Mokusatsu
15-12-2014, 11:09 PM
I just thought I'd share something I've knocked together in the last few weekends.
I decided to build a parallelogram mount for my 10x50 binoculars which was capable of taking a much bigger pair of bins which I'm planning on getting. Binoculars are great, but they're exhausting to use when you've got to hold them up, and it's hard to appreciate fine details when the image is shaky.
My goals were:
It had to be cheap, preferably using only materials which I already had in my scrap pile in my shed!
It had to be large enough for me to observe the zenith while standing up straight, while also able to get low enough to use while reclining on a sunlounge.
It had to be flexibly designed so I could put different things on the head mount, like different pairs of binoculars or even my iPad, or combinations of the same
It had to be strong enough not to be completely useless in a light breeze and not shake too much when repositioned.
It had to be able to break down or fold up into a smallish space for transport if I took it to dark skies.
Apart from my neighbour's drill press which made precise 90 degree hole drilling possible, otherwise I had only the most basic of tools. All sawing was done with a hand operated miter saw, by far the fanciest tool I own!
... and I reiterate, my budget was tiny, it had to cost almost nothing!
The only items I had to buy were a few M10 nuts and bolts. The timber is recycled scraps including some of it being retrieved from junk piles at curbside junk collection days (some of you might recognise the tripod leg timber as Ikea bed slats!). I happened to already have a bunch of hinges lying around, the counterweight is from a broken old gym set, that balancing weight at the binocular end is off an old Ikea architect lamp threaded with a couple of heavy nuts and bolts. The bearing for the binocular's azimuth is a simple nut, bolt and washers, the others have a pair of compact disks as bearings. The main mount azimuth bearing is capped with a plastic lid from a fish oil jar.
Total cost was a few tens of dollars on the stainless steel M10 bolts and nylon washers, but if I didn't have all that other scrap I'd have had to spend as much again to buy hinges.
I used it last night for the first time and am thrilled with the way it performs. It's sturdy, moves smoothly and is well balanced, the multiple degrees of freedom make it convenient to point the binoculars at anything I like and if I remove a few nuts it can break down into a collapsible tripod and a few lengths of wood.
Total build time was a few weekends, much of which I spent doing trigonometry rather than actual building because I needed to work out dimensions properly so I wouldn't waste any wood!
Having proven the concept, I might consider replacing some of the ugly stained pine which has been in my shed for years with nicer timber when I feel like it, but for now my next step is just to give it a good sanding then maybe give it a protective coat of varnish or something.
I'm aware that it looks a bit crude and some of the material choices are perhaps questionable. I had to design it to work with what timber I had and it would most likely have come out looking quite different if I'd designed it and then gone and bought what I wanted. Still, ugly as it is it's highly functional and I'm happy enough with this MK1 design. MK2 will be a thing of beauty! :thumbsup:
A couple of lessons learned which might help anyone else wanting to make one of these with limited tools and carpentry skill:
Do not attempt to drill the bolt holes without a drill press. If they're not exact it won't work well at all. A few degrees off and you get a mess. This is the only area requiring good workmanship, as various other features attest!
I should have erred on the side of making the binocular end too heavy while making the thing balance. With hindsight it would be quite easy to make a little additional weight, just drill a hole in some jarrah and stick it on the counterweight end! This won't be an issue when I use a bigger set of bins!
Have fun making one!
I decided to build a parallelogram mount for my 10x50 binoculars which was capable of taking a much bigger pair of bins which I'm planning on getting. Binoculars are great, but they're exhausting to use when you've got to hold them up, and it's hard to appreciate fine details when the image is shaky.
My goals were:
It had to be cheap, preferably using only materials which I already had in my scrap pile in my shed!
It had to be large enough for me to observe the zenith while standing up straight, while also able to get low enough to use while reclining on a sunlounge.
It had to be flexibly designed so I could put different things on the head mount, like different pairs of binoculars or even my iPad, or combinations of the same
It had to be strong enough not to be completely useless in a light breeze and not shake too much when repositioned.
It had to be able to break down or fold up into a smallish space for transport if I took it to dark skies.
Apart from my neighbour's drill press which made precise 90 degree hole drilling possible, otherwise I had only the most basic of tools. All sawing was done with a hand operated miter saw, by far the fanciest tool I own!
... and I reiterate, my budget was tiny, it had to cost almost nothing!
The only items I had to buy were a few M10 nuts and bolts. The timber is recycled scraps including some of it being retrieved from junk piles at curbside junk collection days (some of you might recognise the tripod leg timber as Ikea bed slats!). I happened to already have a bunch of hinges lying around, the counterweight is from a broken old gym set, that balancing weight at the binocular end is off an old Ikea architect lamp threaded with a couple of heavy nuts and bolts. The bearing for the binocular's azimuth is a simple nut, bolt and washers, the others have a pair of compact disks as bearings. The main mount azimuth bearing is capped with a plastic lid from a fish oil jar.
Total cost was a few tens of dollars on the stainless steel M10 bolts and nylon washers, but if I didn't have all that other scrap I'd have had to spend as much again to buy hinges.
I used it last night for the first time and am thrilled with the way it performs. It's sturdy, moves smoothly and is well balanced, the multiple degrees of freedom make it convenient to point the binoculars at anything I like and if I remove a few nuts it can break down into a collapsible tripod and a few lengths of wood.
Total build time was a few weekends, much of which I spent doing trigonometry rather than actual building because I needed to work out dimensions properly so I wouldn't waste any wood!
Having proven the concept, I might consider replacing some of the ugly stained pine which has been in my shed for years with nicer timber when I feel like it, but for now my next step is just to give it a good sanding then maybe give it a protective coat of varnish or something.
I'm aware that it looks a bit crude and some of the material choices are perhaps questionable. I had to design it to work with what timber I had and it would most likely have come out looking quite different if I'd designed it and then gone and bought what I wanted. Still, ugly as it is it's highly functional and I'm happy enough with this MK1 design. MK2 will be a thing of beauty! :thumbsup:
A couple of lessons learned which might help anyone else wanting to make one of these with limited tools and carpentry skill:
Do not attempt to drill the bolt holes without a drill press. If they're not exact it won't work well at all. A few degrees off and you get a mess. This is the only area requiring good workmanship, as various other features attest!
I should have erred on the side of making the binocular end too heavy while making the thing balance. With hindsight it would be quite easy to make a little additional weight, just drill a hole in some jarrah and stick it on the counterweight end! This won't be an issue when I use a bigger set of bins!
Have fun making one!