The main plastic washers of the RA-axis had to go. I'm certain that they slide ever so smoothly over the surfaces with which they come into contact, but I want them out, no ifs, ands, or buts.
The two plastic washers are 0.020" in thickness, a fiftieth of an inch. That meant that I could not use the 0.008" bronze. So, I ordered a roll of the 0.020"...
When I cut the band holding the roll together, the roll unfurled in a split second, and violently. I then cut out what I needed.
Glamour shot <
Look this way, my darling! No! Not that way! This way!>...
It's all about circles, you know, like whilst collimating a Newtonian, rotating an axis, the Airy-disk of a star even, not to mention its whirling, razor-sharp diffraction-rings, but I mentioned it anyway. Hence, I needed a compass...
The one on the left won't do, and one I've had for years. So I went out to my local hardware and what-not discount-store, and got the one at the right, a 6", in length. They had a 12", too, but I passed. It's of tool-steel, utterly, and the tips of the legs are very sharp. Indeed, a point serves as a scriber in its own right...
Not once did I have to fill its holder with a scriber-pen. I got one of those, too, at another hardware store, just in case. I have used it for describing marks, however.
Instead of measuring the plastic washers for their replacements, I made measurements per the axis's parts themselves, and with this...
The primary-washer, at the teeth of the worm-gear...
...and the other, secondary-washer, at the bottom of the worm-gear...
The odd measurements may be rounded off, but not always. There were times when I had to adjust the measurements, but always slightly, either larger or smaller. Indeed, the replacement washers are oft "scuplted" to their final diameters.