Quote:
Originally Posted by dreamstation
Seeing as the 50 finish ebony star has been discontinued and as you said some people still have it but would not part with it any time soon, what exactly do the professional custom telescope makers use then? What happens when all of the spare stuff laying around runs out?
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Hi James,
Dave Kriege at
Obsession Telescopes found through experimentation
that textured laminates surprisingly provided less friction than smooth laminates. See page 72 of
The Dobsonian Telescope for details.
Both Formica and Wilsonart offer a variety of textured laminates.
In his book, Dave mentions that Wilsonart call their textured surface "Touchstone" and Formica call theirs "Quarry Finish".
I think he picked on Ebony Star and Stardust because of what he called
the "pleasing coincidence" that their names contained the word star.
Others he recommends in "The Dobsonian Telescope" include -
Wilsonart Inc Touchstone range -
#4406 Diamonhead
#4408 Surfside
Formica Quarry Finish range -
#1816 Fogdust
#1783 Firedust
#680 Granite
But a similar textured laminate from any manufacturer will do.
Though there is a representative for Wilsonart in Australia, Formica would
be the leading brand of the two here in Australia.
See
http://formica.com.au/
There is certainly no magical "pixie dust" in Ebony Star that makes it the only choice.
In a presentation I attended entitled "Care and Feeding of Large-Aperture
Dobsonians" which Dave Kriege
gave in Texas in March of this year,
he has been experimenting with other combinations
of bearing surface materials which no doubt will make their way into
future scope designs.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au