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Quality of Current NEQ6


Singlin

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HAs the build quality of the current NEQ 6s improved?

I have an old EQ6 which I completely re-hauled and also did the belt mod,New bearings and grease.

I have just ordered a new NEQ6 and am wondering if the bearings and grease will have to be changed.

Regards,

Simon

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The problem is I doubt if anyone who has just purchased a new mount will want to take it appart to see if they are still using the same gunk in the bearings and drive shafts

I think you have it in a nutshell. I got my NEQ6 earlier this year and am delighted with it. It's working perfectly and I wouldn't dream of taking it apart....but whether it was working well or not, my mechanical prowess would encourage me not to meddle in any case.
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I am never going to get excited about a bearing which is whirring round at the insane rate of almost one revolution per day. I mean, what is this bearing doing? Moving. Just. Holding the axis on axis. Does it wobble? If not it's doing that. What exactly is supposed to be the problem?

This week I pulled an elderly and neglected NEQ6 out of its box for a guest to use. Initially it seemed to grumble but we gave it a bit of excercise (a few slews each way) and it knocked out the data for the rest of the week. It will now hibernate for a month, a year, two years or whatever and, doubtless, perform OK next time. It isn't a Mesu/Paramount/10 Micron/AP but for applications of moderate precision it does its thing.

Olly

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The problem with Chinese manufacturers - and I'm talking generally and not specifically pointing a finger at SW at all - is that they tend not to spend a lot of time cleaning castings, nor do they use premium bearings unless the client has specifically asked for them (they add significantly to the cost of production). Yes, it makes a difference to use good bearings, and yes - you can make improvements here if you so wish. Let me show you an image or two of a Chinese tool I bought, a Live centre for my lathe. This thing grated like it was full of swarf when spun and I had it replaced (they didn't want the faulty one back). So I thought I would see if I could find out what was wrong and fix it. There are two bearings in the thing so I forced flushed through the thing first with engine oil, then with moly grease. It would have been better to strip them out for cleaning but this proved to be impossible without causing more damage:

P1020595_zps61496d53.jpg

P1020596_zps29b80ce5.jpg

This removed (nearly) all the swarf and afterwards it worked just fine (-ish). This tale is sadly not unusual, I've heard many other stories relating to Chinese bearings in other machine tools (lathes, mills drills and so on) and there is no reason to believe that manufacture of their budget equatorial mounts is treated any differently. Now whilst this little tool is an extreme case, the contamination of bearings to a much lower extent is far more common where it can and does lead to rough running and even premature failure, although an outright failure is highly unlikely in an equatorial mount as it just isn't stressed that much. However it is the rough running that is of concern and this certainly can be improved by thoroughly cleaning and re-greasing the bearings - not just the main bearings but all of them (including the worms). The Chinese seem to think if you can't see it then it doesn't matter so why spend money doing it? :-)

ChrisH

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The problem with Chinese manufacturers - and I'm talking generally and not specifically pointing a finger at SW at all - is that they tend not to spend a lot of time cleaning castings, nor do they use premium bearings unless the client has specifically asked for them (they add significantly to the cost of production). Yes, it makes a difference to use good bearings, and yes - you can make improvements here if you so wish. Let me show you an image or two of a Chinese tool I bought, a Live centre for my lathe. This thing grated like it was full of swarf when spun and I had it replaced (they didn't want the faulty one back). So I thought I would see if I could find out what was wrong and fix it. There are two bearings in the thing so I forced flushed through the thing first with engine oil, then with moly grease. It would have been better to strip them out for cleaning but this proved to be impossible without causing more damage:

P1020595_zps61496d53.jpg

P1020596_zps29b80ce5.jpg

This removed (nearly) all the swarf and afterwards it worked just fine (-ish). This tale is sadly not unusual, I've heard many other stories relating to Chinese bearings in other machine tools (lathes, mills drills and so on) and there is no reason to believe that manufacture of their budget equatorial mounts is treated any differently. Now whilst this little tool is an extreme case, the contamination of bearings to a much lower extent is far more common where it can and does lead to rough running and even premature failure, although an outright failure is highly unlikely in an equatorial mount as it just isn't stressed that much. However it is the rough running that is of concern and this certainly can be improved by thoroughly cleaning and re-greasing the bearings - not just the main bearings but all of them (including the worms). The Chinese seem to think if you can't see it then it doesn't matter so why spend money doing it? :-)

ChrisH

Think you have s good point, although I said earlier that I'm delighted with my NEQ6 (and still am) one of the attitude adjustment bolts was slightly bent. I did a bit of research and found it was a "known problem", apparently they are prone to bending so rather than get the offending bolt replaced I got upgraded bolts and everything is fine. If I had to keep only 1 mount, I think this would be the one.
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Thanks for the input everyone.

I think it can be safe to say that it should not arrive with black grease.

I feel reasonably confident that it will be much better than my 3rd hand EQ6 (it now has Rowans belt mod) was when I received it.

I will just tune out any backlash and leave it at that.

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I'm yet to be convinced all these mods on an eq6 or other mounts are a huge improvement (excluding the bendy bolt issue). I've seen many many images on sgl taken with both modded and unmodded and in the right hands (not mine) they're pretty much equal. I think a lot of it is in the head. yes there are backlash issues, but these can be negated.

this is not to say that its wrong. if you choose to squeeze that last 1-2% out of your mount then go for it butdon't expect mediocre images to suddenly be magazine quality with the addition of a belt. most of it is down to the driver :)

:happy1:

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Thanks for the input everyone.

I think it can be safe to say that it should not arrive with black grease.

I think the 'black gunk' disappeared many years ago.  No sign of it in the NEQ6 that I bought in 2010.

I'm yet to be convinced all these mods on an eq6 or other mounts are a huge improvement (excluding the bendy bolt issue). I've seen many many images on sgl taken with both modded and unmodded and in the right hands (not mine) they're pretty much equal. I think a lot of it is in the head. yes there are backlash issues, but these can be negated.

this is not to say that its wrong. if you choose to squeeze that last 1-2% out of your mount then go for it butdon't expect mediocre images to suddenly be magazine quality with the addition of a belt. most of it is down to the driver :)

:happy1:

You may be right Scott, though tinkering with the mount gives us something to do while we wait patiently for a rare clear night :smile:

If nothing else, the belt mod makes the mount sound way better.

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I think the 'black gunk' disappeared many years ago.  No sign of it in the NEQ6 that I bought in 2010.

You may be right Scott, though tinkering with the mount gives us something to do while we wait patiently for a rare clear night :smile:

If nothing else, the belt mod makes the mount sound way better.

My mount is very quiet Mike but then again, i'm in a closed shed 20mtrs away from it :)

I seriously do get the tinkering side of things. just not the necessity of it :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

I can't say just yet, I'm having trouble getting the gear meshing right. A quick look when pointed towards the SCP showed the best guiding I've seen, but it's usually pretty good there anyway. Once I can get the epic backlash sorted out and do some testing I'll report back.

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