[danielsun]

Just thought i'd let any dob owners who might not know this , know how to get the ultimate in azimuth smoothness. On my 10" i thought i had a pretty smooth running az base with teflon washers and shiny pot plant i.d. cards cut out as washers with silicone spray. But me being a compulsive modifier a had to try better. So i took the outside diameter of the nylon bush that links and rides between the base plate and rocker box and measured the gap between the two bases which was 3.5mm and for $15 went to CBC bearings and got a thrust washer set that fits nicely over the bush .Basically its just two 1mm washers and a needle roller race that goes between them. And to stop any sideways slop which was only a few mm i wraped plumbers teflon tape around the outside of the nylon bush so that it would be a nice hand press snug fit. The other thing i had to do was lift off the three outer teflon slide pads and shim underneath them to the same height as the thrust washer thickness ( because the thrust washer was 4mm thick) and (the teflon pads were 3.5mm thick) using pot plant i.d. cards as shims which were 1/2mm thick, exactly what i needed! i also did away with the staples and screwed the
teflon pads and shims to the base using tiny scews.i put the bolt back through and nipped it up without overtightening and WALA!!! THE BASE IS NOW SUPER SMOOTH!!! much much better than before. It feels that good that i did my 8" too!!!