The price tag for replacement Alt and Az bolts

[peroni]

Hey All

I feel like I've been tempting fate so far. I've had the HEQ5 mount for a few months and have had no trouble adjusting my altitude and azimuth for polar alignment. But ...

There are many threads with people reporting problems at some point and recommending upgrading the bolts.

The AstroDevelopments replacement altitude and azimuth adjuster bolts for HEQ5 Pro here are priced at £55 for the 4 bolts . That got my attention.

I had no idea how much the bolts would be but £55 seems a bit steep.

A question for those with replacement bolts. Does the £55 represent value for money? Is the quality of machining and strength of bolts justifying the price tag?

Or is there somewhere cheaper to pick these up?

[Steve Ward]

Provided you undo one before tightening the other you shouldn't have a problem ,

Mine have never been a problem on the HEQ5Pro , I've always suspected that the problem is more user-based , I'd love to see the figures of 'problem bolts' vs No. of HEQ5's in use world-wide.

I certainly wouldn't pay that sort of money for four bolts if I did encounter a problem , it's just robbery . . .

[Bizibilder]

You can buy stainless steel bolts far cheaper than that. The downside is you may have to modify them slightly and either use a spanner or arrange some sort of grip/knob to operate them. These http://www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk/A2_ScrewBolt_HexHd_M10_THRpart.html show the sort of prices that you could be paying (about £2.00 each!!) if you can cope with the inconvenience.

[Astro_Baby]

Always a question to split the room.........I have both sets of bolts and my advice would be change the altitude bolts everytime. I have been through three mounts to date ( two HEQ5's and an EQ6 ) all of them ended up bending their bolts in short order.

Now people will always argue that theres have never bent, very often the people saying that come back a few months later to ask how to remove a bent bolt

The way I see it the mount is the thick end of £700 or a grand. Wouldnt you want to soend a few quid to protect it. If the altitude bolts do bend you could end up having a very exepnsive repair job on your hands, and at best a horrible afterrnoon hacksawing bolts out. I dont think the azimuth bolts are a risk but the alt bolts definitely are.

Can you get them cheaper than astro developments ? Yes is the answer if you wantvto carry a spanner with you by using standard bolts or maybe by soending a lot of time looking up parts online, aralditing knobs on the end etc etc.

Initially I skipped on astro developments, after all I am pretty handy, how hard can bolts be to source ? So I did some web reserach and found the parts. Drove to a local company specialising in bolts and stuff, bought some bolts that were super duper aerospace quality returned home and found they didnt fit, threads were not quite right. So I had used a gallon of fuel, two hours of my time going there and getting back, probably another two hours sourcing parts and at the end of it I would still have to use araldite and more time to make the same thing...soooooo I just decided I couldnt be bothered and bought the AD ones. Thats what your paying for...its not the bolts its the reduction in hassle.

I do see people posting saying the use just standard bolts and use a spanner...what a royal pain that would be in a dark field. Would work ok in an obs where your only doing it once but out in a dark field it strikes me as Heath Robinson in extremis. Lord knows theres enough hassle with kit without wanting to inflict even more on yourself.

[Daniel-K]

i dont see why people moan. you pay nearly £800 for a mount and moan about £25 for some bolts that are far superior than the supplied ones which could bend and then you have to strip the side of the mount to get access to the bent ones. i replaced mine on the neq6 straight away. no brainer really when you read the trouble people have with them.

[tich]

I changed mine pretty much straight away too as one bent slightly with just the head mounted so I never did bother fitting the scope until I replaced them. I only changed the Altitude bolts & never bothered changing the azimuth ones.

[Photosbykev]

why bother buying the Az bolts they aren't heavily loaded?? only the Alt bolts are at risk. The Astro Development bolts are much better than the original monkey metal ones AND they include a neat ratchet handle

[peroni]

I think that's decided then. I'll stick an order in for the Alt bolts only.

Thanks for all your comments.

[Grotemobile]

This is what i have done using 10mm bolts.

My mount goes back on the same spot, every

time, so i dont need to move the alt bolts.

Rock solid.I have got a EQ3, as a portable

mount.This is the CG-5 mount.So easy to

set up now.You seem to spend more time

setting up the mount,than using the scope.

This was my solution.

Steve

[Astro_Baby]

I should add I have absolutely no commercial connection to AD, it might seem as I always suggest go there for bolts that maybe I am on a kick back. I dont take any kickbacks from any supplier at all but just reccomend based on practical experience.

[peroni]

.You seem to spend more time

setting up the mount,than using the scope.

This was my solution.

Steve

Hi Steve

I have to spend a fair amount of time getting polar aligned. I'm learning, so things are slower than they should be but I need accurate alignment for astrophotograpy.

[peroni]

I should add I have absolutely no commercial connection to AD, it might seem as I always suggest go there for bolts that maybe I am on a kick back. I dont take any kickbacks from any supplier at all but just reccomend based on practical experience.

I totally appreciate yours and everyone else's experience on this forum. It has helped me enormously in what has been and probably will continue to be a steep learning curve. I've used some of your guides as well

Perhaps one day I'll be brave enough to take my mount to pieces. But that's a long way off.

