I've been prompted to post this effort even though it is a bit mundane.
I'm sure many will recall the older Celestron Celestar 8 composite wedge mount/tripod. Basically a flat plate with steel tubes attached. On the end of the steel tubes were simple formed rubber boots, not the most practical solution.
Not long after purchasing this telescope from another forum member, I realized I would get very tired of carrying around various sized blocks for leveling the mount
, and the rubber boots were worn through, so the pipe was scraping the ground and will eventually wear down.
One afternoon, I was cleaning and straightening my scrap box and came across a piece of 40mm PVC piping left over from a camp shower project. Light bulb moment...
would it fit?! Fate smiled and said... "of course it will".
The wheels of thought starting spinning and I quickly came up with a simple sleeve that fit inside of the tubing, using rings cut from a spare coupling as stops, a balsa wood platform holding a T-nut, and furniture feet with a bolt (left over from a sand blasting box I made a few years ago), and epoxy resin.
The sleeves were cut to approximately 400mm and one end cut to a 60 degree angle (not surprising that that was the fixed angle stops for the pipe on the mount, pretty standard I think). Ovals were cut out of balsa wood to fit inside of the PVC sleeve. They were fixed inside of the sleeve with epoxy and for added support, pins pushed through the sleeve into the wood, at the cardinal points, made from some steel wire I had laying around. Holes were drilled through the balsa wood plate to hold the T-nut.
My first thought was to allow the extra nut I intended to use, to be free and used as a lock nut for the adjustable feet, but that seemed fiddly when I played around with it so I decided to lock them in place, when I encapsulated the balsa wood plate inside the sleeve (with T-nut in place) with epoxy resin, the nut was just tightened to hold the bolt of the foot. Worked a treat as the bolt now has constant tension, and with the weight of the mount on it, will not allow the foot to move once set.
The stop rings are set at about 300mm which, combined with the friction fit, and the fact the pipe sets flush against the rings, makes the sleeve VERY stable. There's 5-6 cm of adjustment in the bolts, which should be adequate for most locations. I think I'm might get some 3/8" threaded rod and make longer extensions with rounded points (like some of the more expensive tripods) for some flexibility at all locations.
In closing, all I can say is that I hope this might give someone a different perspective to a problem they may have in the future. Hope you enjoyed the story.
Huey,
