Ted Cheerfully Retired

Thank you, that's helpful. My first naive try as re-assembly failed, as the gear bound after about one full revolution. There will be a pause in re-assembly as I await Torx screw delivery. A few items are out of stock at Accu, likely September before shipment. Oh, well. The mosquitos here are pretty rough right now anyway. The discussion of lubricants in the thread "Intes Micro Alter M603 Dissection" on the Cloudy Nights board is very interesting. I've procured a general purpose synthetic grease - "Super Lube-21030 Synthetic Multi-Purpose Grease, 3 Oz." from Amazon. I read through the materials compatibility sheet quite carefully before placing the order, though -- the risk is that I have no idea what material comprises those cream-colored plastic blocks. If I start to feel very risk averse, I could get another half-ounce of Krytox specifically for those pads. Thank you again for all of your assistance, I never would have tried this repair without your write up on this thread.

Will do. I'm very tempted to write this up, title it something like "The Unofficial Intes Manual" and (after I circulate it for comments) post it to various boards. The shop I bought mine from is closed, the owner retired and moved away. I sent a number of emails to various shops that had sold this 'scope in the past, and none had any sort of manual or documentation. The Intes.ru site looks derelict -- last copyright date 2005 -- and doesn't have any useful information anyway. The threads on discussion boards are all the documentation there is.

Awesome! Very grateful!

Greetings, sir! My Alter M603 is apparently of a similar vintage to yours. The number on the back of my mirror is 127, and my baffle tube is inscribed 21. Cousins at least, if not brothers. I’m taking mine apart to attempt to repair a frozen focuser, apparently caused by binding somewhere in the rear assembly. I have two questions, if I may ask for your opinion and assistance: (a) Say, how free should the white metal focusing ring be? (I’m referring to the toothed disk, prominent in the photo above the text “The mirror off, and the focusing mechanism was revealed:…”) In re-assembly, should that turn freely for (say) several revolutions? Really, I’m asking: How much does the mirror have to move to insure sufficient focus play? (b) Would you be so kind to share your shopping list for the “50-odd miscellaneous new stainless screws, grubs and bolts from accu.co.uk.” Thank you for any assistance you can provide...