Hey All,
I'll like to bring up this ol' chestnut as I believe I found the issue on why I cant get focus.
I now have 2 2x Barlows; the one I said in this thread above and now an ES 2x focal extender (2 inch) thinking there is any issue with my first one.
With excitement I took out the ED80 and put in the new ES focal extender straight in and inserted both an eye piece or my DSLR. To my dismay I have the same problem... cant focus on either one, racked in or fully out.
This is now a real joke! and I can say this hobby is costing me more than owning a boat!
Anyways I managed to find I believe is a fix! I took the barlow out of the ED80. I then screwed a 30mm 2" extender to a 2" T2 nose piece (30mm). I then screwed this extension to the front of the barlow and inserted it back into the ED80. I have now effectively pushed the front barlow lens 60mm back from the ED80 focuser.
and guess what! I now get focus on both eye pieces and DSLR. But it gets better. I get focus on BOTH barlows with this setup!
So from this, it looks to me that any barlow cant just be inserted straight into an ED80!