HEQ5 or 6 Legs Shims

[mswhin63]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows locally in AU, where I can get the thin shims between the legs and the base plate that allows the legs to open and close with little friction.

I am refurbishing my mount and noticed a couple of missing shims. Photo attached.

Cheers

Malcolm

[Leo.G]

If they are only a brass or aluminium shim the best bet would be have any local engineering shop measure an old one and stamp/cut you some new ones if you have such a service available locally. Otherwise Tasco sales handle the parts and would either keep them in stock or get them in for you. Unless you have the punches and can measure them and cut your own.

[mswhin63]

They are made from very thin flexible plastic, maybe Teflon or some other shim material. I did find a material that appears to be the right thickness: 0.18mm. Although I can't find my callipers ATM, I may stamp them out.

I have some Rubylith film that appears to be the same consistency, may give that a go. Might see if the laser will cut it.

[Saturnine]

Just make some milk bottle washers. What that means is the plastic milk bottles being made of whatever plastic it is, is easily cut with scissors to the suitable diameter then make a 12mm hole in the middle and you have your washers.
I have done it for my tripods and they work well, can be a bit tight and tricky to get in the gap but once you do it stiffens up the opening and closing of the legs.

[Leo.G]

When I re-engineered my EQ5 GOTO mount (not HEQ or NEQ, plain old EQ5) I found an amazing source of Teflon sheet (PTFE) in varying thicknesses online (I can't remember the store but I can look it up and it was very reasonably priced.
The strip down videos I found on the HEQ5 showed the Teflon spacers in place with mention of paying close attention to which shims went where as in varying levels of thickness. My EQ5 DIDN'T have Teflon as the more expensive mounts do, it had PET plastic and the stuff wasn't great. I replaced it all with multiple layers (where required) of 0.5mm PTFE and it is smoother and more accurate than it left the factory.

As mentioned, milk bottles which are PET plastic would be more than suitable on legs and you've already paid for it unless you buy cartons like I do and drink your coffee black (as I do).
If you require something thinner you could always look at transparencies and lamination sheets.
We required PET for a replacement circuit board for an expensive item belonging to a friend and went with running the prints on lamination sheets and A3 transparencies purchased from AliExpress.


Good luck!