P-mount Mark-III now finished

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I began my rebuild quite a while ago, but I have finally found time during the holiday season to put some important finishing touches on it.
Here it is in all its splendor


In particular, I found some spare bits of ebony-star, which allowed me to improve the smoothness of the azimuth axis, and the main bearing surfaces of the parallelogram arms. I also found that the lock nuts adjusting the tension on the main arm bearings needed fairly frequent adjustment as temperature and humidity change, so I cut a couple of my wooden knobs, which means I can adjust the tension without any tools. The result is shown below

I might want to replace the 30mm Teflon discs of the main arm mounts by 60mm for improved stability and smoothness, but at the moment I am very pleased with the mount. I tested it briefly, and the current version is much better than my previous efforts.

[sologuitarist61]

Very impressive!

[m.tweedy]

Lovely.

somehow reminds me of a medieval war machine. (no offence intended)

just the workmanship is solid but precise.

[Psychobilly]

Nice work Michael... Good idea for the tension adjustment knobs - Glove friendly as well  

Peter...

[JamesF]

It does look excellent.  I like the wooden knobs, too

James

[Damo636]

Looks fabulous Michael, really nice work 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Thanks all. The knobs are really useful. I have now got a pair of chisels (one for M8 and one for M10 nuts) to cut out the hexagonal holes in the wood to hold the lock nuts. Much easier, more accurate, and faster than using a knife. The mount does have a bit of a trebuchet character, albeit a petite one, only suitable for knocking down castles in the sky