Steel Suppliers

[OnOff]

A appeal then for help finding a special bit of steel for a little home project:

It's for an astronomy telescope pier for my big brother. What I'm after is a very, very short section of mild steel tube or "CHS" as it's known (circular hollow section). Anyway, atop the grey tube in the picture below sits the short red one with the circular plate welded to it. The telescope mount goes on the yellow plate and its set dead level by the 4 studs. You rotate the red "head" and align with the North Star the lock the head to the column. It's the short length of (red) 219.1/10 CHS that's the problem.



Getting the plates etc water jetted (or maybe lasered) but deffo not plasma - like fekkin monkeys with a gas axe:

The critical thing is it must be 219.1mm OD (outside diameter) with a 10mm thick wall. The length is the "oddity". A piece 100mm long would be preferable but I could probably get away with 50 - 75mm. Don't mind paying / collecting etc.

I've tried a few of the "big boys" but they're not interested despite their "no job too small" spiel! I've in fact made contact with about ten steel suppliers and no luck! The piece of tubular steel I want is a stock size but I can find nowhere as yet willing to hack me 4" off. I've offered to collect, pay a minimum order, pay cash etc. Now investigating "alternative" ideas. Basically in the first 3 images from left the red circular plate is welded to the red tube that I need (219.1mm outside diameter / 10mm thick wall). This slips over the grey tube, rotates and is then locked onto the grey tube by the grub screws. With the idea far right I'll laser/water jet cut rectangular holes in the top plate and a lower "halo" plate with linking flat bars to achieve a similar detail but a right PITA!



Any other ideas?

Basically he likes standing in the garden on cold nights taking pictures like this:



Cheers

 

[Andy™]

probably a bit far away, but i use phoenix steel in hebburn. they do have facilities for cutting etc, but you may still have the problem of such a small piece

alternative is to go to a local metal fab place and see if they hve any offcuts that size, or are willing to cut a small bit for you?

 

[Technician]

Impressive shot Onoff...does he listen to jazz while he

is out there?  Moonglow by Benny Goodman, perhaps?

 

[OnOff]

Typical, I post this up and get a call pretty much as I hit "Post"!

Just found a source for 219.1OD but with a 5mm wall thickness which means I'll have to weld some nuts on for the M16 grub screws instead of tapping the 10mm thick wall.

A place just north of Hastings is willing to cut me a 4" length for £25 as a small order.

Thanks for the suggestions.

As for big bruv's musical tastes................he was always listening to The Beatles, Everly Brothers, Cilla Black, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison etc when I was growing up. AND he's still got them all on vinyl.

 

[apprentice87]

Hi OnOff,

I will see what i can do.. Just texted someone and waiting for reply

john

Hi Again,

Would thicker stuff be ok??

john..

 

[apprentice87]

Hi Again,

I can get you 219 in two wall thicknesses. I can get either 6mm or 19mm. If any of this is any good let me know and i will get you a bit. Will be free as i get it for nothing anyway! Should be able to face it square in the lathe if this is needed too.

john..

 

[apprentice87]

Just a thought, How you going to make sure that whatever tube you get fits in the grey bit?? i do not think there is a size that will. 219.1 is not a structural tube anyway, it is a pipe, quite a different thing.. much harder to get too.

Anyway, do not think there actually is a size that will be a good fit inside the 219 anyway.....

Could well be one of them designs that has been dreamt up by someone daft.. bit like trying to specify a cable size that does not exist..... Could you not modify the thing using a stub axle and a trailer hub??? That would be a much better design i think and you could easily make a locking device...

 

[OnOff]

Just a thought, How you going to make sure that whatever tube you get fits in the grey bit?? i do not think there is a size that will. 219.1 is not a structural tube anyway, it is a pipe, quite a different thing.. much harder to get too.

Anyway, do not think there actually is a size that will be a good fit inside the 219 anyway.....

Could well be one of them designs that has been dreamt up by someone daft.. bit like trying to specify a cable size that does not exist..... Could you not modify the thing using a stub axle and a trailer hub??? That would be a much better design i think and you could easily make a locking device...

John, cheers for that. I should have waited but am now committed to the 5mm wall one - collecting tomorrow! I had wanted 219.1 OD with a 10mm wall which would have given me 199.1mm on the ID. The grey tube is 197.3OD and the bigger tube would have sat snugly over that - once I'd ground the seam out. It'll be held on with 8 grub screws biting onto the outside of the 197.3OD. Just now I'll have to tack some full nuts on as the 5mm wall is too thin to tap M16. Cheers again.

 

[Evans Electric]

Impressive photo of the moon there .

 

[OnOff]

Getting there with the astronomy telescope pier for my brother at long last. Nice to get it from a CAD drawing to being "real". Nearly all welded up, got to attach stainless nuts to the rotating "head" and weld the (again stainless) studs to the top plate. Bring on the dis-similar rods and hot flying slag! Then off to the blasters, zinc flame sprayed and probably powder coated. 

In use this will sit atop a concrete pier in a quiet spot in his garden and the telescope will be on a quick mount on top. I'm thinking it would be good to have a 230V outlet on the pier so might weld a plate on to take a 2G weatherproof box. (Still got to run power to his shed where it will be fed from). In the base plate I've got holes to bring cable ducting up.

But data..........as I understand it you can take cabling from the pier mounted scope and view it remote on a screen (though it's not as good as through the eyepiece).  No idea what form this cabling takes though.........

