Dobsonian Telescope Altitude bearing

This is another design for the altitude bearing of a Dobsonian telescope, an improvement over my previous design:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2637742

The lever arm of this design is twice as long (6" vs 3") making the balance of the scope less critical.

The design consists of three parts:

• The bearing. You will need to print two of these, each one a mirror image of the other. Use the mirroring function in your slicer to do this.
• The bearing cradle. Print two of these. No need to mirror them
• Sanding block. I used this with 150 grit sandpaper stuck with 2-sided tape to smooth the surfaces of the bearing and the cradle.

The difference in radius between the bearing and the cradle is 0.6mm to accommodate two short (1") strips of polyethylene at the ends of the bearing cradle:

https://www.amazon.com/Slick-Strips-Width-32-Thick/dp/B0035Y46GM

I attached the bearing and cradle using Rok hardware drawer front screws, 1" for the cradle and 1/2" for the bearing.

https://www.amazon.com/Rok-Hardware-Coarse-Adjustment-Phillips/dp/B01M04UM8Z/ https://www.amazon.com/Rok-Hardware-Standard-Thread-Screws/dp/B01MFAIS08/

The clearance between the rocker box and the azimuth box is 16mm. The bearing includes notches at the center and along the edge to aid in aligning the bearing with the edge of the rocker box.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Creality

Printer:

Rafts:

No

Supports:

Resolution:

0.24

Infill:

Filament: Inland PLA+ White Post-Printing =============

Use the sanding block with 150-grit sandpaper to remove print artifacts from the bearing surfaces.

Category: Physics & Astronomy