Andy
I was going to make it out of "plastic".
Well resin as used in fibre glassing.
You make a mould from cardboard and stuff it with those stainless steel pot cleaners and add resin..file away the cardboard and shape it...it will be as strong as and I bet won't have appreciable flex...you can but something on the net if you don't feel adventurous...it surprises me I could not find something suitable..maybe I should cast a few and go into business
And I did make one out of ply wood and resin, fibre glass and black tiling grout specifically for the EQ5 And it was great. Here is a photo..its a bit ruff here and I meeded to fill some gaps after "adjustments"
and a sdditional coat of tesin and black tile grout was needed to make it look flash..but it is rock solid.
Edit..I just realised that was an rarlier stage than I thought and more proto type but you get the idea ( the ply has no covering here at all so I think this was a field trst before I comitted to glass and resin etc cover)
Another edit...I think I was not clearing the wall of the observatory for the polar scope so a bit of mucking around..cant remember much as it was April 2020???
Alex