There's a fraction too much sticktion...

[waterrat]

Hi all. I'm kind of getting over the sticktion on the azimuth of my Dob mount (8" Saxon collapsible). There's some hefty slabs of teflon on the base with a circular piece around the centre and wondering has anyone ever replaced, lubricated (in some way) or adjusted these to create a little less "stick" and grip. Loosening the bolt introduces a bit of lateral 'drift' between the two halves of the mount so it just needs to be a bit slipperier...

Any ideas would be most welcome!

[astro_nutt]

Hi Greg.
You can try and gently scuff the teflon pads with steelwool or a fine grade of wet and dry. (Make sure you rub the Teflon pads in the direction of rotation) Give the pads and the friction surface a good clean with metho. You can then give the friction surface a coat of car wax and buff off. I hope this helps. Cheers!

[Barrykgerdes]

What is the surface that the pads bear against. The standard coating on the particle board of the cheaper DOB mounts is not a good surface for the teflon pads to rub against I used a sheet of formica that never gave any problems and the base rotation was smooth as silk.

Barry

[waterrat]

Good idea! where can you get single sheets from? It is just laminated chipboard I would say. Thx for heads up!!

[waterrat]

Aha! I rotate in both directions, so haven't done any scuffing yet. However I grabbed some spray on furniture polish containing silicone that I thought might not react with the teflon. Just going to spray and buff a couple of times with that and see what happens! Thx!

[GrahamL]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCM9ACDB94w

I've tried a few , and find mr sheen in the squirt bottle is easily the best , clean surfaces with metho as mentioned and I rub it on lightly with a chux cloth it doesn't bother the Teflon.

You'll also find mention of a product called sailcote, I drove round in circles for ages in east Brisbane to get my hand on some and found it no better than silicone spray.

:)

[Barrykgerdes]

That's a good question. My EX used to work at Formica and brought some home about 25 years ago.

Barry

[GrahamL]

kitchen manufacturers will often keep offcuts of the textured laminates
,as its upwards of $300 a sheet I was told , you may not get a choice of colours but I bought a 40x40 square for $20 or less. :)

[dannat]

You can get a lazy Susan bearing, screw one piece to base & 1 to bootom edge of top piece -slides around fairly easy then

[waterrat]

thx all...seems a bit smoother grabbed some cheap stuff called "Glitz" from Bunnings - I'll give it a few polishes more but I like where its going so far. :)