To stack Meade Lightbridge Sections

thingiverse

I'm going to keep my new Meade Lightbridge telescope in the house when it's not in use. I'll remove the truss tubes to collapse it so it will fit in a closet but I need something to balance the head section on top of the lower section; something that will keep it from sliding off. 3D printer to the rescue. I came up with these inserts that slot in where the truss tubes go and they each have a notch on the top side to accommodate the tab on the head section. With the tubes removed, the entire telescope can shrink down to 37 inches tall measured from the floor. I added bungee cords to hold the head section to the lower section to insure that it doesn't get knocked off. These inserts were made to fit the 12-inch Lightbridge. <B>They are not all the same:</B><BLOCKQUOTE>one of my images highlights a pair of tabs. They both have the same x-position = 185mm. In another model the x-position = 187mm for both tabs. I printed one "insert-187.stl" and two "insert-185.stl".</BLOCKQUOTE>There was a lot of trial-and-error (and a lot of time and plastic) to arrive at a good fit so once I achieved that, I didn't try to get them all the same . The FreeCAD file is available here for download from this page so you can try other sizes for this or other telescopes. The footprint hasn't changed but the telescope fits under a shelf now. Indoors, it doesn't need weather protection so I use a large 40x50-inch laundry bag inverted to cover the entire telescope and base.