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Hi Rod,
The 10" was made in the late 90's and I don't have much documentation on it, while the 16" is reasonably well documented, I doubt I could find the time for a dedicated thread for it. However I'm happy to dig up photos on request dealing with various details. When I was making it, I thought that it was going to be the first Peltier cooled planetary telescope, but I found out later that Anthony Wesley was working on his own 14" version about the same time.
To get back to the present: I made a first iteration mock-up of the spider/front ring.
I'm going on uncharted territory here, like I did with the Peltier cooled primary, so I have to proceed carefully. The idea is to make this important part of the OTA through 3D printing.
This mock-up study was printed with ABS filament, but the real thing will be printed with carbon fibre reinforced polyester filament, which has a modulus of elasticity about 3 times higher than ABS. Even that may not be enough so I intend to embed some uniaxial carbon fibre as well during the bonding of the parts. Also very thin ribbon cables will be enclosed in the vanes for power and signals. The finished vanes will be about 2mm thick.
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