Hi everyone
After seeing the excellent work of Chris (scopemankit) with his 10 inch travel scope I decided to give an 8 inch version a go, but made out of wood (I don't have the metalwork skills/tools). Mine is an attempted amalgam of Chris' ideas and those of Ross Sacket with his pieces of telescopic artwork (
http://stardazed.com/index.html). However, mine just does not have the finesse of both of these terrific scope builders.
Where possible, all materials and the mirror are secondhand and/or have been sitting around the house - wood includes exterior ply, maple, walnut and jarrah, and the arm is from a broken kayak paddle. The only new items are the Kineoptics focuser (the crayford I had was too heavy), some collimation springs from the hardware store, pulley and a lazy susan bearing. I bought the spider from the IIS classifieds (thanks PhilW).
It's nowhere near perfect, but seems to hold collimation reasonably well (for me), even after dismantling and re-building which only takes a few minutes. I did go without the light baffle for a while but eventually added it - and of course it makes a difference in the backyard with stray light from my daughter who stays up too late reading... One day, I intend to make a smaller spider/secondary arrangement like Chris and Ross Sacket have with their scopes.
Total weight is 11kg including 1.5 kg of counterweights in the mirror box.
Anyway, just thought I'd have a go at a scope and also say thanks to our inspiring telescope makers. And, it's been fun to make, tweak and get frustrated with!
Andrew