Broken Telescope Tripod Fixed

I've been waiting for some new leg brackets to arrive from England so I could fix the tripod for my little Celestron CG-2 telescope mount.  One of the brackets that holds the legs in place broke about two weeks ago.  This mount is no longer available new so finding brackets was a bit of good luck!  (The new bracket can be seen in the photo at right.)

I briefly contemplated just purchasing a newer and better manual mount to replace this broken one.  I had recently upgraded this little manual mount with a new saddle as well as installed ball bearings on both axes.  This upgrade project required a bit of time and effort.  I had cutting and grinding to do...  drilling and tapping to do...  and I had to find the exact right ball bearings to fit each axis.  After my upgrade, this mount was really working very well up until this little bracket broke.  Admittedly, having a newer and slightly better manual mount would be advantageous but, since I had already put so much effort into improving this mount, I couldn't bring myself to just toss it in the trash and replace it with a better new mount.  I had to fix it.

This CG-2 mount came with a telescope kit that has since been tossed in the trash bin.  That telescope was a horrendous Bird-Jones reflector telescope that could not provide even a mediocre view of anything in the sky.  I tossed the telescope in the trash after cannibalizing as many parts as I could including this tripod and mount.  I knew that this mount had potential for very light and very small telescopes so I kept it and even upgraded it.  

Now this little lightweight mount had a broken tripod and needed to be repaired.

When I found that the bracket I needed was available online in England, I then had to think about the price.  Three of these brackets cost me about $60.  No hobby is inexpensive but this cost was still a bit painful.  I had to think about spending that much just for parts and shipping (overseas shipping) for a repair due to age.  I ordered three of these brackets anyway and had them shipped to me.

In the meantime, I had to figure out how to remove the old broken bracket.  I found that I needed to drill out rivets that held the bottom leg extension onto the top section of the leg.  Once I drilled out the rivets, I could slide each of the parts apart and then slide the new bracket onto the upper leg.  Removing the broken brackets was quick and easy work. 

This morning it was time to install the new bracket and reassemble the leg.  As you can see in the above photo, I now had two holes ready for rivets on the leg assembly.  A manual rivet gun made easy work of fastening these parts together again.  

Now that my mount is fixed and it was really a very easy fix, I have to say that the price no longer bothers me.  My mount is now fixed and ready for use.  Let's hope that nothing else breaks on it anytime soon!