I've added a few photos to my Gallery page: http://www.utahastronomy.com/Chuck?page=5 These show some aspects of preparing the Sonotube form prior to gelcoat application, and spraying the gelcoat itself. Many thanks to my employee Marty Harrison, who does a great job in my paint booth. The fiberglass will be laminated into the mold on 1/11 and after curing for up to several days, I'll peel off the Sonotube and begin working-up the surface gloss. I will be molding end-rings from fiberglass, as well as tube clamp-rings for attaching to the mount. This scope is somewhat of a throwback design, incorporating some new ideas into a tried and true classic tube assembly. It will be gloss white as are all my scopes since the early '90's. After building dark tubes with metallic charcoal finishes, I found that the traditional white tube is much easier to discern under a dark sky- easier to find one's way around all the appurtenances in very low-light conditions. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com
Great photos Chuck, thanks for the update, good luck with the fiberglass!! I like the access doors for the mirror and fans nice design feature. Are you planning on any interior surface features to act as baffles? Howard --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
I've added a few photos to my Gallery page:
http://www.utahastronomy.com/Chuck?page=5
These show some aspects of preparing the Sonotube form prior to gelcoat application, and spraying the gelcoat itself. Many thanks to my employee Marty Harrison, who does a great job in my paint booth.
The fiberglass will be laminated into the mold on 1/11 and after curing for up to several days, I'll peel off the Sonotube and begin working-up the surface gloss.
I will be molding end-rings from fiberglass, as well as tube clamp-rings for attaching to the mount.
This scope is somewhat of a throwback design, incorporating some new ideas into a tried and true classic tube assembly. It will be gloss white as are all my scopes since the early '90's. After building dark tubes with metallic charcoal finishes, I found that the traditional white tube is much easier to discern under a dark sky- easier to find one's way around all the appurtenances in very low-light conditions.
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Howard, I am planning on at least one baffle near the top, doing double-duty as a stiffener near the spider, but I also am sold on black flocked paper as a liner- works extremely well so I'll be using it as well. --- Howard Jackman <sumoetx@yahoo.com> wrote:
Great photos Chuck, thanks for the update, good luck with the fiberglass!! I like the access doors for the mirror and fans nice design feature. Are you planning on any interior surface features to act as baffles?
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Hi Chuck, On Wed, 10 Jan 2007, Chuck Hards wrote:
I've added a few photos to my Gallery page:
How do you get inside a long tube to apply fiberglass near the middle of the tube? I can see how one might easily apply fiberglass to the inside of a tube near the ends of the tube, but how do you get to the middle portions of the tube? Do you have a staff of small gnomes who can crawl inside the tube to do the work, or do you just have rubber arms? :-) Chris
Chris, it's not really too difficult with a 20-inch tube. The tube is only seven feet long, so you only have to reach about 3-1/2 feet in from each side. Also, I have a person on my staff help me and he is a man of small stature who can get inside much easier. We use matt, not our chop gun, on projects like this. When I last did a 10-inch ID tube, THAT was a pain! I had to use a roller on a pole as well as a mirror on another pole. But even then it worked OK. Anything smaller than 10-inches and I'd probably make the tube on the outside of a collapsible tool, or just go with aluminum. --- slas@2nerds.com wrote:
How do you get inside a long tube to apply fiberglass near the middle of the tube? I can see how one might easily apply fiberglass to the inside of a tube near the ends of the tube, but how do you get to the middle portions of the tube? Do you have a staff of small gnomes who can crawl inside the tube to do the work, or do you just have rubber arms? :-)
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I added a few more photos showing today's progress: http://www.utahastronomy.com/Chuck?page=5 Today the bulk of the lamination was completed. After a good cure all weekend, I will add an additional strip of mat at each end of the tube, at the location of the primary cell and the spider. Then some clean-up sanding of the tube interior (an itchy procedure even in a Tyvek suit and full hood with supplied breathing air) and I should be stripping off the cardboard by next weekend. Then the rework of the tube exterior- but first I have to build a rack to hold the tube so I can work on it- much like a giant paper-towel holder. I drew the rack up today and will build it Monday. Still to be made in fiberglass is the front end ring, rear cap (which will also hold the batteries for the fans and central fan that pulls air out. The side fans will be blowing in, over the face of the mirror), and the tube clamp rings. The clamp rings will be joined by a bridge plate, and that's how the tube will mate-up to the mount. Stay tuned... ____________________________________________________________________________________ Don't pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html
participants (3)
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Chuck Hards -
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slas＠2nerds.com