Check out Gary Seronik's Telescope Workshop column in the November Sky & Tel and see Dave Groski's Stellafane award-winning easy-to-make improvements on the classic pipe mount.
However... i'm interested to see how relatively unsophisticated these are compared to what amateurs were making in the 1950's (Sky & Telescope Gleaning Bulletin C).
Maybe it has to do with the fact that good commercial gear is so cheap these days there's little point trying to make something more sophisticated than a dob or a pipe mount.
