Budget Pier Project

The Plan

I decided I wanted a Pier for a couple of reasons.

The 1st reason is that the area of my garden with the least obstructions of the night sky was on a patio of lose patio slabs and every time I walked on them it moved the mount.

The 2nd reason was to help speed up my set up process and decided a pier would help as I would not need to spend time levelling the tripod and also it would take less time to Polar Align the mount..

I started looking at purpose built telescope piers online and was a bit shocked on the costs, so I started searching forums for budget pier ideas and found a few threads of piers being made out of concrete block and decided that I would make a pier following this idea.

Materials Needed

1. 3 Hollow Dense Concrete Blocks 440 x 215 x215mm (Jewson)

2. 4 x Bags of Multipurpose Ready Mixed Concrete (20kg per bag) (B and Q)

3. 2 x M10 Stainless Steel Threaded Bar 1M (Toolstation)

4. 11 x M10 Nuts and washers Stainless Steel (Toolstation)

5. 1 x Anchorset Adhesive (Toolstation)

6. 4 x 6mm Concrete Anchor Ankerbolt Socket Bolt Dual thread M8 & M10 (Orbital Fasteners)

7. 1 x Pier Adapter (Dependent on the Mount you have) (Altair Astro)

8. Paint (If wanted)

9. 1 x M10 Stainless Steel Wing Nut

the first block

I started off by drilling three holes through the bottom of the concrete block

I then cut one of the M10 Bars into three and bent each one into L Shapes.

I filled the hole with the concrete and placed the three M10 bars into the holes on the block and then placed the block into the concrete making sure some of the M10 Bar was still above the concrete level.

I then used a spirit level to get this first block level then left to set.

Once set I used three washer and three nuts and bolted the block down. So the first Block is now solid by being cemented and bolted down,

The Second and third Blocks

I cut 4 x 150mm pieces from the M10 Threaded Bar

I drilled two holes through the bottom second block. I placed the second block on top of the first block and marked the position of the holes. I removed the second block and drilled the holes in the top of the first block.

To achieve extra stability I also decided to stick the block together as well as just bolting them. So I applied a good amount of Anchorset onto the top of the bottom block making sure the holes lined up then bolted them together using the M10 bar along with the washers and nuts. I then left it to set before adding the third block.

I then repeated the process to add the third block.

I then had to test to stability of the pier by placing my Son on top :-)

Attaching the Pier Adaptor

Firstly I placed the Pier Adaptor onto the top block to mark out the position of the holes (IMPOTRTANT PLEASE USE A COMPASS AT THIS POINT AS THE PIER ADAPTOR WILL NEED TO FACE NORTH SO IT CAN BE POLAR ALIGNED) As well as the four holes for the adaptor to be attached I also marked out a hole in the centre this is so that a M10 threaded bar can be placed through as this will screw up into the mount to secure the mount in place.

I then drilled the Centre hole all the through the block for the M10 bar to be placed. I drilled the four holes for the four anchor bolts (only drilled deep enough for the anchor bolts I did not drill all the way through the block).

I filled the four holes with the Anchorset adhesive then placed in the anchor bolts making sure they were fully in and then left to set.

I placed the M10 bolt through the middle this screws up into the mount as I do not leave the mount on the pier when not in use I use the Winged nut to make it easier to attach and de-attach the mount.