Equipment Tip: Stop your dovetail clamp from marring your dovetail

There's a joke somewhere in the title of this tip, I just know it. Not sure what it is, though. Anyway, here's one for those who have a dovetail clamp on their mount that has a rounded screw tip or tips that hold the scope to the dovetail. 

The problem is, the screw is steel and the dovetail is aluminum, so it leaves dimple marks in the dovetail. If this doesn't bother you, problem solved. But for others, it's a little irksome. It's kind of like focusers with thumbscrews that mark up your eyepiece barrel. It doesn't affect the function at all, but we'd rather keep the eyepiece clear of marks.

Some people just buy a new dovetail clamp that has a flat contact surface, such as the Svbony medium dovetail clamp shown at left. But something like that will cost you around $25-40, and Astronomerica is not about wasteful spending.

Instead, get a 1/2" x 1/16" thick flat bar of aluminum, cut it to length easily with a hacksaw, file and sand the edges smooth (be careful, they will be sharp!), and use double-sided tape to stick it to your dovetail. Problem solved and you didn't have to buy a new dovetail clamp. Now the clamp only mars the aluminum piece.

I found just such a piece of aluminum for a few bucks at my local home improvement store. It's three feet long, so enough to protect the dovetails of even a very large family of amateur astronomers!