Concrete Form Tube

[Gezza]

Hi,

i have seen a few American videos that show people using concrete form tubes as their telescope tubes. does anyone know where you buy this in Western Australia or what are people using instead?

Thanks

[Gezza]

I just realized my search was set to the last 100 days so there were many posts hidden from me. I will now go through old posts and I'm sure I will find what I am looking for.

[Rod]

Is this for a dobsonian? If so, you don’t really need a round tube. Square, octagonal and hexagonal tubes work very well. I’ve made several octagonal tubes, you can find examples in the archives. The advantage is you don’t need a tube box so the mount is a little smaller and lighter.

Sonotube/form tube works very well but you often can’t get a small offcut and the complete length can be expensive. What size are you after?

Rod.

[Gezza]

Thanks for the reply.
Yes it would be for a dobsonian, i have just come across some ocatgonal examples on here and like the idea, im noticing more i look i cant get shorter lengths of the form tube. This will be the first scope i build i was thinking an 8'' would be a good starting size.

[Rod]

8 inch is an excellent first scope. Here is an old presentation I made about how to make an octagonal tube:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13LGrKySIBXFrOm2g3ZbfKrHvNwpC38nH/view?usp=drivesdk

Rod

[Gezza]

Thankyou, that is a great presentation, I will be using it for this future project.