DIY Balance for 14" finished and working great

[Shawn]

For anyone that may be interested. construction was straight forward,
1) fabricate the the frame assy on a wooden jig to ensure hole line up.
2)Burn nose finger severely in proccess.
3)discover that rails were not long enough.
4)return to jig and make longer rails.
5)make slider block out of small bit of box section
6)make slider block inserts out of MDF, lined with wetsuit rubber, "old wetsuit"
7)melt a whole lot of old sinkers in my one of my wifes best pots, on the BBQ. "she doesnt know yet Ive hidden it" .
8)pour lead into coffee can, with threaded bar allready located, tip ."remove coffee first.
9) quench to free up coffee can and cut off coffee can.
10) paint it. bolt it on.
It works very well, I supprised myself.."finger getting better,"

[Shawn]

For some reason I cant add these to the prior post, finger trouble I suspect.

[h0ughy (David)]

is that a huge scratch and dent in the first image!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???

[matt]

Looks more like a reflection?

[Shawn]

Phew,,,,Its a reflection ,,,

Thanx Houghy,,,,tickers not as strong as it used to be....


,,,

[acropolite (Phil)]

BTW Sir, nice work on the counterwight system. I merged your threads as well.

[Shawn]

hey thanks for merging the threads, I forgot the pictures on the post and then they wouldnt add on edit. My fault of course , too early in the morning, and total incompetence make a merry couple....

[acropolite (Phil)]

Just noticed your Sig, that's an R model LX, hows it going any problems??

[Shawn]

Hi Phil
Its a long story, I ordered a 16" R about 3 months ago, Meade stopped production till Sept in favour of more marketable smaller units., so I downgraded, found a Chreiten in stock so 14" with lots of extras as opposed to 16" with none, working to a budget you see. but its a great setup, only a couple of flaws,
1 Bad Balance, heavy corrector, and no change from SC design
2 fork flexure, tested with dial indicator,
3 poor Dec Drive assembly.
all fixed, with workarounds. and mods.
Aside from that optically, its superb, and has been freighted well. I cant complain really. Being an Engineer I have no trouble with, reasonably good engineering but poor assembly, got a little more to do to adjust for my latitude 17S, before I can post pics here. and thanks for the compliment

Shawn...

[Shawn]

Dial indicator results half the flexure is in the fork itself , the rest in is the Fork RA assy. next to none in the wedge, Im thinking,,,!,,,,Bore out the RA housing and fit a Counter to the Fork assy passing thru the RA, Ill investigate this, see if its do'able. i think the mount is really not quite up to the Ritchie weight...Even fitted to a permenant pier the it would still flex without this balance issue sorted out. funny though, the forks flex more laterally ie: sideways, than they do , for and aft,,,wierd huh ?...

S

[Shawn]

Ok