With painted steel counterweights costing between $40 and $90 dollars apiece (Vixen prices) I thought it would be nice to have a 'proper' weight to balance my little Stellarvue refractor. I have three 5kg weights that I use now; and even one of them is too heavy. These are really cheap ones, terrible steel, terrible paint and terrible clamping screws. It was time to do better.
I bought a piece of 316 stainless steel bar 9cm long and 7.5cm in diameter. According to the specs for the steel this should be about 3kg. The centre was bored out to more than the diameter of my counterweight shaft and a brass bar machined just oversize (.0015") and pounded in with a hammer. Then the brass insert was bored to just over the diameter of the shaft and cleaned up.
Lastly, a 5/16" thread standard knob was fitted with a brass insert in the end and the weight drilled and tapped for the knob. It's a thing of beauty and looks like a proper counterweight. Oh, if you're going to go this route, don't buy 316 stainless. It's VERY hard and VERY pricey and you could get away with a much lower grade of stainless steel. Price? $65!
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