Hi Programmer,
The following suggestion, forwarded to me by John Bambury, may be of interest.
An outfit in Michigan USA, DBA Astronomy Products LLC, which apparently no
longer trades under that name, use to offer alternative 'deluxe bases' for
the GSO Dob mounts. See attached photograph of one fabricated in birch.
However, as John points out, there are some ideas you and other GSO mount
owners might like to borrow and the same principles apply irrespective of
the construction material.
By the addition of some bracing, one can then stop any sideways flex in the
sides of the rocker. John reports that he successfully applied the same
modifications to his own GSO Dob by simply fabricating his own braces
and retrofitting them to the existing chipboard mount.
As John reports -
Quote:
You see the brace running from the base up the side of the rocker box to almost the top, just forward of the altitude trunnion? That is what one needs to fit to the GSO base. It's about a 30 minute to one hour job for someone with a saw, a sheet of 12mm chipboard or MDF and a can of black paint, so it looks professional. It is fitted with countersunk screws (long ones because it''s going sideways in to chipboard) from inside the rocker box and underneath the baseboard of the rocker box.
Once the brace is installed which stops all sideways flexure of the rocker box itself, you then "shim" the insides of the rocker box with virgin Teflon pads (felt is a "fair" alternative) to stop any sideways movement of the scope itself within the rocker box.
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With less flex, this pays dividends with your pointing performance when the mount is
fitted with optical encoders. Plus you get the benefit of a more rigid mount.
Many thanks to John for forwarding this suggestion.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place, Mount Kuring-Gai
NSW. 2080. Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au