My attempt at a DIY Equatorial mount.

[Gazbo]

Not pretty, but functional. I made this from spare parts at work, a while back, but have only just made some circles for it. There is zero play on the gearing. Both RA and DEC circles are settable, with a small amount of friction. Once mounted on it's Pintle mount, it may as well be bolted to the floor ! I only made this for my old Tasco 7, dug out of the loft, as the wooden tripod suffers from very bad nerves ! Now awaiting some clear skies for testing / calibration. Any good ? (Assuming the photo's actually load this time !)

[Don Quixote]

No photo yet Gazbo.
But I am very interested to see you DIY kit. :-)

[Gazbo]

stupid windows update had stopped all my permissions ! just tried a workaround. hopefully they will appear now. please let me know if they DO !
They are all now shrunk to 600 x 400 ish - so hopefully they won't look like postal stamps !

AHA ! looks to have worked. (They have uploaded in reverse order though ! never mind. had enough now ! haha.)
I honestly didn't think there would be much interest - but here goes.......
Made from 1" sched 10 stainless pipe, with nylon machined bushings both ends, for the axle shafts. and 2mm / 3 mm plates, folded and welded to suit, to mount the worm drives etc.
Worm and crown gears are nylon items, rescued from scrap 6" valve - automated heads.
worms are mounted in bearings, in DIY carriers, from 1" box section.
Swivel lock fittings are actual 25mm dairy pipe flanges, with Gylon Gaskets providing some friction when loosened for adjusting etc.
Az mount is via same flanges / clamps. other half of which is welded to pintle top, which is a 4" heavy wall pipe, capped off at top, with 3 off, 1/4 plate fabricated outrigger legs, which have screw adjustable feet on the ends for levelling. (It's a 2 man lift to move it ! and it is carbon steel. the original white paint needs refreshing, as it sits rusting at the bottom of the garden, so no pics are included of that part yet.
the scope mounts to the fork section, as per the original Tasco tripod fork-mount, but it is then strapped down to the rear steady with either a velcro strap,(Which has recently disappeared somewhere) or a zip tie, simply to stop the tube from tilting forward / changing altitude by itself !

PS. the actual fork mount is removable, if you unscrew the height - adjustable back steady foot, then loosen the scope tilt locking wheel, the 10mm round then bar slides out forward.
I had intended originally to make some kind of removable universal dovetail mount, with a 10mm round bar attached underneath, to slide back in and lock up,as per the existing mount, but alas, redundancy has temporarily stopped play !
Gazbo....

[Bigzmey]

Neat! Let us know how the first light goes.

[Don Quixote]

Very interesting.
It looks great.
I am looking forward to your first light.

[OhNo]

Great job! These DIY accomplishments are nice to see, and you to be proud of.

[Gazbo]

Thanks all for your kind words.
This is a resurrected project, mainly as I have come across some decent 1" Kellner eyepieces, which fit the Tasco admirably, and are far superior than the plastic eyepieces supplied !
Hence - interest revived....
PS. the mount is probably 3 or 4 yrs old, and other than it's inaugral trial fit, it then remained unused since I made it, simply gathering dust in the loft. I spent ages pondering some setting circles for the unit, and after much head scratching - gave it up as a bad job. Everything revolved around successfully weatherproofed setting circles. To clear coat a printed paper or card disc, made the ink splurge everywhere ! Even a gentle dusting with an airbrush resulted in a purple corrugated mess ! And they would never be rigid enough to survive.
Then a light bulb suddenly flickered on! You know that moment when you slap your forehead ?
ONLY IF INTERESTED - READ ON.....
I realised (only this week) ,that I needed to again design on the laptop and to resize some "setting circles" to fit the required disc sizes of the mount, but minus about a quarter inch in diameter, then print them off.
Cut these out carefully (I printed 6 per sheet - just in case) with an Olfa circle cutter, Then to laminate these discs.
Cutting these laminations out, whilst leaving about an eighth inch lip of lamination around the outside of the paper,and about the same for the central hole, keeps the paper disc sandwiched and sealed in nicely.
Glue this lamination then, to a corresponding, fairly thin alloy disc (I cut these from an old Alu - clock dial ) for rigidity (Using aerosol clear acryllic laquer as a glue) then once dried and stuck fast - to apply a heavier clear coat of same overall to seal all the edges in. Once dried, it makes for a fairly respectable and rigid scaled circle. well - it seems to have worked anyway.
The RA disc, having no other means of being held back to it's gear, is held to the gear via 3 off m3 screws from an old PC, into tapped holes at 120 degrees spacing.These screws are wound in just enough to allow the disc to be moveable by hand for calibrating. The Dec circle does have a means of staying put, but with an eighth inch gap,
so is simply trapped under a central 1/8" section 'O'- ring, slid down the tube, and trapped under the scope mount unit. I greased the surfaces slightly so as to let the head revolve, but the circle to remain stationary against the gear.So the 'o'- ring provides a slight friction braking to keep the disc steady during winding, but yet it remains movable by hand for easy calibration. Hopefully I might not be winding aimlessly around all over the sky now that I have decent setting circles aboard to work with ! At least - more accurate than pure guesswork I hope ! Hope this info is useful to someone. (My lathe doesn't have any scale dials either.....Mmmmm.....I wonder.....)

[bladekeeper]

Nice looking work! Reminds me of my Unitron EQ mount.

Hopefully it works as nicely as it looks!

[Gazbo]

Well.... it's now Septic-ember - in good old yorkshire, and I'm still awaiting a decent night !!!!!!!! When will it ever end !?!?