TAL-2 EQ mount servicing

[Andy McK]

Well, I managed 1 hour with a hole in the clouds, pointed at Vaga and turned on the RA drive, went for a cuppa, came back half hour later and Vaga was where I left her, smack bang in the middle of my FOV, chuffed!

Was hoping for Jupiter, gave up on M32/31.

Cloud rushing in..

Happy with the "feel" of the mount and the RA drive.

So to sum up:

Couple of hours, pulling the mount to bits

Couple of hours, SGL (thanks guys)

Couple of hours re assembly (tea included)

Now I'm in possesion in a very solid telescope that to my novice hands and eyes

seems to be worth the money I spent.

(have to start on my Brian Cox impersonations now, "Aaa, look at em star's")

[AndyH]

AND............if you ever want to move on to a different scope, this mount should hold it, with a bit of modification. Mine holds my 8" Klevtsov, an extra 80mm finder and my 90mm Apo. Roughly 16kg of aluminium and glass ! I've also put my Tal 1 ota on this too, to ramp it up to 20kg. I reckon that's about it's weight limit !! Looks very strange though.

I like to think of the MT-2C(2M) mount as a EQ/Dob hybrid. The lack of annoying axis lock knobs, means you just push the scope about to the next target without any faffing about.

I draw parallels between my old beloved Triumph Dolomite and my detestable modern Renault Megane. The modern car may do more things and sometimes do them better, but my old babe, was much more comfortable and reliable to use, stonkingly easy to work on and just made me smile ever time I pulled out the choke and she vroomed to 1000rpm idle....sigh. Good times old dear.

Edited November 11, 2011 by AndyH

[Andy McK]

AndyH, you just brought a tear to my eye, I loved Triumph Dollies, even had a Herald briefly, I totally agree with the engineering, Digging around inside the mount remended me of me pulling my Grandads Pathescope 9.5mm projector apart, same smells

PPs, used to site on the front wheels to do the point.s in the Herald, ah what joy.

[Andy McK]

Well chaps, it's been a couple of nights with the scope out, even managed to get the finder scope sorted (long story)

Now I can pop out the back, polar align, point OTA at a celestial object and with a little tweek every now and then, I seem to be able to stay on't star I'm viewing.

I have also discovered another use for the mount. please lookup

my Solar tracking thread.

Andy McK

[Komet]

Its worth adding here that many years ago I stripped and rebuilt my TAL2M. Before going to the expense of buying new bearings - and lets face it they face no load at all - I thoroughly cleaned the originals. The stuff I pulled from them was amazing. Bits of polythene - probably the bearing packing material - and some awful grease. I repacked them with Sentry Lithium and it became a different mount altogether. I never did change the originals as there was no need.

[AndyH]

Hi.

I was amazed at the bits that came out of my original bearings too. Mainly seemed to be swarf and tiny aluminium cuttings.

My top RA bearing was terribly rough n notchy, even after cleaning and re-greasing. The original two RA worm bearings could have been smoother too. The other three bearings were and still are perfectly fine.

With my mount carrying a hefty load, I reckon the smaller top RA bearing takes the brunt of the extra weight. At least, that's my take on it.

Andy.

[jamespels]

On mine, both the smaller and larger RA bearings were a bit rough - I could have lived with them if necessary but not worth it foe £10 worth of bearings. The Upper dec bering was fine; the lower one was extremely rough and would frequently catch as it turned. Muct admit, I didn't even bother cleaning it and went straight to swapping it for a shielded one.

[Andy McK]

Even after changing both RA bearings, i do have to take care in balancing the OTA, as the RA clutch does struggle (Too much grease?) But last nite, I managed to get on to Jupiter and noticed that I wasnt tracking at all. Turned out that, for whatever reason, the Sync motor had poped out of its mounting, spring still attatched. Eased it back in and scope carried on well, changed EP's 45,20,15 all with and with out x4 Barlow and Jup was where I left her.

[Retro]

Do we still have any Tal 2 users on here?

Been a few years since this topic was posted, I'm a new Tal fan having bought a cheap wrecked Tal 1 and restoring it, I then went and purchased a Tal 100r refractor and restored.

Now I have acquired 2 x Tal 2 monsters that I wish to restore and use, (keep one for spares etc).

Just in the process of stripping the mount down and oh boy bit more complicated than a Tal 1 mount!

I've read the articles and downloaded Andy H's pdf's but if I get stuck do we still have experts on here to help?

[markse68]

Hi Retro, not an expert but i did overhaul mine last year- have a look in this thread it might be useful- at least in avoiding some of the mistakes i made!

Mark

 

[R26 oldtimer]

Still use mine for visual with a SW120ed. Great mounts, simple mechanics.

[Retro]

On 19/10/2021 at 00:38, markse68 said:

Hi Retro, not an expert but i did overhaul mine last year- have a look in this thread it might be useful- at least in avoiding some of the mistakes i made!

Mark

 

Superb work mark and thanks for the info.

The threaded collar under the ota mounting plate refused to move for me but apart from that I managed to strip it all down and clean and re-grease everything. Tested it tonight and it was amazing apart from a little play in the ra axis, might not have tightened this enough when reassembling.

Many thanks

Mike