Starfest 2011 Workshop - Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention  - "The Sequel"

Dave Yates and I were honored to be invited as guest speakers again this year.

The theme of our topic was a follow-up to our topic for 2010....how to make accessories that are not commercially available using tools that would be found in an average home workshop.

There are a few simple electronic gadgets and you will find complete "how-to" guides on the links below.

 For the aluminum fabrication part of our presentation, our goal was not to focus on specific projects but rather to demonstrate how standard workshop tools can be used to fabricate aluminum parts.

During our presentation, we demonstrated several practical projects that you can do at home:

• How to make a Telrad Dew Heater. Easy, cost only $ 10.00 and works better than anything you can buy!

• Simple Switcher Power Supply - Astrophotography's Take Note! A really cool way to reduce cord clutter.

• Modifying EQ6 Mount Power Plug - Most mounts have a less than desirable power plug that causes loss of power. Fortunately, some mounts can be modified with a much better plug. Here is how to modify a EQ6 mount power plug.

• Fabricating Aluminum Accessories using common woodworking tools. This segment featured how to use a router to form slots and round-over edges.

 

Some background

Many of our past projects involved highly complex "machining" but we were able to do it with ordinary woodworking tools.

The photos above show accessories that were made for our CPC1100 telescopes. The goal was to improve the stability of the tripod for use as an astrophotography platform. We had already purchased a "Heavy Duty" Wedge which proved to be totally inadequate so we devised our own solution. Included are:

• Equatorial Wedge

• Spider Assembly (spreader)

• Stabilizing "outriggers"

• Tripod Levelers

Tools used:

• Table saw

• Miter saw

• Router (with table)

• Drill press

• Tap & die set

Some of these projects were the spring board to a small "hobby business" (Telescope Performance Improvements - TPI) and we now offer some of our inventions for sale.