As soon as I can wrangle the money to buy a new OAG I will need to get you to modify another part for me. An internal M42 T thread that will need to be remade to M48.
As soon as I can wrangle the money to buy a new OAG I will need to get you to modify another part for me. An internal M42 T thread that will need to be remade to M48.
Joshua, there's some beautiful work there mate!
Any chance of a quick rundown on your equipment, tools and jigs etc? I'm still an amateur at lathe work and am fascinated at how you cut such fine threads and mount some of those pieces.
Joshua, there's some beautiful work there mate!
Any chance of a quick rundown on your equipment, tools and jigs etc? I'm still an amateur at lathe work and am fascinated at how you cut such fine threads and mount some of those pieces.
Thanks Rick.
Nothing special really. A lathe that can do left and right hand threading, x and y power feed, tool holders with carbide inserts for removing large amounts of aluminium. Also tool holders with HSS in them for grinding custom shapes and threading tools.
A good set of dial test guages and vernier calipers. Thread gauge wires for measuring the OD of male threads before parting off.
I made a clamp that goes on a tool holder that clamps my drill so I can drill into parts in the chuck for bolt hols at indexable increments etc.
The machinists black book is a great resource. I mostly use it for getting the OD and ID and thread depth measurements when making threads. Lots of green and white scotch bright pad also.
Most of all, just have a go, make parts, dial in your machine to make sure its cutting true ( for example not a taper ) you will make mistakes... I've made many and learnt a lot from them, but if I'm not happy with a part, I make it again
Hi all,
Want to thank Josh on making a adapter for me. I was after a 2 inch adapter with internal thread for filter at telescope end and other end male thread to attach my celestron sct f6.3 reducer. So now I can use on my ed80 to give a wider view than the 0.8 reducer I have.
Quality was amazing and If anyone wants an adapter made. Pls contact Josh.
One of the parts I'm working on now is a tilt adapter for a focuser rotator for a customer. Things were not so square, and with no way to change that, I made him a tilt adapter, quite simple, I opted for 6 push pull screws rather than 3. One can use 3 of the 6 to get things running true, then snug up the other 3 for added support. Nothing like overkill 😁
Here you can see me getting the rotator to run true with the aid of the tilt adapter. I made a foot long tube to thread into the adapter to test it with a dial gauge.
Its good to have a local make quality adapters rather than always relying on Precise Parts and poor exchange rates. Also being made responsible for errors with that adapter maker software on his site. That cost me $565 once.
Both fit beautifully and look great. I was particularly pleased at how thin Josh was able to make one as my backfocus requirements were very tight for one of the adapters.
You get personal communication with Josh so everything is totally clear about what is needed upfront. I have spent probably $5,000 or more in adapters over the years with Precise Parts and that's how Ashley used to run his business with your description of what you needed to connect and he would know the details.
Now he uses a canned adapter maker software app on his site. The problem with it is he has transferred all responsibility for the adapter being correct to you. There is no personal communication although I am sure if you did send him an email he would respond.
That led to a $600 error on my part ordering an adapter where I had one side wrong (its was an SV AO unit which is not labelled front or back and I had it oriented the wrong way). I understand his approach of getting the customer to design the adapter saving him time and money but it also shifts responsibility for the product from him (where it belongs) to you (where it shouldn't - who else makes you responsible for their product?).
US dollar exchange rate, higher prices than what Josh charges, personal communication with Josh, equal quality, no dealing with a computer software to make the adapter all add up to a much better experience.
The main thing for me was the ability to have certainty that the adapter was going to be correct. You don't get that with Precise Parts despite paying at least twice as much.
Plus you are dealing with a local.
I'd estimate Josh charged me half of what Precise Parts would. Even Precise Parts adapter maker site was confusing when it came to CFF. Its under "other".
As if you would know that.
As you may tell I am somewhat miffed at Precise Parts and their lack of responsibility for their product despite high prices and the $5,000 worth of business I'd given them over the years. I even had to pay for the dud adapter to be returned to me after I sent it back (I'd forgotten he even still had it).
Not good enough when you are charging high prices and making the customer responsible for the product.
So now we have a viable, responsible alternative. Thanks Josh! Perhaps Precise Parts needs to learn an lesson in treating your customers well. So use them and pay double and if you get the wrong adapter its tough titty.
I think we've seen on this site over the years the need to evaluate suppliers carefully. Paul Haese with Orion Optics, Mike Sidonio with his ASA disaster, others with problems with cameras, mounts etc. Its not like Precise Parts are bad but that you take a risk when you deal with their adapter maker you may not realise you are taking and at more than double the price (2.13 times the price to be exact).
