Kalfaoglu Pier Construction

The Construction of a Permanent Pier

Those into skygazing know the importance of a good alignment; and a good vibration-free pier! That is what I attempted just recently (November 2002); the building of a pier on my balcony in Urla/Izmir/Turkey.

A Pier can be anchored into soil, or, as in this case, attached to the cement floor.
If a balcony is chosen, it needs to be an area that is free of vibrations.

Surprisingly, the construction of a pier requires a considerable amount of information. I had to research for months for the right kind of pier, the one that's easy to build; yet is vibration-free and trouble-free! Also, I also had to find a design that was relatively easy to build with the local materials. I was fortunate to find good people to work with. To withstand nature, layers of paint, silicone and steel have to be used.
	It also requires dozens of tools, bits, a solid drill. Otherwise it's impossible to build something that needs to be strong, solid and unflexing.
Here you can see the bottom plate; almost ready to be buried into concrete..
	Pier, just after it got siliconed; and screwed into place. It's still empty.
Aligning and leveling the bottom plate ; before the concete sets in. Homebrew solutions, such as two screws held by tape to serve as sights, can be seen here.
While filling up the tube, make sure to remove the bubbles..
	Once the concere is dry, you can work on leveling the top plate; make sure to turn the water level in all directions, and check to see that it's really flat.
	Here is a detail of the bottom of the pier.. White silicone is visible.
Finally, here is how the bottom half of the pier looks..

Afterthoughts:

That compass was put there for illustration; otherwise when put flat like that on the plate; the metal pieces cause deviation.
The 3 bolts that went into the concrete are strong enough; but there is a secret ingredient: After inserting the bottom plate+bolts; I put a dozen or so fist-sized rocks into the cement; to spread the load on those nuts+washers that stay in the cement.
Because the aluminum plates I chose were not very big (I'm glad they are not), the 4 screws at the edges of the plates were rubbing against the bottom of the superwedge. So, I just got new screws for the wedge, and raised the wedge UP a little bit with washers+nuts.

Btw, if you live in Turkey, I can build a pier for you; it's much easier and cheaper to build a SECOND pier! Contact me, using my email address at the homepage.