A lot of people have been asking me for the design details of the Everyone Tripod. It’s been a long and cold winter, so I’ve not had a change to put it through its paces until recently.

One thing I learned from using it “in the field” was that having the leg sides exactly parallel didn’t make for easy height adjustment, since the side clamping force was therefore produced equally along the full length of the leg assembly. A simple solution was to slightly increase the width of the brace plate “ears” so they stay clamped tightly when the lower bolt is loosened for height adjustment. Since this set up a gentle “wedge” shape along the length of the entire leg, I needed to increase the width of the top of the leg assembly (where it attaches to the hub) a little more than the brace plate ears. If you’re making your own hub, that’s a simple dimension to change, but if you’re putting this on an existing hub, just add some extra fender washers between the outside of the hub and inside of the leg pieces. In my situation with the Celestron Nexstar 102GT, three washers on each side produced the necessary spread.

After making the necessary design adjustments, I am now publishing my SolidWorks design drawings in PDF format. Note that I’m still showing the leg sides as parallel, but you can also see where the extra washers and brace plate ears seem to “interfere” with the legs. Depending on your exact cuts and design, the leg sides will have a varying about of “wedge” to them; using the dimensions and BOM I’ve included, it’ll work out fine for the Nexstar 102GT and similar mounts.

You can find the PDF drawings below; be sure to download all four. If you make your own version of the Everyone Tripod, please let me know how it works for you and include a picture of your creation!

Everyone Tripod Assembly Drawing
Everyone Tripod Leg Side Drawing
Everyone Tripod Leg End Drawing
Everyone Tripod Brace Plate Drawing