I put valve grinding compound on the joints and screwed/unscrewed them until I was able to get 3+ more rotations on them. The joint is a little loose but with weight and grease afterwards it is very stable. Its easy to tell if you are flipping in the same direction to much as the joint gets sloppy. It is immensely easy to point and I tested tracking on a few random stars and it works perfectly for viewing. No wobble from the breeze in the slightest which was my main reason for this endeavor. It is stable when snugged down as the system rotates so freely BUT I see you need to rotate the OTA so the eyepiece is more convenient as you track. I am going to bandsaw up a pair of curves that will clamp the tube in place and parallel but be loose enough to allow rotation.