Advice Needed Mechanical stability

Captain Jack

Captain Jack

Retired human
My Satellite Setup
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North Somerset
I am currently working on creating a mount for my Laminas 1800 dish to go on the SMO36 motor. I am wondering on what the best arrangement is for the dish brackets - in or out.

The brackets in the picture are currently facing inwards with the plan to add some reinforcement bars along vertical.

20250806_095058.webp

The question is whether having the brackets pointing outwards would create a stronger structure by having a wider "stance" between attachments. Obviously the attachment point to the dish won't change... Or does it not matter?
 
I think that the 'wider stance' option would probably be more stable, particularly if any side loads are applied by wind at a sheer angle to the dish face.
 
... or maybe at at shear angle... D'Oh!
 
Since the loading points on the reflector are in the same place regardless of the width of the support there will be no difference to the loading however a wider distance give more opportunity for movement and perhaps oscillation under high winds. .

Inverting the brackets outwards also will mean a need for longer reinforcements, and by default more weight in front of the motor.
 
So 50/50 now!

I'll keep it as is for now, unless there are stronger arguments for having a wider stance.
 
I think the way you have them now would suffice, if you made the wider mounting approach you may have to make the cross members larger in diameter as the ends would be further apart, (not buy much) this may add a bit more stress to any center mounting structure. or bracket.
 
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