New Mount First Light

After selling the LXD75, I felt the immediate lack of an equatorial mount for visual use. I have a 6" achromat, and I don't want to put that on the EM-10 (the 6" was more than the LXD75 could handle without more jiggling than I wanted). Also, I wanted a mount I could put a large newt on later. Enter the Meade DS-10 (shown here with the motor cover removed):
This is the largest mount I have yet used. It will hold the 6" refractor without even blinking. It is built for a 10" newtonian and seems to me could easily handle 35lbs. It came with a short stand, but I need the refractor up high, so I wanted the mount on the walnut tripod, instead. Getting the mount on the tripod required putting various parts together. I have a Vixen tripod hub on the walnut legs. Just above the hub is the bottom part of an Orion pier extension for the Orion middle-weight mount, the SVP. Between the pier extension part and the DS-10 mount is a piece of aluminum machined to attach them together. I had the Conroe Machine company build the part. It is machined to a very close fit and looks great!
In fact, the mount is rock solid. The dec axis, a piece of steel 1" in diameter, is almost heavy enough to act as a counterweight to the 100mm achromat, but not quite.
The clock drive is pretty accurate--perhaps a tad slow. But the mount is also simple enough that it is easily adjustable, and I look forward to fiddling with its inner workings. Each axis has a clutch that allows manual movement of the mount without unhitching anything! The ultimate in convenient! I've had it out the last two nights with the 100mm, and it is pretty sweet, just what I need.