 

[kerching]

My mate has similar in his Observatory.

Mount a bit like yours sunk a long way into the ground. Scope sits on top. He then has some software that can track an individual planet or Star or summat. He has his camera connected to the scope and views the images in the comfort of his house if it is too cold to be outside. I think he may use one of those ethernet over mains adaptors for the network link. I can ask him tomorrow if you want?

 

[OnOff]

My mate has similar in his Observatory.

Mount a bit like yours sunk a long way into the ground. Scope sits on top. He then has some software that can track an individual planet or Star or summat. He has his camera connected to the scope and views the images in the comfort of his house if it is too cold to be outside. I think he may use one of those ethernet over mains adaptors for the network link. I can ask him tomorrow if you want?

Yes please that would be great. His telescope I think is a 9.25" Celestron if that means anything to your mate.

At the moment my brother stands in the garden and looks in the eyepiece. Said something about the tech being close to them having a digital camera for home astronomy use that will equate to the quality of traditional optics that you can clip to the telescope and then view remote.

He's also on about linking via Wi-fi to the shed / house. From memory the shed is about 40m from the house. 

The pier as you say sits on a large concrete plinth set in the ground. The armoured route to power the shed up will pass thru this plinth in a duct.  (I only went as far as running 6mm SWA in duct to the garage when we changed it from Pyro).Then from the shed a second duct(s) will come back and up thru the telescope pier. Quite what data cable we put in can be figured out later but it'll be there!

Pity he never involved me earlier when he got the new shed......I'd have had the roof slide off on rails like a "proper" observatory! I'd have also continued the trench I made the drive people dig to the garage continued up to the shed.

One interesting thing there - there ARE some good tradesmen about still: When I knew my bro was having a new drive laid I suggested he get rid of the 1mm Pyro to the garage and replace with ducted SWA. The drive guy was dead against digging even an 18" deep trench saying it would be fine just under the blocks and also that he could "supply a bit" if we wanted - no thought to calcs of course. I got 6mm SWA in a duct, the trench at 18", cable tape, sand base, tiles & backfilled. The drive then promptly sank along the line of the trench and visibly so too. The guy came round and looked and said give everything time to settle and he'd come back and sort it. Nice to say he did, no quibble.

 

[kerching]

My mate is a joiner, his roof slides on rails also. To give it some weight he covered it with ( I think?) Sedum. It is a type of mossy grass planty type stuff. Looks F good!

He also has a couple of Red GU10 LED. Lamps in there , says it is better and your eyes do not have to adjust as much...Red October, Silent Running and The Enemy Below spring to mind

Just observing

 

[OnOff]

My mate is a joiner, his roof slides on rails also. To give it some weight he covered it with ( I think?) Sedum. It is a type of mossy grass planty type stuff. Looks F good!

He also has a couple of Red GU10 LED. Lamps in there , says it is better and your eyes do not have to adjust as much...Red October, Silent Running and The Enemy Below spring to mind

Just observing

........or a brothel!   :innocent

 

[OnOff]

OnOff

My mate in Plymouth has 220mm OD 200mm ID honed bored ex-stock  - All you'd need to do is turn it down a little on the OD

120mm of it is Free Of Charge if you want it - don't know about postage etc though :slap

Cheers for that, much appreciated. To progress though I had to go with the 5mm wall that I could get fairly locally. If it had been thicker I could have tapped it for the M16 grub screws but I am now welding nuts on - as shown by the roughly Blu-Tacked on ones here:

 

[OnOff]

I'm toying with mounting this 1G IP66 socket outlet on the main tube. Just wondering if rather than welding a flat plate to it whether I could in fact heat a section of the tube up with the acetylene to cherry red and "flatten" it................nice surface then to mount the outlet. Could even tap it M20/25 to accept the conduit gland. Ditto a 1G accessory box for future data cable. Thinking that locally flattening the tube would look so much better than an ugly plate?







Got a price to shot blast and zinc flame spray it all; £70 cash!

 

[kerching]

My mate has run a Cat 5 from observatory to house....he described it as an RJ45 cable ( he is a joiner though!), he then has a USB converter which he plugs into the camera, some can be plugged into the remote control handset. His is an 11" celestron, he only has a cheap small sighting camera attached at present. Apparently the best camera is from the Staes called, I think, a Mallin Camera...but they are a bit expensive

 

[OnOff]

My mate has run a Cat 5 from observatory to house....he described it as an RJ45 cable ( he is a joiner though!), he then has a USB converter which he plugs into the camera, some can be plugged into the remote control handset. His is an 11" celestron, he only has a cheap small sighting camera attached at present. Apparently the best camera is from the Staes called, I think, a Mallin Camera...but they are a bit expensive

Cheers. A length of Cat-5 then is no issue from the plinth back to the shed. My bro will be kicking himself as I told him to run another duct for such a thing when he put the armoured under the new drive! Must find out what connections he has on the telescope/camera. I do have a USB 1.0 spec converter thinking about it in case that's any use to him.

 

[kerching]

I'll pm you my mates details then you can e mail him.

Better to be safe than a pillock.......(.attrb Barbara Cartland , The Arsey gardener 1998)

 

[OnOff]

Nearly there! Been having fun with dis-similar rods on the stainless studs / nuts. Got the leccy socket plate welded on this afternoon and some 20mm tube over the studs to protect them from the blasting and zinc spraying processes:









Down to the shot blasters/zinc flame sprayers by the end of week fingers crossed!