$170 saved!

[Darkplague]

Since my 16" mirror from Mr. Suchting is almost ready to be shipped out to me,
I thought I had better get a hurry on with some of the components for my truss dob ready. I thought long and hard about buying a spider, but at around $170, I couldnt bring myself to spend this on what is effectively about $2 worth of sheet steel.

So here is the spider I whipped up at work, cost to me = zero!!

I am pleased with how it turned out, it is all stainess steel also, so should help keep the rust away. There is roughly ,on and off, about 5 hours of work involved in the making side of things, but since I did it in work time it didnt really matter

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Originally Posted by Darkplague

but since I did it in work time it didnt really matter

I hope your boss doesn't read this forum!

[cjmarsh81]

That looks like a mighty big spider. Well done.

[Darkplague]

I have a secondary cage question.

When building the 2 secondary cage wooden rings, is there really a need to countersink the ends of the aluminum tubes into the wood? Does anyone have an opinion on this??

[Lester]

Thats the way Mark.

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Originally Posted by Darkplague

When building the 2 secondary cage wooden rings, is there really a need to countersink the ends of the aluminum tubes into the wood? Does anyone have an opinion on this??

David Kriege from obsession says yes, and I would tend to believe him - he does build a few. I'm sure that you could get away with it, but its that attention to detail that makes the difference in the end.

[h0ughy (David)]

This is your employer speaking, your docked 170 dollars this pay Mr plague! Nice job!

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Originally Posted by Darkplague

There is roughly ,on and off, about 5 hours of work involved in the making side of things, but since I did it in work time it didnt really matter

Mate, you're true blue. Spoken like a real Australian! You're the foundation on which our great democracy is built. Superb job on that spider!

[mikey7 (Michael)]

Great job onthe spider, feels great to save the bucks does'nt it.

I just finished my secondary using Kriege's book as a reference and the couple of mills of countersink seem to make the secondary more solid. I toyed with the idea of not countersinking but now I'm glad I did. Just take it slow with the drilling, its really easy to go too deep. Countersink first then drill out the wood for the bolt. By the way I ordered tube inserts from Obsession telescopes (http://www.obsessiontelescopes.com/A...ts/index.html), cant recomend them enough.

Adios
Mike

[Darkplague]

Thanks for the comments guys!

After reading Mikeys post, I will definitely countersink them then.

The reason I hesitated was that to drill them nice and square, I would have to smuggle them in to work on their drill press.

No easy task considering their size.

[leon]

You would have to wonder, why is sheet metel so expensive.

If your handy you can safe heaps, and the finished product is probably better, and stronger, than the bought version.

[Phil]

Its great when people like us can make stuff and save a lot of money.
As we all no astronomy is not cheap .
Phil H