I have a Celestron C8 OTA that was originally a fork mounted tube.
I want to mount it to an equatorial C5 mount with a dovetail. The C8 Tube has 2 machine screws on it's rear cell housing and 1 on the front of which none line up with the dovetail bar.
Thus I have to drill and tap the front and rear housings to attach the dovetail bar.
I see that this type of fitment is common place on all OTA's like this but i have a few questions I'd like to ask anyone who has been in a similar situation:
The housings are around 3mm and I'm worried the shear torque will pull the threaded screws out! Should I make a threaded metal doubler out of steel to fit inside the tube to spread these forces?
It appears that this type of dovetail fitment is normal to many SCT OTA's. Has anyone else done this?
Rather than all the above get tube rings instead or am I a whimp?
I have to pull apart the OTA to do all this should I start drinking now?
I'd like to hear experiences from anyone that has done this as I'll only get one go at this. Here are a few pic's of the OTA, I have marked the existing screw points and the places where i need to drill with crosses.
Any advice gratefully accepted