Some general notes from Kriege I kept in mind during the design process:

• Front and back boards should be 1/2" thick (pg 255).
• Sides should be 1", but I used 3/4" anyway and never had any problems (pg 255).
• Clearance for mirror box inside rocker box is 1/4" (pg 255, 256 "bottom panel").
• Apply Formica laminate with contact cement (pg 261).
• The Formica on the bottom of the rocker box should be 1/4" smaller than both the height and width of the rocker box bottom (pg 261).
• Cut Formica with laminate bit on a router (pg 200).
• Attach sides to the bottom of the rocker box with 3" drywall screws. The end boards use 2" drywall screws (pg 261)

And here are some personal notes:

• The radius of the "dip" cut should be larger than the radius of the side bearings by the width of the Teflon.
• I ended up using "biscuits" instead of drywall screws to glue everything together.
• The front end board must be lower than the depth of the "dip" + the amount the mirror box is below the side bearings.
• Blocks to keep the mirror cell off the digital setting circles (when the mirror cell is in the box for transport) are the height of the side boards minus the height of the mirror cell = 5 1/4" - 4 3/8" = 7/8"
• Put the Formica laminate on after the box is glued together!

Above are the dimensions for the rocker box. The rocker box needs to be short enough to allow the hinges in the trunk to clear. There are a lot of reasons why the rocker box wants to be big though. It needs to be tall enough so the bottom corner of the mirror box will clear as the scope is rotated up or down on the Azimuth axis. Additional clearance is built in for digital setting circles. The rocker box must also be big enough for the mirror cell to fit inside it for transport as is shown in this picture taken during construction.

Back to the Miatascope home page.

Last updated 8/8/05