Bearings for Alt Az

I'm interested in building a simple alt az mount similar to a Unistar, or Dscmount -- that is a mount for a small refractor that may be used like a dob, without slow mo controls.

How are the bearings made on these mounts? anyone made anything like this? Do you have pictures/links?

thanks,

--Ian

Hi Ian,

This pipe mount was cheap and fast to make. Although my ground board is too small.

David Simons

Hello Ian,

I have built a couple of dob mounts for refractors. An excellent material for the alt bearings is 6" PVC pipe glued to 3/4" thick wood. This is in turn bolted directly to the tube rings or bolted to another board that is bolted to the tube rings. The cradle used Carpet Glides purchased from one of several retailers. This can provide for a nice movement in altitude. I have a picture of one such project on an old ad for a folded refractor listed awhile back on Astromart.

Daniel