Thanks for the good feedback folks.
Now to answer some questions:
- Norm, The base is simply made of ply from Bunnings and MrPlyandWood. The base and bottom disk of the mount are two layers of 12mm ply glued together to make the bottom as rigid as possible. The sides are 18mm ply, the bearings are double thickness 12mm. The top and bottom rings of the cradle are double 12mm and the side panels are single 12mm ply. The actual weight of the mount is surprisingly light considering the amount of wood that is in it but remember its made of softwood ply, I don't think the extra expense for hardwood ply is worth it.
- Jase, This as about MK III and probably the final dob mount for this scope.
- Lost in space, I have an equatorial platform that I had set up then tried to improve it but got side tracked (its still in pieces). I plan to work on a collapsible split ring mount instead as I think it will be simplier and far more stable.
- Seeker, Yes I was there but you didn't miss anything, solid clouds from about 9pm but I did get to test the setting circles, they work really well.
- Netwolf, I will probably end up making quite a few split ring mounts as the project evolves like this mount did but they are a step at a time events and usually pulled to pieces then rebuilt. Not quite the answer you were looking for I suspect
- Mike, I can do a How To but will have to pull the mount apart for actual sizes so I will probably do a general overview of the thoughts so people can apply it to any size scope.
- Ian, I just used a rough finish laminate offcut I got from a friend who is a kitchen supplier, got lucky on that one as he gets most of his panels pre laminated now. Nothing special but boy it works!
Cheers