Greg.
Last edited by gregbradley; 11-10-2019 at 03:45 PM.
That rotator job is mine. Josh covered up the rotator but I'll tell you it is a Gemini and I had nothing but unsolvable problems for the past two years. I'm sure most Geminis are fine but mine had unfixable tilt during rotation. The Gemini has adjustments for concentricity but not tilt. So, I'm very excited to get Josh's adapter back in hand so that I can start imaging again!
I will back up every word that Greg has to say about Josh and about Precise Parts. I too have spent a small fortune on parts with Ashley. Usually the work was fine but a very expensive adapter that I sent to Josh to be tested has proven to be very poor. Also, Ashley is really really obstinate and hard to deal with. He rarely responds to questions even when his online Make an Adapter gives hard to understand results. Josh on the other hand is very patient and motivated and he will make the part to an incredibly high standard. I will certainly be giving him my business going forward! Bravo Josh!
Joshua made two adaptors for me to achieve the correct spacing between the field flattener and camera sensor on a Skywatcher Esprit 100mm.
Communications were excellent and thr products are beautifully made. Joshua corrected a small mistake that I made in the specification at virtually no additional cost.
I know this thread is about the fine work Josh does, however, I need to vent about my experience at AIC in San Jose recently with Ashley of Precise Parts. I had a PP adapter made to fit from Gemini DSI tubes to a TEC flattener. I previously sent Josh my rotator and fittings and he went through everything to find the sources of my trouble which were two fold. 1 rotator tilt on rotation (now fixed with that massive adapter shown in an earlier post by Josh). 2. serious issues of tilt in the PP adapter. Josh proved it was the adapter by putting a dial indicator on the ends of DSI tubes and then he added the PP adapter. The error on rotation increased to over 100 microns using a dial indicator. Considering that this is far forward in the imaging train (the beginning of the flattener, followed by flattener, filter wheel, finally camera) the error becomes massive on rotation. Josh repeated the experiment several times and on different days. He kindly videoed the results which I took to AIC on a memory stick. Josh made an observation that the DSI have a chamfer fit (not tapered threads) and the PP adapter lacked the necessary chamfer to keep things square. I thought that if I demonstrated this to Ashely he would take responsibility after viewing the videos. Think again! I was met with great resistance and all he would basically say is that Josh must have made a mistake! When I pointed out the lack of a chamfer he denied that Optec DSI tubes are made such. So I spoke with Jeff Dickerman of Optec who confirmed that DSI tubes do indeed have this chamfer, but he also said the original design of DSI tubes did not. He speculated that perhaps Optec had not supplied the updated design to PP. I asked Jeff to speak to Ashley about this. The next day I approached Ashely again. This time he said he would attempt to repair the adapter for a cost + shipping but wouldn't guarantee the results would be any different. I was astonished by this attitude and politely walked away saying I would think about this. As the part was/is useless I gave it to a well known but "to remain nameless" machinist who kindly took additional measurements in his shop. His report came to me today saying that he speculates that in addition to lacking the necessary chamfer the part was probably made in two steps instead of one. i.e., it was un-chucked from the lathe when cutting the threads on both ends which would account for non-concentricity. He also speculated that the part had been excessively clamped resulting in some distortion of high spots on the flat surface.
I will conclude this rant by lamenting the integrity of work by PP. I cannot understand how PP can sell a part that has an integral error (lack of chamfer, not to mention being poorly machined) and then walk away from responsibility by saying that Optec supplied the incorrect specifications for the DSI tubes. What does this have to do with me? If I buy a Toyota and the airbag is recalled I go to Toyota and the airbag is replaced for free. End of story. PP doesn't get it at all. As far as Ashley is concerned the problem is never his even when it blatantly is his problem. I will never do business again with PP.
And, since this thread is about Josh let me once again praise his work and attitude toward his clients as beyond reproach.
clearly you have had a bad run with these recent parts of your imaging train, it puts such a dampener on imaging progress, just another issue us imagers don't need to deal with when getting our gear running. I would tend to agree with the machinist whom you sent the part to, to get measured.
Over the past year Joshua has manufacture 2 adaptors for me. The first shortens the back-focus used by my SW ED72 correcting lens whilst allowing the fitting of a 2” filter. The second is a 3mm spacer which I use with my coma corrector and moonlite focuser. Both adaptors are very professionally finished, and do the required job extremely well whilst being very reasonably priced. Thanks Joshua for your outstanding efforts.