View Single Post
  #1  
Old 19-11-2011, 09:04 PM
Finite (John)
Registered User

Finite is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Waikato, NEW ZEALAND
Posts: 91
Home-made telescope trolley

Well I got tired of dragging my Meade 10" sct outside, down the stairs, and across the lawn everytime I wanted to do some viewing, then all the way back again when I'd finished for the night. So I moved my scope out to the garage to make the carrying distance much less (and to avoid the stairs).

However, by then I'd carried the scope in and out enough times that one of my knees was feeling the strain and had got quite bad (it hurt diabolically for some months even just walking about). So my scope wasn't getting much use, even with just a short lug out of the garage and back. It was time to build a trolley!

I looked all over the net for something I liked and found one which looked the part and was of the type I had in mind, but there were no measurements for it. Even the size of the scope it was carrying wasn't mentioned, so I could only guess at dimensions. But the scope looked like an 8", so I set about using it as a visual guideline and started from there. Attached is photo of the result. My brother was visiting from Auckland so gave me a welcome hand for the assembly. What do you reckon? I think it looks alright. This thing has made my life stacks better. I've yet to build a frame to hold the battery pack base. Also I've yet to complete anchors for the legs (to the frame) and would like to build some stabilizer/leveller legs on it....all in good time though, the set-up's up and mobile which is the main thing. A bungee cord temporarily holds a crucial leg to the trolley frame for when rolling it down a ramp out of the garage and back up into it again. I fitted pneumatic tyres as I go over a bit of stony terrain, then a cattlestop, Click image for larger version

Name:	photo.JPG
Views:	755
Size:	193.5 KB
ID:	104274and up over a small curb to the front lawn of the house. The scope's more solid on the trolley than I expected it to be, and it seems about as vibration-free on the trolley as off it.
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (photo (2).JPG)
107.8 KB769 views
Click for full-size image (photo (3).JPG)
194.3 KB640 views
Reply With Quote