Before I met Bill he built a 12.5" f6 Telescope from steel. Note the exceptional craftsmanship in the finish of the Mounting.
 

Figure 1 Jerry and Bill are standing by Bill's 12.5" telescope. The telescope was fabricated from steel. The 14" and 6" Byres drives can be seed behind the Plexiglas covers.

The 12.5" telescope is a fork design The fork is fairly traditional in that its cross section is a rectangle. The telescope has a 14" Byers drive on the polar axle and a 6" Byres drive on the dec axle.
 

Figure 2 Lander is standing near the 12.5" telescope in this view. The tube can be rotated in the saddle by loosening the cam that is on the saddle. The finder is home built using pvc and binocular optics.

The mount is placed on an A Frame for use in the field The entire mounting weighs about 200 lbs. Generally the mount was lifted out of a custom modified step van by three people.