DIY half-pier?

Wanna make a scope? Or better still, grind a mirror yourself. Or, you have some good tips in making a really useful accessory? This is the place to show what your hands can do...
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kingkong
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Post by kingkong »

the mount is unweighted & unbalanced - can tahan no problem
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kingkong
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Post by kingkong »

half-pier height=110mm, just enough to clear the north tripod leg - if the lowest weight thumb-screw is facing away from the leg :P
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kingkong
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Post by kingkong »

can i trust my new 8" scope with it? here it goes... :shock:
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kingkong
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Post by kingkong »

Kong's Poor Man Half-Pier 1.01
1st impression

pros: dirt cheap. total material cost <sgd20
cons: looks dirt cheap :oops: no az adjustment, yet

stability performance review for visual & imaging to follow when i've time & clearsky
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MooEy
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Post by MooEy »

wah bravery, does that pvc flex or anything?

~MooEy~
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kingkong
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Post by kingkong »

MooEy wrote:wah bravery, does that pvc flex or anything?
i didn't even want to try to convince you how strong that setup you see in the picture is. you got to see it yourself. remember, that's my new scope sitting on it. :wink:

there's no discernable flex. almost no play - some because i'm not locking onto the az-adjust protrusion yet. definitely good enough for visual use.
i'll need to test if it's good enough for imaging.

i didn't just stick a PVC pipe in there and voila it works. in fact i did that a week ago. it didn't work. i couldn't even place the mount on it and let go of my hands :shock:

this version will hold up a slightly unbalanced unweighted mount even before the threaded rod is fastened into the mount, unaided by anything but the PVC parts. I suspect you can't even do that with the vixen half-pier WeiXing showed us in the photo - since it has a flat bottom.

if anyone is interested, i'll write up the details on how to put one together later. it is really simple (once it's figured out), just standard parts and some cutting and filing, and perhaps drilling. and cost less than sgd20

the next step is to do a shop drawing for a steel one based on this design and send it for a quote.

cheers
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MCYM
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Post by MCYM »

Hi King Kong

Congratulation, the PVC 1/2 pier looks good. Perhaps as good as the LXD75 if it is painted white.

I happened to design and custom made a 6" quarter pier last year.
Details can be found here.
http://pachome1.pacific.net.sg/~audiowo ... aks.htm#QP

I hope the concept can be of some use to you.

Cheers

Matthew
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ariefm71
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Post by ariefm71 »

I happened to design and custom made a 6" quarter pier last year.
Details can be found here.
http://pachome1.pacific.net.sg/~audiowo ... aks.htm#QP

I hope the concept can be of some use to you.

Cheers

Matthew
Hi Matthew, excellent website you have there.
Just want to check how does your "eye opener" increase the f-stop diameter of your sct, any difference if i just connect my 2" diagonal to the focal reducer? what's the length of the visual back?
I have a similar setup but using a 2" visual back from lumicon (bought it to use my existing refractor-type WO diagonal on a c8 ), do you think that's explain why i didn't see any vignetting on my c8 (tested with kayheem's 30mm 1rpd 80deg afov).

Admin, sorry, a bit out of topic.

cheers,
arief
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anat
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Post by anat »

KingKong:

Simple but nice solution!!! Don't forget to paint it in white :) You may add a bolt on the top of your half-pier in the vertical direction. It will act as a dowel for fine azimuth adjustment. This method works for my homemade fine azimuth control of my wedge.

Anat
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kingkong
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Post by kingkong »

anat wrote:You may add a bolt on the top of your half-pier in the vertical direction. It will act as a dowel for fine azimuth adjustment.
Anat, thanks for the sugestion.
as it is, the top of the pier is hollow :!: so no easy place to put a bolt through, hence no az-adjust.
may be i'll get that done later on.
but if the autostar proves to be tracking ok without fussing over fine-pointing to north, i'll probably just let it be. until version-2.
MCYM wrote:I happened to design and custom made a 6" quarter pier last year.
Mathew,
does your quarter pier fit a lxd55/75 mount & tripod? it doesn't look like it ....
but hey, nice machining work. i wish i have access to machine shop to do that.
your other stuffs also give ideas for my future projects - anti-dew heater, exposure timer, etc. thanks.
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