Lock nuts on primary mirror

[iamjulian]

One of my three lock nuts has well and truly locked itself. Any idea how to loosen it? Groove in the head on the bolt/screw is too narrow for screw driver, monkey wrench cannot grip it, and an elastic band has taken most of the skin off my hand already tightening the other two does not seem to help. Any ideas very welcome. Can see collimation is out but cannot fix it unless I can free up that nut thank you.

[iamjulian]

Crisis over. Edge of a pair of scissors fixed it. Ta

[John]

Glad you have fixed it

A lot of folks (including me) don't bother using the lock nuts unless transporting the scope.

[JamesF]

A small self-adjusting wrench can be quite handy in these situations. I can't immediately find any links to UK based examples though, which is odd as my father-in-law has a set of at least three. Perhaps they're called something else. They look like this:

James

[umadog]

I echo that. You probably don't need them. If you do need them then switch out the springs to stiffer ones then you won't need them.

[iamjulian]

Thanks, I sort of assumed that the lock nuts would help the main thumb screws stay in place a bit. I shall just keep them very lightly stopped then.

Thanks James, that's what I have but it would not grip unfortunately. The lock nuts have round heads on mine, not hexagonal.

[JamesF]

Thanks James, that's what I have but it would not grip unfortunately. The lock nuts have round heads on mine, not hexagonal.

Perhaps the nuts were too small then. The ones my father-in-law has will grip on pretty much anything -- even smooth round tube.

James

[crashtestdummy]

molegrips