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In designing the cradle
rings' clamping system, I wanted them to locked the telescope in
place much like those made by high-end companies; by means of a
screw-down/ swing-arm mechanism. Basically, I wanted to be able to
loosen a couple of knurled knobs from threaded rods to allow the top
halves of the cradle rings to swing open to install/ remove/ rotate
the telescope. All without removing any hardware. This was achieved
by making slots in the tips of the cradle rings for a 1/4"-20
threaded rod to pivot from the tip of the bottom half of the cradle
ring up through the slot of the top half of the cradle ring, then
locked down with a knurled stainless steel knob. Please check out
the cradle ring design
HERE for more details.
To create the slots, I
used a biscuit joiner tool clamped in my work bench, and with the
proper depth and distances set, I made one pass on one side, flipped
the piece over and passed it through again which made the opening just the right size
to allow the thread rod to fit through.
NOTE: Even though I did
not run across any issues cutting out my slots, I do not recommend
this method of cutting them out. Please cut the slots out using a
better more safer method.
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