New base for a reasonably large telescope

A bit over twelve months ago I resurrected a telescope I found on a pile of rubbish at a client's yard and it got me into a new hobby of basic astrophotography with an iPhone(I've always been a star gazer with a basic telescope). Then a few months ago someone gave me a big Newtonian telescope with a big aperture (356mm - 14") in very weathered condition - basically they had left it on a balcony in the weather for 6 years. The mount was made of chipboard of a type known as a Dobsonian after the man who popularised the mount. It had reverted in many places to the chips from whence it came but enough remained for me to make plywood templates for routing new components. Recently I finished the mount so I thought I would post a few pics. It took me so long because I wanted to scrounge as much material as possible. I finished the raw edges of the mdf/chipboard with Botecote epoxy. The light gathering ability of this scope is amazing! I've since replaced the badly etched secondary mirror and down the track I will recoat the primary mirror. I couldn't believe it but the electronics (push-to database of objects and encoders) had survived the rain

Interesting project.
While I am not directly involved, I have been watching parts of the Great Melbourne Telescope being rebuilt. Great Melbourne Telescope - Wikipedia A large part of the lattice work has had to be re created. A job that involves lots of clamps and is riveting!