The mount is to support a light weight 10inch f5 Newtonian Reflector. I had a length of 203mm diameter (8inch) aluminium extruded tube left over from my first telescope and this would be ideal for the pier

The ends of the tube looked like they were cut with a blunt axe, so the best method to square up the tube was to trim the ends in the lathe. When I purchased my lathe I never dreamed of testing it's capacity to the maximum. There was 2mm clearance between tube and cross slide and 35 mm of bed left behind the tailstock.

I made up plywood disks to support the tube. On the headstock end a pain disk supported the tube in the 4jaw chuck. On the tailstock end shown here I made an expanding disk that locked itself inside the tube to resist the thrust of the live centre and the tool. Plenty of light cuts and the job was done and then repeated for the other end.

I designed internal braces to keep the tube rigid and to kill resonances as the unbraced tube rang like a bell when struck with a soft mallet. I machined 5x20 slots with a router where the longitudinal strips were to be located and 8mm holes were drilled for the two disks. A visit to a local welder and he plug TIG welded the braces into the tube and tack welded the braces together. The weld beads left on the outside of the tube were carefully filed then sanded with wet and dry untill smooth. On close inspection, the only tell-tail of all this activity is that the weld metal is a slightly different colour from the extruded tube.

Now there is a dead "tonk" when the pier is struck, just what the doctor ordered.

My job is factory manager and CNC programmer at a small manufacturing facility in Sydney. We have two Strippit CNC Turret Punch Presses and three Hydraulic Brake Presses. I utilised this equipment to make components for the pier legs. Shown here are the leg sides after punching and during folding. Of note, the pair of sides shown took 1.92minutes each to an accuracy of +/-0.1mm.

I lacked a set of curling rolls so I made a set with some workshop scraps and power was supplied via an electric drill. All 4 stiffening rings for each leg were rolled with this high tec device while the smallest ring was turned from solid aluminium.

The legs are secured at the bottom by a stainless steel hook mating to a bracket at the bottom of the pier.

While the top is secured by a draw latch. The leg is attached by firstly latching up the lower hook and bracket while holding the leg at a downward angle. Once hooked up the leg angle is raised until the draw latch can be hooked up, closed and locked by an over center action.

It takes about 5 seconds to attach or remove each leg using no tools.

The leg ends have 1"BSF leveling screws fitted. Another trip to the Welder and the box section legs were complete and the leg mounts were welded to the pier.

The completed pier and GEM. The legs transcribe a circle of 1330mm diameter and is 700mm high to the top of the pier tube.

With the low center of gravity it will be an ideal mount for the 10inch.