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Making a Pier

I decided it was high time I make setup easier and faster. What to do, what to do… how about a permanent pier that I can leave my mount on? No more dragging the mount outside and having to polar align would help for sure. Ok, a telescope pier it is…

I almost bought a pier but thought… I could make one of these things in a couple afternoon sessions for way less cost. So I called up my local metal supplier, spent about 175 bucks and get everything I needed (except hardware, a chunk of aluminum, and some sand. All together it was another $50 or so).

I used a peice of 7.625″ pipe with 0.375″ wall thickness for the main tube. Some 0.375″ plate for the bottom, top, mounting plate, and fins. I actually had the alumiumn part already made from awhile back. I had to make it to use my old LX90 tripod with the EQ6-R mount for a couple weeks while I was waiting on my Sky-Watcher tripod to arrive. I setteled on some 1/2″ all-thread with all nuts, washers, and lock washers coming from lowes. The 1″ bolt in the middle I made some custom hardware for (rubber gaskets to keep water out)… got the bolt from fastenal.

Once I had everything, I milled the circles out of the plate and drilled the bolt holes. My Dad helped me weld the important parts up, I’m not much of a welder… Once welded, I painted it, got it bolted down to the back porch, filled it with sand, and have been getting some great tracking results every since!

The measurements are as follows:

Bottom plate: 14″ diameter / 0.375″ thick / six 0.625″ holes
Main tube: 7.625″ diameter / 0.375″ wall / 36″ tall
Fins: 14″ tall / 3″ wide / 0.375″ thick (cut to make it “look cool” LOL)
Top fixed plate: 10″ diameter / 0.375″ thick / six 0.5″ holes
Top floating plate: 10″ diameter / 0.375″ thick / six 0.5″ holes and 3 threaded holes
Aluminum mounting plate: 7.5″ diameter / 1″ thick / three countersunk mounting holes / mounting cutouts for the EQ6-R Pro

 

 

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