Its all little steps mate... little steps.
Its taken me 3 years to accumulate the equipment i have and its only though the fact that I have access to good quality metal working tools eg Lathes, bridge port milling machines and a whole raft of other stuff that I have got half the gear that I do. As i built the 3" OAG myself, increased the size of the puck in the head of the EQ6 along with the new D saddle style dovetail holder and Dovetail on the newt. those 3 things alone would be closing in on 1500 dollars without blinking a eyelid!
Also these trials and tribulations are while frustrating as hell. give you the needed skills and knowledge so when you do finally get that 20k worth of scope camera and mount there is nothing that it can throw at you that you cannot quickly sort out without the need for getting other people to help you. Invaluable in my opinion
Brendan