From: "Scott Berfield" 
To: "atmlist" 
Reply-To: "Scott Berfield" 


Coopering up a tube can be a lot of fun and make a pretty darned nice
looking scope. They can get heavy though, depending on the type of wood and
finish used. Some pics of two of my efforts are at
http://www.berfield.com/atm.html Excuse the out of date info on the site
- I haven't updated it in a LONNGGGG time. If anyone is interested in
doing this sort of tube I would be glad to correspond directly regarding techniques.

-sb


-----Original Message-----
From: Bob May [mailto:bobmay{at}nethere.com]
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 9:54 AM To: atmlist


Why not make a tube of whatever diameter you want? Go find some nice
3/4" thick maple and rip it into pieces that are the width needed and
then rip into 1/4" stock.  A 12 sided tube can be made by putting the
table saw at 15 deg. and cutting the pieces.  The next thing is to take
some more stock and cut that angle on the edge so you have a roof shaped
edge on the wood and then cut it off of the board. These will be supports
on the inside of the tube. Assemble the tube by first getting a tube from
an old tire (truck tire places have lots of them) and cutting it into a
long rubber strip.  You do the gluing up of the tube by taking the pieces
and use some short loops of the rubber to hold them in a circle, glue the
joints between the 12 pieces and then wrap the whole tube with the rubber
band tightly. Wait a day and you will have a nice tube the diameter that
you want. Afterwords, put in the supports for the joints and ballons will
do a good job of holding the pieces in place untli things dry. Bob May
http://nav.to/bobmay
bobmay{at}nethere.com
NEW! http://bobmay.astronomy.net

--- BBBS/NT v4.00 MP