Hi, I'm building a small dobsonian mount for a telescope, the plan is here:

http://stellafane.org/tm/dob/

The whole thing is about waist-high. It doesn't have to support a large weight, the telescope tube is made of aluminum and it's not very heavy.

The recommended material is 1/2" and 3/4" plywood. I could definitely use plywood, it's cheap and easy to work.

But I went today to Home Depot and I noticed there are other materials available. I could use: red oak, poplar, pine (white and other varieties), redwood. Which one should I choose? Price is not really an issue, this is a small project. The requirements are:

  1. The material must be durable. I don't want to keep fixing this mount, or keep making new ones because they break easily.
  2. It should not be very hard or tricky to work. I don't want to use a material that hates newbies like me.


The telescope is going to spend most of its time in the garage. When doing observations, it's going to stay outside during night time - so there's going to be some dew, and possibly cold temperature. Maybe some transitions between warm and cold when I'm taking it outside. It will do some mileage in the trunk of my car once in a while. Also, kids may peek through the telescope, so expect little feet to bump into the turntable at the bottom, occasionally.

I'm going to prime and paint the wood really thoroughly - I will do everything by the book.

So, given all these constraints, which material would you choose?

P.S.: Before I start building the mount, I'll have to make two other smaller devices, much smaller, which are going to serve as practice before the final project:

http://stellafane.org/tm/atm/test/tester-main.html