kruscica
05-11-2005, 07:00 AM
Hi.
Having read and listened to discussion on various scopes, eyepieces, finderscopes, etc. and having known what I was after for the best part of the year, I propelled myself to purchase a 10in dob from Bintel last thursday, so that it would be there friday ready for my to use my days off work to learn to use it.
Friday came and went, then Monday, Tuesday. You get the drill. I emailed the sypplier to see if they'd held the scope to make it super-perfect (also since I asked them to drill holes / setup some accessories they didn't have in stock at the time). On Thursday I received a call from TNT - "what's your address, our driver can't find it". Now this was the first I'd heard from them - 5 days of driving around? - use the Melways or a phone directory, maybe? Anway, the truck comes around noon. Wow, it's so light and in one box too! Maybe it's not quite the monster I'd been worried about. Hang on, box one of two! I called the truckers - oh yeah, it must have been separated. We'll check and get back to you. :mad2: Bintel, to their credit, were concerned and mystfied when I let them know.
Today I received a call that my box was coming. :)
Yay!
When I saw the box I thought, is that it! It looked wrong somehow - too wide and too shallow. Of course when I opened it there were a couple of flat pieces and round ones, bags and boxes of screws and bolts and doohickeys.
After a while, I put out a drop sheet on the back veranda, placed the round bits together and the flat ones and stared at the pieces and the fastenings, working out what went where. I started to cross off material received, but take with a grain of salt - it contains material list for all their scopes and not everything is there - you wouldn't really need large and small allen wrench, 1/4 and 5/8 in washers for example.
I started with point 1 of the (about) 5 page manual. The feet were unmistakeable and the wood screws were different to the other ones and were the only set of 3 - they went in from the bottom. It took me a small while to work out the bottom plate was the one with only 3 holes (for the feet) and the plastic backing on the overside.
Then I looked at the front and side boards. All of a sudden I could see how they went together. I screwed in the sides to the front board, then these to the bottom board. It required holding the whole lot on an angle close to perpendicular so as to not put too much strain on the loosely connected boards while finding the holes underneath. Then I put the locking bolt and washer through the bases. The 'nylon' doohickey kept falling out, so I had to thread the bolt and washer through the two bases (it doesn't stick out much) and then push the nylon thing through, then put a washer and the nut. When I tried to tighten the nut, then bolt would move with it. It took me a little bit to position the screw driver underneath and move it in a countermotion to the shifter and nut on the top.
I added the carrying handle. The instruction said to insert the screws in through the capture nuts, then tighten with a screwdriver. What is a capture nut? I realized the nice looking recess for the handle was actually the metallic capture nut and that screw was hanging in the middle of a hole. There was nothing to use a screwdriver on, though, just an allen key for the front. I had put the front on as-about it. :o If I reversed the front board and screwed the screw through the handle it was anchor itself at the back as well. I thought about it. If I did this I would throw away 3 hours of work (much of the time looking for a better diagram on the net, printing the Orion manual, looking for a better screwdriver, lighting, pen, etc.) Then I thought about carrying the scope with the handle as it was. There was nothing for it but to unscrew the locking bolt, unscrew the front and side boards from the bottom and each other. Then I thought, the side boards are back-to-front as well - there were two tiny holes on one that would have to be for the eyepiece rack. However, there were also two large recessed holes that did not reach the other side. I later came to the conclusion they are related to the OTA and springs.
I was a lot quicker reattaching the boards to each other and to the bottom the second time around - about an hour if I include putting the bases together and hunting screws and bolts when they fell out. The book may say 15 minutes, and for some it may be like that, but if you don't have a lot of tools in close proximity, experience in assembly and tools (like the names), and work alone, it will take longer, an hour I would say.
