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Telescope Made From Silo Filler Tube
"I wanted a telescope in the worst way and couldn't afford it," says Tom Schraufnagel, who, at age 16, built one from parts he found in the farm junk pile. Now, 52 years later, he still uses the 6-in. reflector telescope alongside the more expensive tracking telescope his children gave him and his wife for their 40th a
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Telescope Made From Silo Filler Tube FARM HOME recreation 32-5-35
"I wanted a telescope in the worst way and couldn't afford it," says Tom Schraufnagel, who, at age 16, built one from parts he found in the farm junk pile. Now, 52 years later, he still uses the 6-in. reflector telescope alongside the more expensive tracking telescope his children gave him and his wife for their 40th anniversary.
He studied his friends' telescopes to get ideas and spent six months gathering parts and putting them together. The main tube is a galvanized silo filler tube. The base is a threshing machine wheel, and 1-in. lead water pipes support the tube. The counterbalance weight is a New Idea hay rake gear wheel. He cut up beer cans for bushings to secure the water pipe in the shaft of the base. Parts from a school desk, erector set and milk machine formed the mirror mount.
"The mirror and lenses are store bought," Schraufnagel says. "I spent $16 for the mirror and $8 for two lenses." It cost him $32 to have the mirror recoated several years ago. The only other changes he made were to replace the steel beer can bushings with aluminum beer cans, replace the gun sight finder with a real finder, and buy additional lenses.
It's heavy, the Plover, Wis., man says, but he can move it around on the wheels he scrapped from a toy pedal tractor and the front wheel fork from a kid's bike. He pulls it with a handle made from store shelving.
Schraufnagel regularly looks at stars, and he still experiences the same thrill, zeroing in on rings on Saturn, the methane bands on Jupiter, or craters on the moon. He notes that he can't view the sun with his new telescope, so he uses the old one to look at sunspots.
Unfortunately, building a telescope from farm junk may be more difficult today, Schraufnagel notes. While searching for a backup mirror recently, he discovered it's difficult to find parts.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tom Schraufnagel, 3901 River Dr., Plover, Wis. 54467 (ph 715 341-2969).
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