EQ6 belt mod reflections

[HarryD (Greg)]

Hi to you all.

The clouds are gone in Sydney. Cannot believe it after that storm. We northern beaches people were very lucky on Wednesday.

After much procrastinating I installed the Rowan belt mod on my EQ6 and changed a few bearings as well.

So, here are some thoughts:

1. Both worm housings had white overspray which I cleaned off with 800 grade paper placed on a flat surface. The kitchen bench, in fact, which is artificial stone and very flat and actually level.
2. A fair bit of grease all over the inside of the casing, cleaned that up.
3. Replaced the worm end and tapered bearings but used the main bearings as they were in good condition and are really overkill for the task.
4. Cleaned the worm gear and lubricated with Superlube.
5. The worm shaft slotted nut on the RA axis was so loose there was at least 5mm of play. How this mount tracked is a bit of a surprise.
6. Long nose pliers are better than the supplied tweezers
7. I did the adjustment of the tension on the worm shaft before I placed it back on the body.
8. I did the worm-wheel mesh adjustment before I reinstalled the motors because I could lightly pull on the belts to gauge the tension.
9. Took lots of pictures as I dismantled each part.
10. Ran the mount back and forth to make sure there was no stalling etc before I took it outside for some pics.
11. Mount is now very very quiet.
12. Polar alignment took a bit longer than usual as one would expect after pulling the whole thing to pieces. I use the PHD2 drift wizard. Next time I assume it will be back to normal. Got it down to 0.08 total RMS error
13. Guiding requires a lot less intervention from PHD2 than the pre belt set up.
14. Did I also say it’s very very quiet. Cannot hear the mount over my QSI683 camera fans.
15. Do lots of reading before doing this. There is loads of material on the web.

Merry Christmas to you all and thank you for being such a great learning resource.

Greg

[byronpaul (Paul)]

Greg,

thanks for the update.

Very interested in doing this to my mount in the future.

Paul

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Mine was done by a fellow Iis member. i am now regularly taking 30 min subs when conditions (wind) allow with astonishing results. It's well worth doing

[astronobob (Bob)]

Certainly been some Hectic stormage your way Greg

Im thinking of going belts aswell, , Great to know they are sooo quiet & there is plenty of advantages & benefits for doing so, as you know !

Can I copy & paste your write-up for reference when/if I go belts down the track ?

Sounds like you have covered the procedure very well

[HarryD (Greg)]

By all means Bob, and thanks for asking.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Worth putting into Projects and Articles ?? Always good reference for others.

[creeker (Ed)]

Hello Greg
I'll be buying an EQ6 soon and greatly appreciate your post on the belt installation. The only concern I have is the weight of the mount. I see in the specs the dealers post that the total weight is 77lbs (35kg) and the counterweights are 11lbs (5kg) each. This meaning the tripod and head is 55lbs (25kg). I'm limited by medical issues to what I can lift, so knowing what the head alone weighs is important. I'm hoping customer support can help with this. From what I read on the forums the EQ6 is a great mount, and I'm hoping to own one. Again thanks for your informative post.
Happy New Year
Ed

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Keep the head close to your body and have somewhere to place it ready and you'll be fine.
I'm not strong, but I do ok.

[creeker (Ed)]

Originally Posted by jenchris

Keep the head close to your body and have somewhere to place it ready and you'll be fine.
I'm not strong, but I do ok.

Thank you Jennifer. Did some research and found that the EQ6 head weighs 35lbs (16kg) I really like the EQ6 but that's too much for me.
Happy New Year
Ed
I was mistaken on the weight Jennifer. I went right to the Sky-watcher site and the total mount weight is 35lbs (16kgs). Sorry for the confusion. Thanks for your concern.
Ed

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

They say you don't get osteoporosis if you carry heavy stuff about.
For me that's as good a reason to carry on as I need.