Yah! Been looking around for the same kind of thing but so far have only found stuff that is for thin sheet (Avdel Nutserts) and needs a special and expensive tool to intall.
Have found two other ways to tackle it though.

1) I'll probably make the whole thing (poles and all) out of wood. Poles out of bluegum dowels with threaded inserts screwed into holes drilled in the center of the ends. Bunnings has these inserts that take an M6 threaded bolt and go into a 13mm hole.

2) If anyone comes up with a good reason not to use wood for truss poles (which i rreckon would look really good and possibly damp vibration well) then i'll try filling the ends of an aluminium pole with one of those Liquid Steel type epoxies, drilling a hole in the cente, and tapping a thread.

When built, my 10" scope will probably spend most of its life assembled as i have a big car to cart it around in. Since it will only get broken down for big trips i'm not going to get fanatic about something that assembles / breaks down fast.

If you do come across anything better, can you post it?

seeyahs!

• if you're going to try... - slamhound - August 10, 2002 - 19:30 UTC
• Threaded Inserts - telscopes - November 6, 2002 - 15:35 UTC