Ah-hah. Problem explained.
If that's a 16 LB, then it can't be too old and is probably (?) still under warranty. If that's the way the unit was delivered, you should be up for some repairs courtesy of Meade. What with the recent news of their "re-org" maybe that's not all that encouraging. But, perhaps with aide of the vendor, you can just swap out spiders. You can keep the secondary holder and even the center bolt, since those bolts and holes that are your problem are embedded in the spider itself.
I'd endorse getting some Bob's Knobs or comparable replacements to those collimation screws...much easier to adjust and no fear of over-torquing and stripping a head or such. Furthermore, the GSO-supplied springs on the primary are notoriously variable...maybe consider getting Bob's knobs for the secondary bolts and new stiffer springs from him also, for the primary. I did that for my 12 GSO and it's dramatically more predictable to collimate.
Regards
Scott
Quote:
Originally Posted by sejanus
well back from my play
discovered one of the screws is horribly bent which won't be helping
unfortunately during the mucking around i have completely stripped bare one of the other screws  and it doesn't seem to want to come out! i did not want to use much force
the good news though is despite the carnage i have the laser dot bang in the center now, with a combination of doing a slight adjustment to the entire secondary position itself plus the 2 other screws. probably a huge fluke but it'll suffice until I work out how to fix the bent screw and the stripped screw. |