RINOLDI CORNER

I’ve always been interested in telescopes and owned a few ones. However, the real good scopes are very expensive. That’s why I decided to construct my own Truss tube telescope. My woodworking experience is zero, but I’ve managed to build the primary and secondary cages, the rocker box and base out of cheap plywood. I still need to buy the aluminum tubes to connect the secondary to the primary cage. And still need to find a good 12″ parabolic mirror, secondary mirror and focuser. So far, so good! If you want to build your own telescope, you need to get the book “THE DOBSONIAN TELESCOPE”, by Berry & Kriege (the last one is the founder and owner of “OBSESSION TELESCOPES”, one of the best manufacturer of truss tube instruments.

I started by the secondary cage. For this task I gathered some plywood sheets. I needed an inside diameter of 14″, and an external diameter of 16″. used 2 sheets of plywood and traced one ring on each sheet. (14 ” ID and 16″ OD each) I don’t have access to a router so I had to cut them with  a saber saw (jigsaw). It looks difficult but you can make them if you are careful. Once I’ve made both rings, I sanded them very well, then applied five coats of polyurethane.  I made the 4 struts out of wood, and joined them to the rings with screws. Then I constructed the focuser board out of 1/4″ plywood. So far, so good!

Second, I constructed the mirror box, side bearings and truss blocks:

Then I made the rocker box and the base. Once you ‘ve built the secondary cage, everything else comes easy!
Above are all the parts I have built up to this moment. I would say I reached half of the task. Missing are: truss tubes, cam levers for truss tubes, mirrors, etc. Mirror cell was constructed out of wood since I am unable to use metal, as suggested by the book, because it would take special tools that I don’t have access to.

Filed under: Telescopes