Russian Balancing Act

[Rainmaker]

My TMB Apo 152/1200 has LZOS optics which are built into a cell made from a surplus Russian tank hub (my guess judging by the weight of it) so to balance these beautiful slabs of LZOS OK-4 glass I decided a counterweight was needed....

Adding the APM/Feathertouch finder helped a lot but more was needed so here is another project from "Excalibur Industries"

All it took was a 200mm diameter x 60mm block of solid aluminium, some lathe time, a bit of brute force with a hacksaw and some nice metallic black paint....

[glend]

Nice work Matt. You do fine work. Are those ring weight segments lined with felt to protect the paint work? Where do you find a billet of aluminium lying around, or are you melting old beer cans?

[Rainmaker]

Thanks Glen, I had a chap cut a piece from a 4metre bar of the stuff, $75.... plus postage from Qld

[Saturnine]

Great to see the tinkerers are still thinking of projects, an awful lot of aluminium being machined out to make the ring though, but I like the workmanship all the same.
Personally I would have just put a bigger, heavier finder scope on there to help with the centre of balance.

[Rainmaker]

The core that came out of the middle was big enough to make another one for a smaller scope.... but I did consider using the Foa60 as a finder

[Atmos]

I had to take a triple take to figure out where the rings were on the OTA, blends in like they’re a part of the focuser :thumbsup:

[croweater]

Only time I've seen you do something by halves Matt. :lol: Looks like it belongs there.
Cheers, Richard. :)

[Rainmaker]

:thanx:


The OTA is 170mm OD, the rings are 172mm ID and lined with s/a felt.



:lol: :thanx: halves indeed :thumbsup:, I decided to find a thin kerf hacksaw blade and cut the rings in half by hand as anything else would have taken out too much metal, good exercise for an old bloke like me... the halves are joined with stainless steel plates bolted on with M5 socket head screws, plates were attached to ring before cutting to make sure the alignment would be perfect after the cut was made....

[multiweb]

Very nicely done. :thumbsup: