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tjswood
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 05/18/05
Posts: 1748
Loc: Tempe, AZ
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Craig -
From some of the pics, it looks like you used Baltic birch 7 layer ply (nice stable stuff) and full extension drawer slides. Thats quite a contraption, nice job, and great innovation. I was gonna say make sure and paint the ply to protect outdoors (will wear fast outdoors with the moisture), but other pics look like you have this covered too.
Did you think about a good outdoor wood also - cypress, mahogany, teak, etc? Was it a weight / stability issue why you chose ply instead? (manmade woods are typically more stable with a lot less expansion / contraction).
Just curious.
Tim
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Craig Simmons
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/10/03
Posts: 1502
Loc: Falls Church, VA
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Thanks Tim. There's a mix of pine, red oak and birch plywood in the BP designs. I chose them for convenience and economical reasons. The drawer slide are the heavy duty 50 pounders. I use inexpensive woods and scraps since the designs have been changing from literally month to month. So I didn't see a point in wasting good wood on possibly temporary designs at this time. Once I get to point where the BPs work the way I want them, I'll build one out of better wood but probably oak since It's strong and not too expensive.
I spent about 6 hours out with BP II this past weekend neat the WV/VA border. I had a great time with it panning around looking at all the usual targets between Ursa Major and Virgo, and chasing satellites. I also spent some time with the SV binos on the very portable Bogen 3046/Microstar which was handy getting around the tree obstructed neighborhood.
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Craig Simmons
Oberwerk 8x56, 20x90
Nikon Action IV 10x50
Barska 15x70
Galileo 20x60
Stellarvue 15x63, 20x85
Orion XT10 pre-Classic
Antares 10
Stellarvue AT1010
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tjswood
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 05/18/05
Posts: 1748
Loc: Tempe, AZ
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Cool.
BTW, this may be a little off topic, but related to bin chair construction - rule of thumb for oak - "Red Oak indoors, white Oak outdoors" Actually you can use white oak indoors too, its quite nice and denser, but you should never use red oak for outdoors. You made mention to "oak" and "red" oak in the same paragraph, and if this chair spends ANY time outside, opt for white.
If you want some more details on the above choice, I can send you a PM. I know a fair amount about this topic....
Tim
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Craig Simmons
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/10/03
Posts: 1502
Loc: Falls Church, VA
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Tim, my belated thanks for the advice on the oak. I'll look into using something else.
Latest update. I painted BP2 navy blue. I discovered that the wooden guide posts for the spring tensioned rope became too sticky for the rope to slide around after painting. I added a sleeve of 1 1/2" PVC pipe around the guide posts. This increased the diameter of the guide posts but made sliding the binos back and forth exceptionally smooth and easy to control. Much better than the unpainted wood I started with and no slipping with the slicker PVC surface.
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Craig Simmons
Oberwerk 8x56, 20x90
Nikon Action IV 10x50
Barska 15x70
Galileo 20x60
Stellarvue 15x63, 20x85
Orion XT10 pre-Classic
Antares 10
Stellarvue AT1010
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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I might have already asked you this Criag, but the parts of your chair that are metal, are they going to rust at all? It would be a shame to have streaking rust colors streaming down your good looking chair.
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Craig Simmons
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/10/03
Posts: 1502
Loc: Falls Church, VA
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Good point NW. They'll probably rust eventually if left unmaintained, but I haven't seen any develop so far either on the bolts or cart wheel brackets. The drawer slides are new so they haven't been outside that much. I usually bring the mount part inside or at least covered. An alternative weather resistant slide mechanism would be wood with a teflon bearing surface instead of ball bearings.
If the BPs get too messy, I can always paint them primer red. 
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Craig Simmons
Oberwerk 8x56, 20x90
Nikon Action IV 10x50
Barska 15x70
Galileo 20x60
Stellarvue 15x63, 20x85
Orion XT10 pre-Classic
Antares 10
Stellarvue AT1010
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later
sage
Reged: 01/16/05
Posts: 446
Loc: Posen, Michigan
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Obviously you are having a great time doing this, more power to ya ! ! !
I have been lurking and keeping an eye on your progress and directions of thought. You are to be commended on your "stick-to-it-iv-ness". The designs you are coming up with are way cool.....different in a good way.
The paint going on Bino-pod 2 is like reading the last chapter in a good book.............cant wait to know what the finished product was going to be...but sad to have to see the project end.
Im sure though............there will be a Bino-Pod 3, and beyond ! (want a dental chair??!!)
Seriously, How long does it take for the image to settle down after adjustment? Are you getting any heartbeat movement? If so...have you thought about adding 600 pounds to settle it down quicker?? 
Gary
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Galileo 15 X 70
Oberwerk BT100-45
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Craig Simmons
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/10/03
Posts: 1502
Loc: Falls Church, VA
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Thanks Gary. It's been fun building and developing these chairs.
It takes about 1 second or less to settle down while either hand/foot guiding, or focusing.
I don't think there's going to be a BP3. BP2 works the way I wanted when I started building these chairs.
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Craig Simmons
Oberwerk 8x56, 20x90
Nikon Action IV 10x50
Barska 15x70
Galileo 20x60
Stellarvue 15x63, 20x85
Orion XT10 pre-Classic
Antares 10
Stellarvue AT1010
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Craig Simmons
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/10/03
Posts: 1502
Loc: Falls Church, VA
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I was out with BPII last night for about an hour under long overdue clear, cool and dry suburban skies. I had dragged out the two Bino Pods and Bino Bed earlier for a photo shoot (reasons to be revealed later-super top secret). Both chairs had been stored outdoors under a plastic tarp for a couple of months. It's been really bad observing weather here for a while. The metal hardware was in excellent shape and rust free in spite of the relentless hot, humid weather, but spiders had invaded, but were quickly swept off. The bearing were a little sticky at first, but loosened up after a while. The cart wheeled turntable spun smoothly with no sign of the lube drying up. The drawer slide action was smooth too. The components seem to be holding up well outdoors.
I scanned thru Hercules, Lyra, Aquilla and Cygnus oggling the beautiful assortment of colorful stars with the SV 20x85mm. Even with the moon rising in the southeast, there was plenty to see. I picked up M57, M29, M13, Albireo, the Double-double and M27. I've seen these objects many times, but I still enjoy revisiting them over and over. I spent most of the time just panning around, stopping here and there admiring star colors, and patterns they form with each other.
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Craig Simmons
Oberwerk 8x56, 20x90
Nikon Action IV 10x50
Barska 15x70
Galileo 20x60
Stellarvue 15x63, 20x85
Orion XT10 pre-Classic
Antares 10
Stellarvue AT1010
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