Wood Stain - Can you dilute it to make it lighter in colour

[monoxide]

Originally Posted by CoombellKid

Ken,
I was originally thinking of staining it a verp deep green

deep green stain actually looks a lot nicer than you would first think
probably a bit more fitting for a bass than a big dob though lol

[CoombellKid]

Originally Posted by monoxide

deep green stain actually looks a lot nicer than you would first think
probably a bit more fitting for a bass than a big dob though lol

probably a little bit darker again, but getting close to what i had in mind.
I've seen a dark blue stained scope which was really nice (different).

btw, I'm building a weeny teeny 8" dob, called Buzz

regards,CS

[Orion]

Originally Posted by CoombellKid

btw Ed,

Here's how the focuser board turned out. I ended up clamping it for
seven days, i'm pretty happy with it. Also half done making the
wedge clamps.

posting instead of your 24" Nasmyth thread.

regards,CS

That's excellent Rob it looks great..

[Orion]

How is the scope coming along Rob?

[CoombellKid]

Originally Posted by Orion

How is the scope coming along Rob?

Seems to be ok so far. I've finished the secondary cage, it presently
has the focuser attached and spider and secondary loosely sitting
in it. I haven't aligned the focuser yet. Mirror box is built, almost
finished the side bearings. In the picture below I mounted them
temporarily so I could work out the placement of the split blocks.
Which are also semi attached by there pole locking bolt, I want to
try setting the poles into them and the secondary cage to see how
they look before I permanently fix them. I cut the truss poles last
night and also modified the side bearing with a cutout for the front
two split boxes. The bearing once the cutout bits have set just needs
a bit of filler in the odd spot and a bit of sanding. I'm going to spray
them silver and then Estapol on top.

I have been thinking of late that the mirror box can take a 10" mirror
and humming and harring about throwing one in there. But then I
would have to build another secondary cage. But then again if a cheap
one was to surface I probably would go for it.

I'm looking to have it completed by next new moon, no kids this weekend
so I will be out in the shed

regards,CS

[GrahamL]

nice rob.. funny how red it looks in shot as its much darker up close
next moon eh ?...I should be pretty close by then ..maybe

[Orion]

It's coming along very nice Rob.

I can already see it as being a good looking sturdy telescope that will last for many years

How is yours coming along Graham?

[CoombellKid]

Thanks guy's

Well I have made a big booboo... through a design change made between
completing the secondary cage and building the mirror box (I made the
mirror box a little bigger, wider) the truss pole connectors on the secondary
cage dont line up with the angle of the truss poles coming from the mirror
box. So I spent yesterday afternoon making a start on my parrallelogram
mount for my bino's. I was wondering how the hell I was going to remove
them without any damage to the secondary cage itself. Then it struck me
since it's all held together with glue and it is reasonbly slimline I can whack
it through the bench saw.

regards,CS

[Orion]

Is there any way to modify the truss blocks to the mirror box to suit the cage?

[GrahamL]

I was just typing that .. yeah it would be a shame to have to change the top as youve pretty much got it looking good

I just have to grab a couple of sleaves(centre bolt) from my old man ed
without jacking robs thread to much I'd like to run this by you ed and see what you think
Hes also made three bearing assemblies to replace the teflon pads, basically brass inserts with a
19 mm marble soldered in each.. how well do you think it might work ?.. not that its really a problem as if it dosn't
I'll just flip the base board.

[Orion]

Graham I replied to your 12" dob thread.

[CoombellKid]

Looking at the problem this morning, I've come up with a few options.

A) I could rout out the outer sides of the wedge connectors on the cage,
but the problem there is the the bolt that the wedge runs on is still at
the wrong angle. Trying to bent will damage either the connector or
possibly the cage itself, they're made of brass.

B) I can run it through the bench saw and cut them off as neat as possible,
then make wedged shaped spacer to the 2 degree angle I need and
re-glue. The wedge bolts would come with them as they dont go through
the secondary ring

C) I could just cut them off and make another variety shown in Kriege's book
which is where I scanned the image from, so I didn't have to try and
describe it.

Option C would also fix another design problem that I came across, with the
wedges permanently fixed the way they are. They get in the way while trying
to attach the secondary cage. But I'm also thinking, maybe a cross between
A and B rout out the sides and angle them.

Ed, trying to modify the mirror box is an option, but I would prefer the split
block were on the outside. But just looking at it now the outside diameter
of the secondary cage is about an in all round smaller than the mirror box.

regards,CS

[CoombellKid]

Well end result, I made a meal of removing the connectors. So it back to
building another secondary cage, managed to save the focuser board
relatively unscaved.

Oh well, we live and we learn. Any how all the design faults in the first
version can be fixed in the next version. Not that there were a great
many, more annoying to me than anyone else.

regards,CS

[Orion]

That's sad to hear.
Oh well the next cage will be new and improved!

[CoombellKid]

Originally Posted by Orion

That's sad to hear.
Oh well the next cage will be new and improved!

Yes it will I'm determined

Well today hasn't been my day in the shed first I destroyed the
secondary cage. Then set about making another with some 12mm
ply I had laying around.... a bit thicker than what I wanted. So after
spending about an hour or so cleaning up the nasty side to save
me trying to do it when they are rings. I slipped up with the router
and made a mess of that, 3 hrs work gone , so I humbily went
and cut another set out of the dreggs of what I had left of ply. Low
and behold my attention must of been somewhere else as one of the
panels kicked back off the bench saw and hit me square in the guts
leaving a nice big welt

So I decided to call it a day, maybe next might be a finger or something

oh well, tomorrow when I go pick up Jake. I'll drop into Bunnnings and
see if I can pick up some more 9mm ply.

off to watch Fance v Argentina with a cold brew or 2

btw, Ed your rocker box has giving me an idea for my new and improved
secondary cage

regards,CS

[GrahamL]

Yeah you gotta walk away rob .. my router got the wanders when cutting my last ring
( "possibly" somone didn't secure the pivot bolt to anything () )
though I think it was still the routers fault !!!.
Had to buy another sheet of ply because of that one ..painfull as it is I find the little stuff ups that crop up all part of the process.

take care graham

[Orion]

Originally Posted by nightstalker

( "possibly" somone didn't secure the pivot bolt to anything () )

sorry had to laugh....it would of been a funny looking circle.

[Orion]

Originally Posted by CoombellKid

btw, Ed your rocker box has giving me an idea for my new and improved
secondary cage

regards,CS

Glad to be of help.

[GrahamL]

It went wrong long before I cut a circle Ed .. I think i only got 4 or 5 inches
before noticeing the rotten thing was just heading in a straight line
but it was enough that i couldn't get another out of the piece i had left.

Are you going to allow for a 10 " mirror on the next one rob ?

[CoombellKid]

Well I went to Bunnings this afternoon, as usual most of the ply was the
usual standard. I picked through the 9mm but couldn't find a useable
piece. So I decided to go another route and got a sheet of 3mm and a
sheet of 7mm. I think I was lucky with the 3mm it doesn't appear to
have any noticable voids. The only difference is the 7mm made of pine
and the 3mm outer veneer looks like some sort of hardwood. Anyways
they're now in the press being laminated with the good sides out.

So I've rebounded and jumped back on the horse . After the painful
death of my first effort with the SC , and the workshop disasters that
followed . I'm not going to try and copy the original, I'll only make mistakes
and I have ali tube for the struts. But I'm still going with the slimeline SC
style to keep the weight down.

So I have a Q, is Shelly's exterior PVA ok to use to glue the ali tube into
the plywood rings? as they intend to be permanent. Or is there a better
alternative addhesive.

regards,CS