MEADE quality

[Stefan Buda]

I have just finished recoating a 4" secondary mirror for a 16" Meade SCT.
The mirror came with the original mounting plate still attached and I was shocked by the manufacturing quality of the plate. They simply used a slice cut with a bandsaw from a 4" bar and only bothered to machine one side of it.
No broken sharp edge on the unmachined side or any anodizing. This would be poor quality even for agricultural machinery.

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

"No user replaceable parts within. Do not disassemble."



(I think that may have been the logic "No one's going to see the other side")

[Peter Ward]

That is pretty rough.

It begs the question: where else in the OTA have corners been cut....and if this is engineering prudence, why they keep going broke?

[Andrew_F]

HI Stefan,


Speaking as a trade. - aren't there springs that fit against the underside to provide tension against the alignment screws, so it doesn't need to be machined? (nice-to-have vs need-to-do)

If anything, I'd spotface the holes but leave it as is, too, if my assumption above is correct.

I'm timber trade as my main - the amount of furniture items that I see which aren't finished/touched where the client doesn't see them is far more than you think.


A