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Setting circle mod


Guest devil74

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Guest devil74

Here it is folks...my setting circle mod for the dob.


 


For those of you that have seen my scope before you might remember it stands on a box which i made to bring it up to a more comfortable viewing height. I added a bottom circular base to it and also some of those shed leveling feet. 


As I wanted the setting circle to turn independent of the scope base itself (for easy polar alignment) i added four of those furniture sliders;


 


20131223_101359_zpsneffiryj.jpg


 


As for the setting circle itself i had this printed by a company in Ilkeston (Excel Printing) for only £15.. they did a cracking job i think. The brass bar in the middle is really just to stop the central hole getting bigger through use;


 


20131223_103324_zpsoliho7cl.jpg


 


 With the scope now mounted on the setting circle you can get a sense of what i'm trying to achieve:


 


20131223_105025_zps60qhw4gz.jpg


 


Now i needed to make a 'pointer' and i was really undecided on something very simple like a piece of thin bar just attached to the base or something that looked a bit better. I knew in the end i wanted to have a red LED to light up the scale so i went for something a bit fancier (and sort of copying of Daz's idea of a viewing hole). So i made this: (the pointer itself is a piece of thin stainless steel from our very own Baz..thanks Martyn  ;) ).


 


20131229_122323_zpsmpuo6coo.jpg


 


I then mounted it on the corner where i stand;


 


20131229_183431_zpsa4v6l5bl.jpg


 


Finally this is what it should look like under red light, just waiting for the red LEDs to arrive now.


 


20131229_183719_zps1zgpad1c.jpg


 


 


 


 


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Very nice job there. One of the mods could probably move this one to the DIY thread so more will see perhaps? I really like how you have combatted the low viewing height problem with Dobs :)


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Guest devil74

Nice work sir, that looks great.

 

Now get yourself a Wixey and get that Messier count up.

 

:)

Got a wixey Daz but problem is my tube is aluminium so not magnetic. Martyn is going to bend me a piece of steel though for inside the tube and hopefully that will do the trick.

Regarding the setting circle mod Daz i would have been lost if i weren't for seeing yours in the making  :thumbsup: that helped sooooo much....

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I have some super strong Velcro if that would help, both sides have strong sticky glue so you could stick the Velcro to your OTA and bottom of the Wixey and stick them that way, then if you ever needed to remove the Wixey (to replace the battery for example) you haven't got to worry about the steel inside dropping onto the primary (assuming your not going to stick that).


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The only problem with velcro is it might not be parallel to the tube, as it has a squishy quality.


I thought of gluing the steel plate to the inside of the tube, so the wixey should sit on the tube, and remain in place.


 


Cracking job Damian, you did well with a difficult base, that will work a treat. 


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Guest devil74
What I did was use a telrad base with a metal plate inserted into the telrad base, then the wixey sticks to that.

That sounds a good idea Mick, have to look into that tomorrow. I also thought of simply just bolting the plate on the inside just to make sure it won't ever drop on the primary.

Also fitted a new focuser and some homemade bob's knobs so virtually ready to go now.

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