Dob Transport Case

[glend (Glen)]

This is a re-post of a thread lost in the recent IIS outage.

I have put together a Dob transport case to enable safe transport of the scope tube assembly to remote sites. It's constructed of 6mm marine AA grade ply, glued and screwed to tassie oak frame/stringers, s/s fittings, hatch seal, and includes original shipping inserts to keep the tube from moving around. It's water tight. I also have a made a small end dolly that straps to the mirror end of the case and enables it to be turned into an enclosed hand truck for moving around easily. All up cost was around $150 for all materials.


Pics attached.

[astro_nutt]

Very neat job Glen!

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Nice job Glenn.
One small question, the latches you have used. I have been trying to get hold of something similar and cannot find them locally (problem of living in a small town!) and I don't know what they are called so cannot search for them. Can you help?

Malcolm

[glend (Glen)]

Malcolm, the case latches are usually called Over-centre hatch or latch fasteners or just hatch fasteners, and are available from most boat supply stores or even from Bunnings hardware (which is where I sourced mine for the case). There are three sizes, the smallest were used on the case. In Bunnings they are usually in the aisle where the hinges and case locks etc are located. They are in a Blue blister pack. If you want to order them online they are available from Whitworths Marine at www.whitworths.com.au and are catalog number 42071 (the small ones - which have an adjust able length of from 85-95mm) the small ones from Bunnings are a little smaller.