If At First You Don't Succeed,,,Change Directions...

OK.  Here's the whole base, glued together.

Just a little more drying and I will be ready to drill a hole down the center.

 You see, this thing is HEAVY!  At first I thought that doing wire wrapping would work... Nope...Then I thought that stuffing some wire in the ends and bending them would do the trick.  Nope.  Not an option.

The thing is incredibly top heavy.  It is going to have to be glued to the floor.

A dowel is going to have to go through the base and into the body of the bottom of the telescope barrel itself.

Thus the wait to drill a hole in the base.

I did figure out how to attach the two pieces together.  I used bailing wire and spit... Not really.

I used some of the aluminum insulating tape and a couple of pieces of copper telephone wire.  Almost as bad...

I started by cutting the tape in half,  lengthwise. Then I started rolling it with one piece of wire in the first wrap.  Next I added a second piece of wire to force the whole thing to turn into an oval shape.

I kept wrapping until it would fit tightly into the two ovals that I had to connect.

Then I used e-6000 to glue the ends into the sections.  They are very tightly fitted and the glue was added for safety's sake.

I am again waiting for glue to dry.  After it does, I will do some fancy work to cover the join.  More Steampunking.

Now I need to decide what kind of finish to put on the bottom, before I attach the telescope.  I am thinking that either red mahogany or black marble would look good.

As soon as I get Kota to stop trying to learn to use the computer, I will get back to the telescope.

Oh good.  He got distracted and is now watching birds, out the window.

Now I can get serious about finishing the observatory.

See you tomorrow.