[Moonshane]

I always assumed that you aligned the mount unloaded? are these bolts so poor that they bend under the weight of just the mount?

[Photosbykev]

I always assumed that you aligned the mount unloaded? are these bolts so poor that they bend under the weight of just the mount?

The design fault is due to the position of the reaction paddle inside the mount that the south side Alt bolt works against. At 50-55 degrees rather than being an axial load on the bolt, which wouldn't be a problem, most of the force is translated into a bending force. At 20 ish degrees the load through the bolt is more in-line with the bolt. It doesn't help that some of the mounts are coming out of the factory with the main Alt pivot bolt and friction plate done up so tightly the force required to move the mount in the Alt axis is stupidly high with or without a scope mounted.

[peroni]

It doesn't help that some of the mounts are coming out of the factory with the main Alt pivot bolt and friction plate done up so tightly the force required to move the mount in the Alt axis is stupidly high with or without a scope mounted.

My first mount came from the factory with this problem. I couldn't move it at all and was worried I might bend the bolts trying. The mount was RTM'd (great work by FLO here ) and the replacement mount is fully functional.

From what I've read so far the alignment should be made at first without a scope and then subsequent tweaking when you drift align (or other tuning) with the scope on.

Of course this amount of precision is only required for astrophotography.

[Astro_Baby]

Its best to align with the mount unloaded but as I often observe from a field after loading up its not unusual for the mount to sink a bit on the grass. The mount can flex a bit anyway once its carrying the weight of the scope which means the odd tweak to get it perfect.

If you were drift aligning you'd have no choice but to have the scope loaded. Admittedly you'd only be moving the bolts slightly for minor adjustement but the things are so soft it doesnt take much for them to warp. Once warped they can be a mare to remove. Not too bad if they are bent in one place only but the worst outcome is they distort on both sides of the mount threads which means a dreadful job to get the bolts out.

My EQ6 was acquired with the bolts pre bent so badly that the only fix was to remove the side plates, which broke one of them, and remve the mount from its altitude block and then file through one of the bolts. It was a slow painful and boring job and I dont reccomend it for a Sundat afternoons entertainment.

To get a badly twisted bolt out the mount, especially if they are badly bent is tough because the mount alloy itself is quite soft and prone to damage if you bash it when hacksawing or filing the bolts off plus you can end up busting the side plates in trying to remove them. My busted sideplates were replaced with spares that FLO managed to get for me but you dont need this sort of aggro in your life.......at least I dont.

The problem is you dont get any warning when they go....one day the mount is fine and the next its knacked.

Astro always seems a weird hobby to me, people will lash out hundreds, nay thousands on scopes, eyepieces, cameras, filters etc but ask them to spend a few quid on stuff like dewshields, bolts, leads and suddenly everyone is happy to try and make stuff from wet cardboard and spit and gets a severe attack of the misers. I dont think £50 is all that much for some custom made bolts. Hell I just spent £30 on a bottle of makeup and other half just spent £40 on a plastic cover for a mobile.

Its interesting comparing astro attitudes on stuff to the rocketry crowd who worry not a jot about setting fire to £10 a go motors, risking rockets that cost £50 a go on flights. Buring up materials left right and centre with scarce a word of complaint when something goes pete tong and a rocket that maybe has had dozens of hours work and £30 of materials spent on it explodes on the pad, fails to fly and lawn darts into the ground or flies into the rocket eating tree

[skir]

I spent quite a lot of time looking for replacements and I mean a lot of time! My conclusion was that if I end up needing them I will just stump up for the ad alt bolts.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Moonshane]

I'm glad I use dobs! but I think I'd be making some stainless versions for pennies if I needed them.

[kirkster501]

Hi, I never had an issue with the stock bolts on the HEQ5 when I had that mount; the mount head is not that heavy. However, with the NEQ6 and its MUCH greater mass to move the bolts definitely need to be upgraded IMO. I have owned both mounts and can tell you this from painful personal experience.

It wont won't hurt to swap the bolts on the HEQ5 but not an absolute necessity IMO. Also, its the altitude bolts (up/down) only that have this issue. The side bolts are fine as standard.

EDIT: I always polar align with my mount loaded - though my scopes are not heavy. I find the polar alignment can be disturbed and thrown out by attaching the scope/weights etc.

[laser_jock99]

I'm kind of fed of posting this now, but you can make your own quite cheaply

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/levers/0478692/

Buy the lever clamp handles fro RS then cut some M10 high tensile steel bolts to the correct length. Loctite and/or pin the M10 into the female clamp handle. Save yourself £45. The azimuth bolts don't need changing

[Astro_Baby]

You would also need to file the emd of the bolt down to give it a round ball like shape otherwise the bolt end will grind the mount tongue to pieces.

[skir]

Yes it needs a dog point bolt.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Russe]

So there's no way to make adjusting the altitude easier if turning it is quite hard?

[laser_jock99]

So there's no way to make adjusting the altitude easier if turning it is quite hard?

I have modified both my EQ6 mounts by 'moving' the latitude adjuster lug forward

It means the adjuster bolt actions on the lug at sensible angle. Less stress on the bolt and also easier to adjust.