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Doc

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Posts posted by Doc

  1. I have had so many different eyepieces during my time enjoying this fantastic hobby. The stand outs for low power were the Televue Nagler 31mm, a Pentax XW30 mm, William Optics 28mm UWAN, and the Clave of Paris 30mm and 40mm eyepieces. For high power I would say the Baader Genuine ortho range, Clave of Paris 6, 8, 10, amd 12mm, and the 10mm Pentax smc ortho.

    But if I had to choose it would be any of the Clave of Paris eyepieces.

    As you can see quite a range so not much help 😀

     

     

     

    • Like 4
  2. 1 hour ago, monkeypig said:

    Those engraving bits from Amazon or eBay are ment to turn at tens of thousands of rpm, and when running at that speed they do work well. I use them in my CNC router. What may work better for you if you can lock up the quill of your mill is a 60° chamfer tool (obviously with the mill spindle not turning) and using that to scribe the index lines. HSS is better than carbide as that can shatter.

    Working out what plate to use when dividing can be a bit daunting at first but it soon becomes easier, just make sure you get the brass finger things set to the correct number of holes. I once ruined a part setting them one out, you only do that once!!

    Thanks Monkeypig.

    I've found some chamfer tools on Cromwell tools so popping down soon to pick some up.

    • Like 1
  3. For Christmas I treated myself to a 5" rotary table, I have never used one but it wasn't hard to set up and get it correctly positioned on the milling machine. It came with a MT2 adapter to connect my Myford chuck which was handy.

    The reason behind the purchase was to engrave degree circles to my DocMount and RocketMounts. I have never owned or used a rotary table before so had to get my head round the mathmatics involved but soon found out I needed a 20 hole division plate.

    After a few practice runs on scrap material and a practice using a pencil instead of the engraving tool I was ready to go.

    Firstly I done  36 divisions of 10 degrees for this I needed 2 turns and 10 holes, next was 72 divisions, so 1 turn and 5 holes, and finally 360 divisions which meant 5 holes of the 20 hole plate.

    A little clean up in the lathe was next to remove the sharp metal left over from the engraving process.

    Then finally some metal polish to clean it up. 

    All in all I'm pretty pleased for a first attempt. The 10 degree and 5 degree lines look really good, the degree marking a little haphazard. In future i might do 2 degree graduations instead. I also found out I need better quality engraving bits, the cheap ones from amazon or E-bay are not that great and I broke 4 doing this. 

    Next to stamp some numbers.

     

    Vortex 5" Rotary Table

     

    Just testing my maths.

     

    Working out how the rotary works.

     

    Engraving the degree lines.

     

    Engraving the degree lines.

     

    Once engraved it looks like this.

     

    The finished engraving

     

    • Like 8
  4. I have decided to add manual setting circles to my DocMount and RocketMount. This thread is about the DIY dials I'm adding to the DocMount which is a DM6 clone.

    I've added a few photos as they describe the process better then words.

     

    IMG_2621

     

     

    IMG_2622

     

    This dial is then machined to fit around the UHWPE bearings.

     

    IMG_2625

     

    Once fitted it looks like this.

     

    IMG_2628A

     

    A = The pointer which will be scribed this does not move and is fixed.

    B = This dial moves 360° and will be scribed 0° to 360°

    C = This is a locking screw once tightened it will lock B to the plate connected to the dovetail

     

    Finished article

     

    IMG_2629

     

    Now the maths:

     

    Setting circle dial is 132mm in diameter.

     

    So Pi (3.141) x D 

     

    3.141 x 132 = 414.612

     

    414.612 divided by 360° = 1.151

     

    So am I correct in saying there is a gap of 1.151 between each division.

     

    Is this a division in degrees or millimetres?

     

    Also does anyone know a UK company that can laser print, or laser engrave degree circles so it looks similar to this

     

    machine dial

     

    TIA

  5. I have been restoring my Fullerscope IV for a while now and have totally striped it down and added new motors, I just need to add a control board now to drive it. In my opinion it's a bit agricultural compared to the newer mounts, it takes a long time to set up the worm to wormwheel backlash adjustment, but on the other hand it does feel solid and takes a lot of weight.

    Here is a video of mine.

     

     

    • Thanks 1
  6. 1 hour ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

    That’s nice. I have very little experience and would love compare old kit to new just to see if we have really improved like the advertisements say.

    Marv

    Well I used to have a complete set of Televue Delos and a 31mm Nagler and I actually prefer the Clave's. They do have a few shortcomings such as fov and eye relief but then they are sharper on axis and show more colour. Most of my viewing is in the centre as I'm always nudging my scope.

    • Like 2
  7. 18 minutes ago, Seelive said:

    Just out of interest, where did you purchase yours? When I bought mine they seemed to be as rare as rocking horse s**t, I finally got them through Beacon Hill Telescopes in Cleethorpes.

    And are they sat on a copy of Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000? Looks like my 1982 edition 

    I've collected these over a few years. Mine are from various private buyers a few from France and one from Italy.

    They are rare and very hard to find.

    You can see the 8mm, 10mm and 12mm are side marked so they are 1 of 150 made with side markings.

    I still have the 3mm, 5mm, 35mm, 45mm, 65mm, and 75mm to find then I've completed the whole set.

    I'll 80 years old before I finish it at this rate.

    And yes it's the Sky Atlas 2000 but not sure of the date.

     

     

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
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