I am now half way through my refurbishment of a Meade 10" f4 Schidmt Newtonian OTA.
When I picked it up, it was in very poor condition, even had a spider living inside the tube.
After taking the scope apart and giving it a good clean, I flocked the inside of the tube, and replaced two of the weakest components. The focuser has been upgraded a to Moonlite unit, so smooth and rigid. I also upgraded the finder to a RACI finder (with vixen foot) so I can swap over to my 50mm guider once aligned. Also upgraded the vixen bar to a 40cm D plate for more ridgidty and better balancing.
Next stage will be collimination. A rough look with a laser late last night showed minor adjustments needed.
The next stage will be adding a cooling fan and build a dew heater for the corrector plate.
But hoping to put it on my eq6 later to test it first. It's already tipping the scale at 15kg, so by the time I add guidescope/OAG, mpcc and camera, I will be pushing the mount to the limit.
Here is a pic of stage one.
Enjoy.
Bo