cpc bearing upgrade and full flock

[faulksy]

short and sweet story due to doing a full write up before and it was deleted when I started up loading the photos any way thanks to cath, she fully flocked her sct and had great results, so I wanted to do the same. also phsycobilly did a post on upgrading his bearings on his cpc so I wanted to do this as well, also read about de greasing the mirror tube and re building with dow corning vacuum grease as this stops mirror flop. so I set to work striped everything down de greased removed ota and fully flocked that, also de greased mirror tube and focuser and re built with vac grease, up graded the bearings from nylon to 1/4 steel bearings polished everything and re assembled. all I can say is wow, this is how the scope should of left the factory.the scope has always tracked fine but now it is a lot quieter slew seems faster and contrast has altered no end, I viewed Saturn and it was amazingly different from previous views, so should be great when we get our dark skys back. I will add some photos now tell me what you think good or bad. regards mike.

[Psychobilly]

Good job both....

Did you strip the alt axis in the end or just clean and re-grease it?

Peter...

[Sfarndell]

Neat job - well done!

[Chris Rowland]

Probably the wrong time to mention this but Celestron are now using alternate steel and nylon bearings. Apparently this gives better results than all steel or all nylon.

Chris

[faulksy]

Good job both....

Did you strip the alt axis in the end or just clean and re-grease it?

Peter...

yes I striped the alt axis down but the only photo I have is this with de greased bearings

[faulksy]

Probably the wrong time to mention this but Celestron are now using alternate steel and nylon bearings. Apparently this gives better results than all steel or all nylon.

Chris

adding all steel made a massive difference

[redfox1971]

I was thinking of doing this mod to mine,1 worry is wont it eventually wear a grove in the race,were as nylon would wear first?.just a thought

[faulksy]

I was thinking of doing this mod to mine,1 worry is wont it eventually wear a grove in the race,were as nylon would wear first?.just a thought

possibly but I think it would take hours and hours of use, I have had my cpc now for 2 years and here is no sign of wear, even the nylon bearings were perfectly round, the reason I up graded was to reduce friction so this in turn has made the scope quieter also reducing strain on the motors and there gearboxs

[Cath]

any way thanks to cath, she fully flocked her sct and had great results, so I wanted to do the same.

I take no responsibility what so ever, no good blaming me

Anyway, well done Mike! .. Looking at the third picture I can tell straight away it's flocked, much better!

Looks like quite an overhaul you've done there. How did you know exactly what bearings to buy etc I wonder?

[faulksy]

psychobilly suggested 1/4 bearings for the azimuth bearings but I measured mine a did a average over 10 balls to allow for wear compensation, its not that I didn't believe peter it was the fact that he had the 8" cpc. the rest of the bearings were just cleaned, and regreased, its made a big difference in smoothness, flocking wise I flocked the whole tube, the focuser tube and the secondary mirror cone, so there shouldn't be any reflection now

[redfox1971]

Hi faulksy,I'm going to tackle the bearing mod soon,what company did you use for the ball bearings can't seem find any on eBay?

[redfox1971]

Also how many ball bearings would I need?

[menefist]

yes I striped the alt axis down but the only photo I have is this with de greased bearings

Hello sir,

I just purchased the new CPC 11 Edge, the mount design is pretty much the same, and exactly in the Alt gear, somehow, without ever disassembling it, one of those bearing barrel felt out .

What should I do? should I go through the hassle of trying to replacing it? IS it worth it? Or should I return the Scope?

[faulksy]

thats one of the needle bearings, wow how the hell did that fall out, its a easy fix, but your scope will still be under warranty, if you strip it, the warranty is void. were did you buy it from. its worth giving them a shout first and see what they say