Hi all, A while ago I referred to a member of our W.A.A.C.ers club, as a 'GEM'.
Well today I visited him & I took a few pics of one of his Homebuilds. He bought the 80 mm objective lens for $30.00. The rest he put together himself. Jeff is a Fitter & Turner by trade & has a nack with mechanical things, as you can see. He's also not bad with timber.
Pity my photography is not up to the same good standard. Sorry about the shadows in the tripod shot.
The tube clamp/mount, is 'dovetailed' for easy & accurate alignment + balance, & the alt. bearings have 2 adjustable bearing/clamps. The finder scope is another homebuild & is an erect image unit. It's similar to the ones he makes from 1/2 of broken/old bino's.
You just can't quite make out the detail of the base plate/side plates attachment, but instead of just bolting the 2 together, he milled a matching slot into the side plates for accuracy, & the 2 bolts now simply hold them in that slot.
As I said, he's a wiz with this kind of machining. You should see his 'Crayford' style 2'' focusers, with 1 1/4" reducer. Wow, they're just the 'ants pants'.
We managed to do a bit of sun viewing too. Not much activity at present, save for 1 or 2 small spots.
Thanks all for reading this rant..
Regards, L.
for Jeff.