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Hi Stephen,
I suggest you start small and work up. Seeing you already have an 8" scope why don't you try a 10 or 12 " first. Everything is that much smaller and lighter ................ and cheaper. Also with these sized scopes you can conduct most if not all your observing seated.
As a general rule it seems to me that; telescope weight increases as the square of the aperture and the cost increases as the cube of the aperture.
All my scopes have be built around second hand mirrors so I have always acquired the mirror first. I have then designed the scope to the design criteria, around the weight/focal length of the mirror.
My experience is that home made scopes are NOT cheap. Marine ply, stainless steel fittings, high quality focuser, powered ground board, etc, etc.
Here are some images of my 10" F4.5 scope. I use this mainly for outreach tasks and for when I don't feel like setting up the 16". The scope and accessory case occupy a single seat in a car - suitably restrained of course.
The 1 metre steel rule is for scale.
I also have a 16" built on similar lines. I find a 16" scope more of a commitment. Sufficiently heavy to present elevated risk of back injury. I ended up buying a van for telescope transportation duties.
Cheers,
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