Meade 10" SNT OTA Resurrected

[johninderby]

Meade 10" SNT OTA Resurrected

Bought this 10" Meade Schmidt-Newtonian OTA the other week. It was in a very sorry state after having suffered smoke and water damage in a fire, but I like a challenge and the price was certainly right, so I thought it would make a nice little project. See the couple of photos of the scope as purchased.

The Baader Steeltrack focuser looked a bit charred and I thought I would have to fit a new focuser. But after stripping it down and cleaning the parts I found the body was in perfect condition, but the internal parts were corroded. Fortunately I had some spare parts from a damaged focuser and so I was able to use those to replace the Baader parts. Result one as new Steeltrack focuser in perfect working order.

The corrector and primary mirror were removed and soaked in some warm soapy water, and with the help of a very soft camel hair brush, the soot and dirt came off to reveal that both the corrector and primary mirror were in good shape and perfectly serviceable. Some Baader Optical Wonder fluid completed the cleaning task.

Then came the OTA. It definitely needed refinishing as the paint was discoloured and varied between cream and white in different areas with a few scorch marks. Rather than paint it I decided to try using some vinyl wrap. The one I settled on was Avery Supercast Ultra in metallic silver. It's supposedly about the best one available, but still not that expensive and didn't cost much more than buying spray paint and primer and wet&dry sandpaper.

I rubbed down the OTA lightly making sure to sand out any chips in the surface. As per the instructions I used some water with a little washing up liquid in a spray bottle to dampen the backside of the vinyl wrap as I was applying it. Well that was a bit of a disaster as it just didn't go down very well and left a lot of wrinkles. First lesson learned, if you're going to wrap an OTA using this type of wrap get someone else to help as you need a couple of extra hands. I didn't have enough wrap left to try it again with a single piece, but I did have enough to do it in three strips around the OTA and hide the seams under the tube rings. This also proved much easier to handle and the result, while not quite 100% perfect, was very, very good indeed and infinitely better than I could have achieved at home with tins of spray paint. If you use the fake carbon-fibre stuff it would be easy to apply as it's quite thick, but I wanted the look of a painted finish so that made it more of a challenge.

Then I just had to clean-up the rest of the parts and re-assemble the scope. All the screws were replaced with stainless steel ones. I added a carry handle to the tube rings and also a Telrad and a 9x50 RA finder. One other minor improvement was to fit three rubber feet to the bottom of the tube end ring/mirror cell to give it something to stand on instead of just the end of the OTA. All in all it has been a very inexpensive project, and I only spent about an extra £40.00 on the bits needed to re-furbish the scope, not including the finders of course.

Now just to wait for clear skies and Meade SNT 10" OTA (should I call it the Phoenix?) is onto the Skytee 2 mount for some testing.

John

PS

I know that I really,really didn't need another scope (indeed I've sold a couple recently in order to cut down) but I just couldn't help myself, particularly at that price.

[Veracocha]

Beautiful job well done. I did similar recently but as for the carbon wrap; it's very thin which is not what I expected, I used white spirit to slide the wrap into place which is what they use for getting grips onto golf clubs. As a result it would not hide the very small dent I had in the tube. Looks great in silver.

[brantuk]

I nearly put in an offer on that one - was thinking of doing the same - but you got in just before me haha! Very nice job John (as usual lol).

[Deneb]

You've given it a new lease of life...

[Rob]

Nice work.. you piped me to this tube John. on a side note do you find newts clash with the tripod legs on the Skytee 2 .. I'm looking to purchase one and mount the 8" newt on there!!

[F15Rules]

Hat's off to you John, looks the business:hello2:

Any chance of a first light report soon?

if we ever get a clear, moonless night again, that is:eek:

Dave

[johninderby]

Beautiful job well done. I did similar recently but as for the carbon wrap; it's very thin which is not what I expected, I used white spirit to slide the wrap into place which is what they use for getting grips onto golf clubs. As a result it would not hide the very small dent I had in the tube. Looks great in silver.

Thanks for the white spirit tip.

John

Hat's off to you John, looks the business:hello2:

Any chance of a first light report soon?

if we ever get a clear, moonless night again, that is:eek:

Dave

There will absolutely, positively, and definitely be a first light report soon.........or at least before Christmas.

John

[step_hen]

Great job John. really impressed with the work on the focuser as it really was in a sorry state (after all it was about three feet from the fire source!). Now.... when can you return it ;-)

Stephen

[johninderby]

Now.... when can you return it ;-)

Stephen

:D

John

[libraryman]

Hi John; where did you source the vinyl wrap from?

Ray

[johninderby]

Hi John; where did you source the vinyl wrap from?

Ray

I got it from here.

http://www.thevinylcorporation.co.uk/super-cast-ultra-ultimate-cast/avery-supercast

Be warned though. They do so many different types there's almost too much choice. The shipping is expensive, but when you see how it's packed in a proper shipping container designed for shipping vinyl rolls it's not that unreasonable.

John

[libraryman]

Cheers John

Ray

[tea drinker]

I bet that feels rewarding! Nice job

[Si W]

Nicely pimped , it looked like it needed it, you've do a really good job on it .