Thread: Telescope building

Anyone else build telescopes? I've made a few, my best was a kind of cool 4" Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian base. I included a few innovations in my design and it turned out pretty cool. It has a six sided pine tube. With the six sides I could have a flat surface to mount my focuser and set my elliptical mirror spider. I was also able to make one of the six panel sides partially removable for cleaning and adjustments inside the tube.

Anyone else build scopes?

I don't currently, but I would like to. Among many other things I would like to do but have not the time for.

You can save a bit over the cost of buying a nice telescope by building one and it can be as easy or as complicated as you want. I'm a woodworker so I usually make much of mine out of wood. I made one of my mounting posts out of an old bedpost someone threw out, bought my objective lens and focuser at surplusshed.com (great place to buy inexpensive telescope parts). Once I have the parts, I test the lens for the focal length, I make a CAD drawing to scale of my design so I have all the dimensions worked out for the focal length, then I start to build it. You can skip the CAD drawing part if you find a plan (plenty online) and buy your parts to match the plan requirements.