Yawn...

I need some inspiration. How about some of you with projects underway post some photos of your work.

Come on, what say ye?

;^)

Lee

P.S. I'm bogged down in an ATM project--a 10" hybrid truss dob with a rotating upper ring, parallel trusses with tensioning cables, etc. Nothing to show yet except wooden parts drying on the counter. Picked up Rob O'Toole's free-floating Zambuto mirror a couple weeks ago and am trying to give it a decent home.

P.P.S. In particular, I'd like to see some of Herbert Highstone's work--he sparks enough intelligent conversation, you'd think he at least has a piece of polished glass or half-finished sonotube lying around somewhere ;^).

Okay Lee. I'll bite

I've recently finished my carbon fiber curved vanes ...

TomL

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How about this Lee, It's the latest project in the workshop.

It's a 5" F/4 RFT built by an ATM up in Washington state in the 50's. The mirror is marked 1952 5" F/4 with a Beral coating sticker on it. The tube had 5 layers of black paint the I stripped off of it, and have only just begun the hard work of sanding and finishing. I plan to replace the seized up R & P focuser with a JMI RCF-1-mini and also replace the spider/secondary holder with one that doesn't move around... I'll keep posting pix as the progress comes along...

The plan is for either a rich red mohagany finish or a merlot cherry finish with black velvet lining the tube and a few more "added touches". The wood is great, lots of worm holes and "oh cr*p I drilled the wrong hole" mistakes...all adding character to a piece that is way older than I am! =)

Eric

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Well lee, I finally got my hands on a digicamera so I could SHOW you what ATMin' I have been up to in the past. (Lee and I have been comunicating off post about my plans for the 16" Swayze he used to own).

This is a photo of my first scope, built (and yet to be completed--if ever) 5 years ago of 1/2" curly cherry with a 4.25" Edmond mirror and diagonal. The plan came from a book of six scope plans that I seem to have misplaced. This is the scope that got me hooked on the creative problem solving involved in scope making.

The focuser is two layers of cherry with a friction fit on the eyepiece (no focuser). If you look closely you will see that it only has one of the two brass screws in it. That allows me to swing the top layer out of the way when I need more in-travel for some eyepieces. The small whit tab on the side is a Radio Shack adhesive wire holder that is used as an attachment point for my modified Daisy l.e.d. sight. The diagonal holder is a mitered dowel with a sheet aluminum stalk attached to a saw kerf in the dowel. Collimation is accomplished by brute force (bending). As crude as this sounds, it is a great performer. It's all about the optics! This reminds me of the realization that I came to in my photo hobby. I have a 4X5 large format camera that is really nothing more than a light tight box, absolutly NO bells or whistles, that is capable of taking INCREDIBLE photos because of the high qualiy lens that snaps on the front.

This scope was also my teacher in that we always learn so well from our mistakes! I learned that spray-can laquer dries fast so you don't have to wait long to take it outside, and it makes the cherry look FANTASTIC, but after a night of heavy dew it looks like old barnwood until I can hit it with some lemon oil. Lesson learned...check finishes for water resistance.

Project #2, my 10" truss dob that was my prototype for the future 16", will follow in another post.


Mark

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Another view of the "cherry" first scope.

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This photo is of the 10" f4.5 truss dob originally built as a prototype for a future 16" dob using a Swayze mirror I aquired from Lee Stock. (Has the new Zambuto taken your mind off the Swayze yet, Lee?)

Wanna guess whose book I'm using to build my dobs?

I managed to find a sheet of 1/2" plywood with a curly birch surface in the stacks at the local Home Depot. (Have you figured out that I like figured woods yet?. Keep your eyes open! Last month I found some very nice curly maple in the stacks at Lowes. I also try to find quartersawn or near-quartersawn hardwood and softwood lumber when searching the stacks because it is immensly superior in stability and straightness compared to the typically flat sawn lumber. Quartersawn means the cut to make the wide face of the board is oriented toward the center of the log, not perpendicular to it.) The single upper ring has simple split blocks and wing nuts for clamps, the mirror box is right out of... you guessed it.. Krieg and Barry. I had to get creative with my finder scope mount because I wanted it removable for weight savings when I switch to my 16mm Type 2 Nagler and 2" Big Barlow combo (just about matches the weight of the 8X50 University Optics finder). The mount is just two 1/8" slabs with split blocks using offset scallops cut to fit the truss angles, all held together with some long brass machine screws and wing nuts. The long dovetail cut was to allow for further refinement of the balance that I subsequently found was not needed because I have sufficient "sticktion" in my berings (it happens when you get older).

The truss tubes are coated with a truck bed liner material from a spray can found at the local auto parts store. It is black, durable, nicely textured, and provides a little bit of insulation against the cold aluminum. If you use it don't forget to mask off the ends for the clamp blocks, or else allow for the "paint's" significant thickness.

The 16" is still in the rough design stage. I have just recently discovered a nearby Woodcrafters store, and they stock specialty and exotic lumber. After falling in love with the tufted mahogany, curly maple, redheart, wenge, and lacewood I have used to build jewelery boxes and mirror frames, I hope to use some of that to dress up a "pared- down-not-quite-ultralight" version of the 10".

Is it just me, or does this hobby make all the problems in this world seem 'fixable' with a little better design, a little tweeking, or with something you can get at a salvage yard?

I guess this means I've graduated beyond the "duct tape" stage.


Mark

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A closer view showing the finder mount and tube coating.

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Hi Lee,

I took an old 25" B&L Anastigmat f/10 lens and mounted it to a plywood box, added a mirror and jerry-rigged a focuser to see if it would work and it does. No problem seeing the rings of Saturn at 34x and 79x using microscope eyepieces. Now I'm making a new box out of poplar, giving it a nice finish and adding a JMI type focuser to it. Its a lot of fun taking old optics and making something useful out of it.

Rick

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