While putting together my new 16" GSO dob I found that they are still turning them out with the problem identified by David Bonandrini back in his June 2008 Astromart review, namely that the strut bolts and the threaded holes they screw into on the rims have paint on them (in) and this can stop the bolts from screwing in properly or even cross thread themselves (the bolts also go into the rims on a slant so don't try to put them in straight).
Here is a link to David's review of the scope, as sold under the Astrotech brand name in the US, one of many rebadge brands that use the GSO platform.
http://www.astromart.com/articles/ar...article_id=660
Since I had seen David's review I was on the look out for the problem and sure enough I could not get the bolts to go in the way they should. Out came the M8 die and tap and I ran all the bolts and the rim holes, they had heaps of crap in them. The struts went on very nicely after that cleanup.
So if your getting a GSO 16" dob keep that in mind when you start the assembly. BTW, Andrews is still shipping them without assembly instructions, however, if you've setup a dob before it's all same old same old with the exception of the struts.
Boy is that base heavy, the net weight on the base box was 30kg and it's also tall and 80cm across the base board. The scope is sitting on it now but I have already started on building my custom marine ply base, which is going to sit the scope lower, be much lighter, have a smaller footprint, and be collapsible (yes a dob mount that you can easily knock down for travel). I cut out the new mount pieces today and will have some photos in coming days.
