(Semi) Permanent Pier

[MrB (Simon)]

This weekend I got the anodising done.
Couldn't help myself, went with the Paramount look

This is my new tank, which at 16 litres is much larger than my old setup.
This means I can now do much larger work, my new limitation being my constant-current power supply which was at its 5 amp limit doing the EQ6's adaptor plate.

[sn1987a (Barry)]

Hi Simon I have a cold saw you might be able to make use of for straight cuts, only problem I'm off for two weeks up north on Wednesday morning so its today and tomorrow lol.

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by sn1987a

Hi Simon I have a cold saw you might be able to make use of for straight cuts, only problem I'm off for two weeks up north on Wednesday morning so its today and tomorrow lol.

Hi Barry, both my band-saws are now functioning again, but cheers tho!

[The_bluester (Paul)]

You have made me think seriously about setting up to anodise alloy parts that I make, mainly for the race car. That just looks so cool.

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by The_bluester

You have made me think seriously about setting up to anodise alloy parts that I make, mainly for the race car. That just looks so cool.

Go for it!
The hardest thing to source is the Sulphuric Acid, but some people have been experimenting with Sodium Bisulphate with decent results. http://www.observationsblog.com/4/po...tery-acid.html

I have not tried that method yet as I was able to sweet talk a local battery wholesaler into selling me 5x 1L bottles of 460g/L Sulphuric at cost price.

He was a bit hesitant but I assured him I had a legitimate use for the stuff.
To thank him I'm hoping to make a return visit with a small gift of a nice anodised business card holder with his company colours and logo. Got all the right dye colours here but I lack the skill with masking for the logo... a good excuse to practice this.
Some examples of what can be achieved by those with far more skill than I
http://jasonwong.smugmug.com/Other/2...DSC01780-L.jpg
http://www.gruntbull.com/images/f12/monster_1.JPG
http://www.gruntbull.com/images/d07/ccm6camo_1.JPG

I'm thinking I may try the toner transfer method first before I splash out on the expensive Caswell masking liquid, mainly because with toner transfer the laser printer has done all the hard work for you. Whether the toner can withstand 1 to 2 hours in Sulphuric acid remains to be seen.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

I would need to do some serious reading up first. the last thing I anodised was decades ago at school.

I would have to work out a way to ensure there was no chance of my young fellas curiosity getting the better of him given the constituents.

[MrB (Simon)]

One good online resource was Ron Newman's page about anodising at his Moonlite focuser site, sadly tho the page appears to have been removed. It is still available via the web archives tho:
http://web.archive.org/web/201310250...e/anodize.html

Another good source is the PDF manual for Caswell's LCD system, which is free to download: http://www.caswellplating.com.au/LCD.pdf

[MrB (Simon)]

The pier is not finished yet, but, it was looking like the weather was going to be perfect last night so I just had to set-up.
The night turned out to be near perfect. Cool, cloud free and very stable. I was hard pushed to see any scintillation by eye.
Downsides: there was lots of dew and I wasted much time sorting a software issue, namely... APT (AstroPhotography Tool) which is very buggy and I will no longer be using it.

I did end up getting 90mins of data before the night was wasted tho...
More info about the image at this thread:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s....php?p=1073104

It's not perfect, but a very happy first light
Note: Didn't end up using the Newt, didn't have time to collimate so swapped over to my Stellarvue SV70ED Refractor.