Thursday, May 6, 2010

My 8" F/4 travel scope: Rocker box and altitude bearings


The altitude bearings are made from an old rotating CD case we had. The case had a top and bottom particle 3/8" particle board circle. I cleaned these out, sanded one side of each circle, glued them together (Titebond II, clamped with several layers of bricks), and then cut the resulting 3/4" circles in half. Like much of the scope, the bearings are held to the box with 1/4-20 carriage bolts and knobs.


The rocker box is made up out of a circle of 3/4" particle board with an old record lying on it (bought on ebay for about a dollar, shipped). On it, there is a very low profile rocker, made of a piece of particle board and some softwood, with bondable PTFE pads on the underside and where the altitude bearings go. The rocker is too low profile for good balance, however, so I had to add some extension springs.

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