Having created the base, I was left with an eyepiece rack. It seemed clear where it went. I was a little uncertain when the book said to thread the screws loosely so that the rack could be removed by sliding out the screwhole (If I understood that section, the rack would have screw holes larged than the screw heads so that you loosen the screws and then slide out the rack) However my screw heads were larger than the hole, so I just screwed them in until there was little movement of the rack. Also I stopped screwing it in just before it would have broken through to the inside.
With the base ready, I have two long screws with a round wheely head (like focus or control knobs), two long black phillips head screws, 3 plastic sleeve thingies that narrow from the middle, two springs that don't seem to have any give or a way of attaching, and two small circles of rope.
I looked at the OTA and there were brass threads in the middle of the round circles where the OTA would sit on the base, that matched the brass threads on the side boards of the base. I am assuming that two screws go on the OTA, two go into the side board, and the springs and string get attached somehow. According to the book the base in finished and you can put the OTA on now, but that it will fall because the springs have not been installed. 3 pages later in the section on 'balancing' it says how great the proprietary spring tension is, but you can't really tell anything from the pictures except they are there. Both screws are too long for the holes unless I screw them in so that they break through to the inside.
I don't want to scare newbies. When I think about it, it isn't that complicated. The book is written in english and is pretty informative - it exists and is not written in mystifying chinglish or some other unintelligible hybrid. The pictures could be better though - the base diagram looked like a photocopy of tracing paper - faint and small, pics could be lighter so we can see holes and screws and springs clearly.
I guess at this stage, I'm still not sure which screws go in which hole - they fit as well as the other in both positions. Also there is the 'nylon' spacers - what are they for? And just how is the spring and loops attached to the screws even if it does stretch to reach?
Also, I looked at the finderscope and the base for it on the OTA. I didn't really see any screws for it unless I undo the base on the OTA and then thread the screws through the bracket on the Finderscope and the base on the OTA.
Clear Skies and good luck noobs who will follow. I hope my tale will be of some small help to someone. And to those who have gone before me, you are welcome to enlighten me. Close in good quality pics of the various parts would be good, and If you think I've put something back-to-front, let me know.
Phil
Having read and listened to discussion on various scopes, eyepieces, finderscopes, etc. and having known what I was after for the best part of the year, I propelled myself to purchase a 10in dob from Bintel last thursday, so that it would be there friday ready for my to use my days off work to learn to use it.
Friday came and went, then Monday, Tuesday. You get the drill. I emailed the sypplier to see if they'd held the scope to make it super-perfect (also since I asked them to drill holes / setup some accessories they didn't have in stock at the time). On Thursday I received a call from TNT - "what's your address, our driver can't find it". Now this was the first I'd heard from them - 5 days of driving around? - use the Melways or a phone directory, maybe? Anway, the truck comes around noon. Wow, it's so light and in one box too! Maybe it's not quite the monster I'd been worried about. Hang on, box one of two! I called the truckers - oh yeah, it must have been separated. We'll check and get back to you. :mad2: Bintel, to their credit, were concerned and mystfied when I let them know.
Today I received a call that my box was coming. :)
Yay!
When I saw the box I thought, is that it! It looked wrong somehow - too wide and too shallow. Of course when I opened it there were a couple of flat pieces and round ones, bags and boxes of screws and bolts and doohickeys.
After a while, I put out a drop sheet on the back veranda, placed the round bits together and the flat ones and stared at the pieces and the fastenings, working out what went where. I started to cross off material received, but take with a grain of salt - it contains material list for all their scopes and not everything is there - you wouldn't really need large and small allen wrench, 1/4 and 5/8 in washers for example.
I started with point 1 of the (about) 5 page manual. The feet were unmistakeable and the wood screws were different to the other ones and were the only set of 3 - they went in from the bottom. It took me a small while to work out the bottom plate was the one with only 3 holes (for the feet) and the plastic backing on the overside.
