The only one I can find in Sydney is the one in bintel, and it's over kill for what i need. Not to mention it's $1100 Ka ching $$$. So needless to say I wont be buying it anytime soon.
I want to get an 8" Newt for my Eq5 next month and I want to set up a semi permanent pier up in the back garden. I cant lay a slab as I dont own the property so I need something that can left out there but move with me when i move.
I just finished building my own. Got a 1300 length of 165mm steel tube (5mm wall thickness) and two pieces of 6mm steel plate for the top (200 square) and a 300 square 6mm plate for the bottom. Materials cut to size cost $165 from the local steel merchant. Got a mate to help weld the top & bottom plates on, drilled the holes myself, and spent another $40 on paint, threaded rod, nuts etc. Its dynabolted to a cement slab, filled with dry river sand and is very solid.
If your using a heavy scope (I'm running a 6" SCT), you may wish to increase the thickness of the top and bottom plates.
Looks like a home brew pier (I like it too , would be just the shot for my old CG5 , and a beefed up version would do for the Atlux) , but I will need a nice flat concrete slab first), I've asked him if he bought the legs or made them himself.
I just finished building my own. Got a 1300 length of 165mm steel tube (5mm wall thickness) and two pieces of 6mm steel plate for the top (200 square) and a 300 square 6mm plate for the bottom. Materials cut to size cost $165 from the local steel merchant. Got a mate to help weld the top & bottom plates on, drilled the holes myself, and spent another $40 on paint, threaded rod, nuts etc. Its dynabolted to a cement slab, filled with dry river sand and is very solid.
If your using a heavy scope (I'm running a 6" SCT), you may wish to increase the thickness of the top and bottom plates.
Greg
I like your permanent pier too , but pointless my having a permanent pier unless the fruitloop next stays in the looney bin or otherwize is no longer in the picture. (Crossing my fingers on that.)
Greg, do you still have the details the guys you bought the metal off of. That would do me I'd need a bigger base plate though for stability, nioce work.
Interesting design - but with no guide wires or gussets would it work well? My pier weights I'd say 50 kgs and it has four gussets over a metre high welded to it, I wouldn't want anything less (to dampen vibration and eliminate sway). Anyone know how well these perform? If you where to bump the OTA how quickly would vibrations dampen down and would the star still be where it was before the bump?
How about a portable pier for around $300-400 made primarily from aluminum. I'm working on modfiying the design from Astro-physics (Eagle) if your interested and are handy I'll send you my auto-cad drawings.
But doing some research i found this article. http://www.dd1us.de/Downloads/A%20te...cope%200v4.pdf
Which led me to a Company called LINAK. The make various types of Linear Actuators. And there Deskline D2 and there Lift Column L2 series are i think the basis of the Pier-Tech design. The facility to adjust the height without affecting polar alignment is a good feature to have.
You can buy the Liner Actuators relatively cheaply and make incorporate it into a pier design. That is what I think Pier-Tech have done but they are quiet expensive i think for what they are.
