Manufacturer of mount counterweights

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Dear all, I am looking for a company or an amateur that can make some custom made counterweights around 15/20 Kg each, possibly located in NSW. It would be great to have them in stainless steel but probably it will be too expensive, anyhow at least should be painted against corrosion.
I still don't know yet the total weight I need, I will have to take a decision in several weeks however I am just checking in advance to be ready
Thanks for any suggestion!

Kind Regards
Marco

[bojan]

Use plastic pot, place a plastic tube in the middle and pour the concrete in the pot.. et voila, in a day or two you have your counterweight.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...=counterweight

[MattT]

Hi marco,
I'm going to make some CW's for a mount I'm building. I'm going with 127mm wide brass. Cost of brass this size works out to $79 for a 5kg weight. Skywatcher CW's are $59-69 from Bintel. I'm surprised Brass is sort of cheap.

Probably no help to you but look up George White and co.

Matt

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Originally Posted by MattT

Hi marco,
I'm going to make some CW's for a mount I'm building. I'm going with 127mm wide brass. Cost of brass this size works out to $79 for a 5kg weight. Skywatcher CW's are $59-69 from Bintel. I'm surprised Brass is sort of cheap.

Probably no help to you but look up George White and co.

Matt

Thanks Matt, just checked the website but they only manage non ferrous (no steel) materials..

Originally Posted by bojan

Use plastic pot, place a plastic tube in the middle and pour the concrete in the pot.. et voila, in a day or two you have your counterweight.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...=counterweight

Thanks Bojan, the idea is good and you did a nice job there, however I do not live in Australia, I have my observatory hosted there so I need to find a machining guy/shop able to make it to specs, be paied with a money transfer and deliver to my site in Coonabarabra, so unfortunately not DIY possibility for me..

Furthermore I have already other counterweights mounted so I would like a solution that is more "traditional" to work with the existing ones if possible. Unfortunately deliver down under counterweights is bloody expensive so I would like to avoid if possible..

Regards
Marco

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Ok, ok, so what new scope are you getting, huh? huh? Huh?

Mike

[gregbradley]

Marco,

I got some rubber coated 10kg weights from a gym company in Castle Hill. They were about $20 each.

They lock between 2 locked counterweights and I filled in the oversized hole in the gym weights with a magnetic strip you can buy at Bunnings.

I was going to get some AP or Software Bisque ones but as you say shipping is expensive and they are about US$300 each plus probably $150 shipping for a 10kg shiny stainless steel one. I figured 2 x 20lb stainless steel weights from AP (different sized hole to PME) would cost around AUD$1100 possibly $1200.

Greg.

[bojan]

Any builder can make concrete weights for you for less than $100, I am sure.
BTW, Carl Zeiss used to use concrete counterweight for their 2.5 telescopes (like the one in Odrejov, Check republic)

[Baza (Barry)]

local foundry can produce whatever you want. the local turner can produce patterns

[LewisM]

Marco,

Peter Tan in HK is offering custom made stainless counterweights - contact him and ask. Near bottom of page: http://www.tan14.com/Others.htm

He only lists small weights, but when I asked for a 10kg weight, he seemed willing.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Biggest problem with concrete weights I found was they had to be a lot bigger to give the same weight as a metal one. If you're going to go that way then load them up with steel scrap or something. I used some CD plastic stackers as a mold, Just left it on after, nice and plasticy smooth.
But I went with some 5kg gym weights in the end, smaller and easier to handle.