Then I looked at the front and side boards. All of a sudden I could see how they went together. I screwed in the sides to the front board, then these to the bottom board. It required holding the whole lot on an angle close to perpendicular so as to not put too much strain on the loosely connected boards while finding the holes underneath. Then I put the locking bolt and washer through the bases. The 'nylon' doohickey kept falling out, so I had to thread the bolt and washer through the two bases (it doesn't stick out much) and then push the nylon thing through, then put a washer and the nut. When I tried to tighten the nut, then bolt would move with it. It took me a little bit to position the screw driver underneath and move it in a countermotion to the shifter and nut on the top.
I added the carrying handle. The instruction said to insert the screws in through the capture nuts, then tighten with a screwdriver. What is a capture nut? I realized the nice looking recess for the handle was actually the metallic capture nut and that screw was hanging in the middle of a hole. There was nothing to use a screwdriver on, though, just an allen key for the front. I had put the front on as-about it. :o If I reversed the front board and screwed the screw through the handle it was anchor itself at the back as well. I thought about it. If I did this I would throw away 3 hours of work (much of the time looking for a better diagram on the net, printing the Orion manual, looking for a better screwdriver, lighting, pen, etc.) Then I thought about carrying the scope with the handle as it was. There was nothing for it but to unscrew the locking bolt, unscrew the front and side boards from the bottom and each other. Then I thought, the side boards are back-to-front as well - there were two tiny holes on one that would have to be for the eyepiece rack. However, there were also two large recessed holes that did not reach the other side. I later came to the conclusion they are related to the OTA and springs.
I was a lot quicker reattaching the boards to each other and to the bottom the second time around - about an hour if I include putting the bases together and hunting screws and bolts when they fell out. The book may say 15 minutes, and for some it may be like that, but if you don't have a lot of tools in close proximity, experience in assembly and tools (like the names), and work alone, it will take longer, an hour I would say.
Having created the base, I was left with an eyepiece rack. It seemed clear where it went. I was a little uncertain when the book said to thread the screws loosely so that the rack could be removed by sliding out the screwhole (If I understood that section, the rack would have screw holes larged than the screw heads so that you loosen the screws and then slide out the rack) However my screw heads were larger than the hole, so I just screwed them in until there was little movement of the rack. Also I stopped screwing it in just before it would have broken through to the inside.
With the base ready, I have two long screws with a round wheely head (like focus or control knobs), two long black phillips head screws, 3 plastic sleeve thingies that narrow from the middle, two springs that don't seem to have any give or a way of attaching, and two small circles of rope.
I looked at the OTA and there were brass threads in the middle of the round circles where the OTA would sit on the base, that matched the brass threads on the side boards of the base. I am assuming that two screws go on the OTA, two go into the side board, and the springs and string get attached somehow. According to the book the base in finished and you can put the OTA on now, but that it will fall because the springs have not been installed. 3 pages later in the section on 'balancing' it says how great the proprietary spring tension is, but you can't really tell anything from the pictures except they are there. Both screws are too long for the holes unless I screw them in so that they break through to the inside.
I don't want to scare newbies. When I think about it, it isn't that complicated. The book is written in english and is pretty informative - it exists and is not written in mystifying chinglish or some other unintelligible hybrid. The pictures could be better though - the base diagram looked like a photocopy of tracing paper - faint and small, pics could be lighter so we can see holes and screws and springs clearly.
I guess at this stage, I'm still not sure which screws go in which hole - they fit as well as the other in both positions. Also there is the 'nylon' spacers - what are they for? And just how is the spring and loops attached to the screws even if it does stretch to reach?
Also, I looked at the finderscope and the base for it on the OTA. I didn't really see any screws for it unless I undo the base on the OTA and then thread the screws through the bracket on the Finderscope and the base on the OTA.
Clear Skies and good luck noobs who will follow. I hope my tale will be of some small help to someone. And to those who have gone before me, you are welcome to enlighten me. Close in good quality pics of the various parts would be good, and If you think I've put something back-to-front, let me know.
Phil