I'm going to steal Opti-Craft's design for a German Equatorial mount instead of a Fork mount.
I feel bad about using the guy's design, but I like to build what I'm capable of building, and buy the rest.
That's why I spent hour after hour grinding and polishing a mirror from a $100 kit instead of paying Edmund $370 for it.
I'll build the mount instead of paying this guy $850 for it, and then I won't feel so bad paying TeleVue $340 for a Nagler.
Well, anyway, I looked through their pillow block bearings, and picked out four 1 and 5/8 Inch diameter bearings for $18.50 each
Then I looked around for some stainless steel shaft, and I couldn't find any. But I did find some 1.5 Inch, and then I couldn't LIFT it.
So I looked in the Aluminum area, and found an 8 foot long shaft.
I also got a 22 Inch by 7.5 by 3/8 plate of aluminum.
I took the parts home, and sawed a 24 Inch shaft, and sawed the plate in half to make two 11 X 7.5 plates.
Then I assembled 1 plate, 2 bearings and the shaft to make a splendid polar shaft.
It weighs in at 20 pounds, so it looks like the entire equatorial head with wedge will be about 60 pounds. Not too bad. A Dobson could weigh in at 60 pounds.
I'll need about 20 pounds of counterweight also I'd guess.
Now I might buy a clock drive from Opti-Craft to ease my conscience.
I do think we should try to support companies that make things for the amateur telescope builder since they are a rare breed.
But I paid $130 for about 90% of the stuff I need to build a $850 mount, and I can't justify it otherwise.
-Alan "Cheap, or thrifty?" Kilian