Finderscope mount with shoe

Very massive and stable finderscope mount for cheap chinese 70mm telescope.
13h 30m
5× print file
0.20 mm
0.40 mm
103.00 g
Anet A8 Plus
7
89
0
846
updated March 4, 2023

Description

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Finderscope mount with shoe

Very massive and stable finderscope mount for cheap chinese 70mm telescope. It is compatible with Sky-Watcher finderscope mounts.
I just got this cheap chinese 70/400 telescope as junk for free. Only the tube. It was dirty, its dew shield and finderscope mount shoe was broken. The focuser was wobbling a lot.  The finderscope itself was also missing. I thought let's play restoration, like I saw on YouTube in many videos. Maybe this telescope will be enough for occasional outdoor use. Of course, I don't have high expectations. I have much better telescopes. I'm just wondering what I can get out of it. In my experience, even these cheap scopes are better with a quality eyepiece. What I have here in spare. Anyway, I have nothing to lose.
I already cleaned and fixed everything but this finderscope mount.

Design

I wrote 70 mm in the title. The diameter of this tube is exactly 72,5 mm
The distance between the two screw holes on the shoe is 14 mm. I made mounts of three different height. I mean the height between the bracket and the shoe, not the height of the complete model. These are 20 mm, 30 mm and 40 mm.
Why this kind of bracket? I don't like the springload type mounts. My experience is they can get out of alignment easily.

As you can see, there are sockets for M4 nuts. These nuts are not absolutely necessary. If the screw holes are quite tight, the screw will cut a thread into the material and is stable. If that's not enough, you can use nuts. Glue the nuts into the bracket, or put tiny springs under the bolts! (I don't have any inserts right now.)
Attach the bracket to the mount with superglue or two component epoxy adhesive. I used the latter.

  • You will need 2 pcs of M4 Allen socket head cap screws, length of 12 mm.
  • Another 6 pieces of M4 screws in the bracket can be the same or longer.
  • You will need 6 pcs of M4 nuts, or 8 pcs if you need them for the telescope tube too. Don't forget to paint the tube screws matte black!

I'm planning to design rails for red dot sights too. Which also will fit to this mount.

I also upload the FreeCAD file. It is very easy to modify the tube diameter, or anybody can change the screw holes position for example. If anyone asks, I can do that too.

Printing

I printed it with my Anet A8 Plus. I used PETG because it's much harder than PLA. I attached images of the suggested position of the things when slicing. In the case of the mount rotate it, then use the "Flat lay" function, as you can see on the image.

My settings

Layer height: 0.2mm
Wall line count: 6
Infill: 66%
Cooling (because of PETG): 30%
Support: yes (excluding the shoe!)

Important notice for the gcode files

I'm only uploading my gcode files to show the printing statistics. My printer is upgraded with a BLtouch sensor and modified firmware. The gcode includes auto bed leveling. It may not work on stock printers!

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