The Covert Pier is finally a reality!

[koputai]

Well, it's taken a lot more than a couple of weeks, almost 18 months actually, but the Covert Pier is almost finished. You
may remember the thread on the boring of the hole to mount the pier, a 255mm wide, 760mm deep hole in sandstone bed rock:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=58252

The pier itself was made from several pieces of 'donor' steel I had lying around as shown below, weighing 50Kg each.

Here are the two donors, along with the two forged steel pipe flanges that will join the two parts together. The
flanges are quite hefty, weighing about 20Kg each. That's a Panoptic 35 and a Nagler 13 for reference!

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After measurements in the hole were checked, the first thing to do was cut their heads off, then make a 300 x 300 top
plate out of 16mm steel, then cut a hole in the bottom of one where the top plate will be welded on. Essentially we're
cutting the tops off, welding a flange on top of each. One then gets glued in the hole in the sandstone, the other is
flipped upside down and the flanges bolted together.

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The top plate also needed a hole cut in it, as this is where the EQ6 mounting plate will be inserted. This EQ6 mounting
plate comes from the top of a Skywatcher EQ6 extension pier. A hole is also required in the side of the pier to access the
EQ6 centre tie-down bolt.

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[koputai]

Finally everything is welded together to form the two parts of the pier. The one on the left gets flipped upside down and
glued in the sandstone up to its neck, then the one on the right is bolted to it, the nuts being welded to the underside
of the bottom piece.

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A trip to the spray painters saw the pieces sandblasted to bare metal, then sprayed with two pack epoxy in a nice neutral
grey. Here they are standing beside the piece of rock that came out of the hole they are going in to. The second picture
shows the lower piece inserted into the rock below the deck.

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Finally, the two pieces bolted together, with the EQ6 Pro head on top. These second picture shows what has made me think I
need a new scope, there's no way I can get to the eyepiece of the 8 inch Newt, let alone putting the 12 inch Newt up there!
(I'm thinking maybe a C11 or Meade 12" ACF). Finally a more useable load for imaging.

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All up weight of the pier is around 120Kg, all up cost, around $1400.

The beauty of this pier is that I can unbolt the main part and move it away, put the hatch cover back on the deck, and there's
no obstruction at BBQ time!

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Jason.

[ZeroID]

Nice bit of work. I don't think you need the normal cubic meter of concrete judging by the lump of sandstone on your deck. It ain't moving nohow !!

[jenchris]

One day, far inthe future, someone is going to wonder what a High Pressure 8 bolt flanged drain line is doing in the middle of a monolith

[dynobolt]

What a nicely done, purpose built, quality pier! Good stuff Jason.

[ChrisM]

Looks very solid Jason - well done.
Chris

[koputai]

Thanks everyone. Yes it's pretty solid. Even thought I haven't glued it in the hole yet, it's just got a few wedges around it, a good kick to the pier results in less than two seconds settling time when looking through the scope, and a sore toe.

Cheers,
Jason.