While I wait for the new drives and motherboard to arrive I figured I would keep myself busy. I was not at all happy with the Superwedge from Meade and thought I could improve upon it. Spending the money on a Milburn or Ultiwedge is out of the question so I figured I had nothing to lose
After disassembling the wedge the first thing I noticed was the poor machining on the surfaces of some of the castings. The base of the sides showed gaps where they met the baseplate so that was the first thing I got rid of. I chucked them on the bench mounted belt sander and trued them up nicely. I also corrected the machined areas on the base where these would sit. The fit improvement was 100% better. Next up was the center bolt for the leg stiffener/wedge mount. The bolt is very loose in the opening and could not help the stability of the mount. I picked up a 1" by 1/2" ID bronze bushing and after drilling out the tripod head to accept it, firmly pressed it in place. After running the bolt up through it there was now ZERO play
One of my biggest complaints with the wedge was how impossible it was to do fine movements while trying to polar align the mount. Go to far the wrong way and sit there, trying to turn the AZ adjuster with 2 hands becuase it was so tight 8 turns waiting for it to move when all of a sudden...BAM..It would jump too far the opposite direction. Same problem with the Altitude adjuster. Very sloppy, unprecise movement. This meant only one word.......TEFLON! I picked up a 14"x10"x1/4" Pure teflon cutting board at the local home store for %7. I used the base a s atemplate to trace a disk out of the Teflon to rest on. This was cut out on the band saw and the holes opened up on the drill press. I than took the scraps left and using the bandsaw, cut it into various thickness strips that would become spacers and washers. I used a Punch to make the washers and cut the various sized strips with either an X-Acto blade or sheetrock knife.
I added the Teflon washers to any part that would contact each other in hopes of improving the smoothness of the mount. I also used this Teflon to shim up the spaces bewteen the altitude bar and the mount as well as the Scope plate and the wedge sides.
The biggest issue with the wedge is the peg that the AZ adjuster uses to move the wedge back and forth. It uses a small pin to carry the weight of the wedge and the fit is beyong horrible. I leave the wedge mounted to the tripod so for me it was an easy solution. Add a spacer to make up for the TEflon pad the wedge now sat on and, after cutting off the pin, drilling and tapping the adjuster for a bolt that would anchor the adjuster to the GFT. This was the single best mod to the tripod/wedge assembly.
I also cut/drilled and tapped 2 rods of 7075 aluminum to act as braces that would tie the wedge sides together adding to the stability of the wedge.
I was afraid that the Teflon pad may add to the instability of the mount but all I can say is......This is now one "SUPERWEDGE !!" The altitude and AZ adjustments can be done with one hand turning the knobs. I have managed to remove 99% of the play and slop and added to the stability of the mount by at least 100%. It is truly a night and day difference.
The total cost was less than $30 and the time spent was around 4 hours. I cannot wait to get the scope together with all new drives, Motherboard and the improved wedge.
Sorry for the length of the post. Just thought some of you may pull out some useful info.
Running a NEW AZ adjuster rod through the Wedge. The original one had a 1/2 inch bow in it. You can also see some of the washers and one of the rods that help stiffen the wedge laterally.
Jeez, After looking at some of the pics I really need to pull it apart and give it a fresh coat of Paint as well as replace all the rusty fasteners on the GFT and the knobs
Thanks again for looking guys. Comments gladly welcome.
CS's
Bobby
P.S. Here's a shot showing my new 90MM f/11 GS. This will carry a ToUCam to guide the Big Girl with.
Very nice bobby! You'll get Paul (Rumples Riot) thinking about his superwedge now!
Most of your pics are over 130k though, can you please resize them down (save as lower quality jpeg) and re-attach them? If you click "edit" on each post you'll see the option to re-attach with a new file.
Mike is right, that got me thinking, but have to say only for a few seconds. My wedge seems fine. Very stable and the azi control seems ok. One thing that did occur to me was that when you said you had to use two hands and it took eight turns before it moved. I thought maybe you had not loosen the stability bolts and the compass knob off enough. If you don't do this, then you would be putting torque the bolts and just like an earth quake the two plates would slip when the pressure grew to great and the amount would as you say be too much. So I think at this stage I will not be making any mods, but am interested to someone doing something to enhance their enjoyment of the hobby. Happy hunting
Making the "Superwedge" Truly Super !!
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