[tempestwizz (Brian)]

I've made a little progress since last post. Now it seems that all the things that can get out of alignment need to come together. I have welded the OTA struts, but it took al lot of manipulation and clamping to get them (as close as possible to) square. I had to determine the length of the struts by clamping things together and waiting for a night when some stars could be seen. I found the TIG struggled a bit welding the solid aliminium alignment pins. Things seemed to get very hot, but not quite enough to amalgamate. The welds ended up a bit messy, but I am sure they are no going to fall apart anytime this side of the next supernova.
I have finished the mounting assembly for the mirror, although I still need to attach the bottom cover plate, and fasion a removable top coverplate to protect the mirror while in transit.
I have mounted the brackets to hold the Moonlite focusser and filter slide. It was all part of the juggle while determining the OTA strut length. The filter slide is on the inside of the OTA, but only intrudes about 13mm, and should not obstruct any light to the mirror. I can bring to focus the lens that reqiures the most 'in' travel. For me it is the Takahashi 3.8mm.

The next stage will involve mounting the declination rings. These will need to be centred on the point of balance when things are fully loaded. I still have to fix a plate for the finderscope and perhaps laser pointer on the top ring. I also need to decide if I need a hood above the spider to exclude stray light. These things all add weight to the top end, and hence affect the balance point.

As usual, pics are provided to explain better than words.