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Re: [ATM] ATM:This one is about atm-ing, for you guys, all-
Uh, well, yes, Ken. I think I just did.
I just want to save my approximately 3,000 hrs of precision seeking labor
for posterity, in some way.
No one can keep his cake and eat it, too. Folder is quickly filling up.
BTW, I designed it principally for a permanent installation in my back yard,
but when all of the engineering resulted in a single person transportable
insntrument, I just decided that maybe someone out there has a truck, and
isn't pressed for the space issue. I am not trying to convert everyone away
from the long standing fad of the Dobbie; "Different strokes for different
folks".
The original intention of the mounting was to make it available as a capable
and versatile instrument that institutions might find attractive, for about
.2 cents on the dollar, price wise, compared to, say, purchasing a similar
mounting from DFM. One they could easily make in their own shop WITHOUT
MACHINE TOOLS, contracting out the trifling, simple machining to a local
firm for about the price of a dinner for two at a good restaurant. (I
exaggerate, slightly, for dramatic effect).
http://www.atmsite.org/contrib/Harbour/AltAzEq.html
Yes, I was wrong. Institutions are not interesting in saving publicly
obtained funds; they are in fact, exactly the opposite. Yes, old Dave is
often wrong. I've gotten used to it, being wrong. Not to worry! I will do it
just for the heck of it! As Howard Hughes ended up doing with the HK-1.
Yes, old Dave is often wrong.
BTW, that folder is filling up fast.
Probably because I was born within thirty days of the Hercules' successfull
flight. It did get airborne. The movie, "The Aviator", has a very well made
digital dramatic re-creation of the event- I digress; I am a pilot, too, and
once owned and flew a classic warbird, whose wings were made of: PLYWOOD!!!
It was manufactured in 1943, before I was born. Amazingly, I am still here.
Flying a wooden winged airplane, with a Sitka Spruce main spar, and 200hp,
at 140 mph at only 24" above the Oklahoma prairies.
God looks out for fools and drunks, and maybe, atms.
Thanks, Ken. Nothing will be lost. There are no coincidences in the
Universe.
Thanks,
Thanks,
Thanks.
Davey
(Sorry for my manic outburst; I will try to reign myself in).
----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Hunter
To: David Harbour ; ATM List
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [ATM] ATM:This one is about atm-ing, for you guys, all-
David,
Before you resurect the Phoenix, you might consider asking the folks out
there if there is a need or desire for a mounting such as you built. I do
not think it was the task of travelling to Enid to make a copy of your
template that caused the mounting to be neglected. I believe it was the
sheer size and mass of the project that killed it.
As you will no doubt recall, I had to remove the seats of my full size (pre
90's) Suburban to get your mount inside and even then I had to leave some
items behind when you graciously donated it to the CIATM group who, once
seeing it assembled, decided to go another route. Sometimes you can't even
get rid of FREE stuff if it has little or no value to the recipient. This is
not to lower the quality or workmanship and the hundreds of hours spent by
yourself in engineering and building the mounting, it's just that the
mounting has been a victim of the times.
People want ease of breakdown into a small travelling package that they can
put into their compact vehicle along with a lunch, the wife and a couple of
kids. Look at the simple Dobsonian mounting, the ability to break it down
into a compact package and move it about is what made it so extremely
popular even with it's problems.
Ken Hunter
David Harbour <scarab2@cox.net> wrote:
To all:
I have assembled all my ducks now, and I am ready to begin writing my magnus
opum on how to build a plywood mounting for large optics that is built to
nearly machinists' tolerances, even in it's "grosser" components (Howard
Hughes did this, too, with the Hercules flying boat, imagined in Plywood).
It will be offered free to all of you, or any of you, who would like to have
it.
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