everything came into place. Took just a few hours over the weekend to set this up. I next will stain the wood to match the house. I also need a clear night to do my drift alignment and then lock down everything. Now I will be able to come home from work and just attach a scope and image. By the way, the pier is solid!!!