Nick in Kent

Thanks for the replies. I'd read people's tales of woe, but tripod legs aside, overall at this point it doesn't seem too bad for the money. The level on mine is accurate, which was a surprise, and it appears to track ok. It is, bought at xmas from Rother Valley. I'm going to take out the RA screw as it's then fine and moves better than the other axis. It's a new adventure for me, and been fun learning so far. I'll be on the lookout for any developing issues with the drives and see how it goes. I'm sure I'll be taking the drive apart at some point

I've been getting started with an EQ3-2 GOTO / Skymax 127 combo, and had a couple of queries / concerns about the mount; advice would be greatly appreciated. With the clutch released, rotating on the RA axis the mount meets resistance when the counterweight bar approaches horizontal. It's enough that sometimes the motor drive can get stuck; there's no clicking from gears skipping, but movement stops. If I undo the RA setting circle screw the resistance is gone so I thought that was my error as the manual says to unscrew when locating, but as tracking is on the RA axis and the screw would normally be tightened at that point, is this an issue with the mount? I'm not expecting to use the circle so I can leave the screw loose and it seems that it'll be fine, but I'm wondering what the issue is. I've looked at badger's teardown, but I really don't want to take it apart yet as it's new and there isn't much backlash and no slop (if I understand the term correctly). I'm also wondering whether the DEC circle is set incorrectly at the factory and needs adjusting, or is this a misunderstanding on my part. After polar aligning, I assumed that having the arrow on the side of the mount head point to 90 on the DEC circle would have the telescope pointing correctly home positioned, however with a 1 star alignment my home position was clearly incorrect, and after doing a 3 star alignment (and getting good tracking after that) and returning home the DEC circle was around 78. Using a spirit level on the head, if the edge of the mount head that's parallel to the scope mounting plate when it's tightened and horizontal , the DEC circle is around 12 (or 78 if vertical), however if the edge of the head that has the two screws that secure the plate is horizontal, the DEC circle is 0. So it seems as if the DEC circle was set based on the orientation of the side of the head that has the screws, which doesn't lie parallel to the scope mounting plate, rather than the edge that lies snug against the mounting plate. Does that sound plausible or should the DEC circle be at 12/78 when the scope is horizontal or vertical?