ATM Page 2
Click on each image for a larger picture.
One of the things I realized when I first started to 'gather'
my various telescope accessories was that I needed some way to
safely transport them. It's not uncommon to have the total cost
of eyepieces, digital setting circles, finders, etc. to exceed
the price of a telescope. So I made myself some eyepiece &
accessory cases out of Baltic Birch. Since then I have refined
them a bit and now make them out of Baltic Birch & Cherry
plywoods.
Here is a picture of my personal case with some of my accessories
in it. I buy a foam from one of my suppliers that is very similar
to the foam one sees in camera cases. There is a 1" layer
in the top and three 1" layers in the bottom. I cut out the
foam with a thin, long bladed knife, such as a fishing fillet
knife, with a 'sawing' motion. I like laying my eyepieces on their
sides. This help keeps me from putting finger prints on the optics
and helps keep them from dewing up when I forget to close the
case.
Here is a Dobsonian mount that I built for a friend of mine in
the CVAS. It too is a knock down mount so that it can easily be
transported. For this scope I made some 10" plywood circles
with Ebony Star for the altitude bearings. In order to keep the
price down I did not do all the fancy cut outs like I did on my
own telescope. My friend built the optical tube assembly using
a cardboard tube he bought from Yazoo
Mills. Yazoo makes all sorts of cardboard tubing and will
mail it to your doorstep. The nice thing about their tubes is
that they have no coatings on them so they are easy to finish.
They also come with plastic end caps to protect them during shipping
and these caps make great dust caps! And their prices are very
reasonable.
Here are some pictures of my shop. It is located in what was the
hay loft of the newer section of our barn. I put in a earthen
ramp to get up to the second floor, put in a 12' ceiling, and
hung alot of sheet rock. There is a cutting and storage area,
an assembly area, a finishing room, a metal working room, and
another room that currently is used for storage but will be my
optics fabrication room some day.
The view from the other end.
And yet another view.
If you are interested in a mount, knock down or otherwise,
or need an accessories case, or have some other wood project in
mind email me and I will get back to you about prices or design
considerations.
One of the things I realized when I first started to 'gather'
my various telescope accessories was that I needed some way to
safely transport them. It's not uncommon to have the total cost
of eyepieces, digital setting circles, finders, etc. to exceed
the price of a telescope. So I made myself some eyepiece &
accessory cases out of Baltic Birch. Since then I have refined
them a bit and now make them out of Baltic Birch & Cherry
plywoods.
Here is a picture of my personal case with some of my accessories
in it. I buy a foam from one of my suppliers that is very similar
to the foam one sees in camera cases. There is a 1" layer
in the top and three 1" layers in the bottom. I cut out the
foam with a thin, long bladed knife, such as a fishing fillet
knife, with a 'sawing' motion. I like laying my eyepieces on their
sides. This help keeps me from putting finger prints on the optics
and helps keep them from dewing up when I forget to close the
case.
Here is a Dobsonian mount that I built for a friend of mine in
the CVAS. It too is a knock down mount so that it can easily be
transported. For this scope I made some 10" plywood circles
with Ebony Star for the altitude bearings. In order to keep the
price down I did not do all the fancy cut outs like I did on my
own telescope. My friend built the optical tube assembly using
a cardboard tube he bought from Yazoo
Mills. Yazoo makes all sorts of cardboard tubing and will
mail it to your doorstep. The nice thing about their tubes is
that they have no coatings on them so they are easy to finish.
They also come with plastic end caps to protect them during shipping
and these caps make great dust caps! And their prices are very
reasonable.
Here are some pictures of my shop. It is located in what was the
hay loft of the newer section of our barn. I put in a earthen
ramp to get up to the second floor, put in a 12' ceiling, and
hung alot of sheet rock. There is a cutting and storage area,
an assembly area, a finishing room, a metal working room, and
another room that currently is used for storage but will be my
optics fabrication room some day.
The view from the other end.
And yet another view.