fixed my EQ1 tripod!

[bullettooth]

hey all,

thought this might be helpful to some people.

i got a skyhawk 114 for christmas and a few days after i took it to a local dark site.

not being used to the scope i was a bit too rough on one of the tightening nuts for the tripod legs and it snapped.

ive drawn on the picture where this is.

anywho, i put some tape round as a quick fix but it didnt last long. so as a plumber i had some solvent cement in my shed and applied some to the break this morning. checked it a couple of hours later and it seems to have done the trick.

so if you have anything thats plastic that breaks i think solvent cement is the way to go

hth erm anyone clear skies

martin

[Reggie]

Hi Martin, I hope the fix holds for you I had weakened the fitting on my nexstar 6SE quite a few years ago, took it out for the first time a couple of weeks ago and the same thing happened to me, it snapped off, into quite a few small pieces, no chance of finding them

I came up with a fix using polymorph, DIY Material Guide: Polymorph Plastic ( a thermal plastic with low melting point)

I refitted the threaded metal insert into what was left of the plastic fitting, got enough polymorph for what i thought was 5mm thick, 3cm wide band long enough to make up a 'ring' to go around the leg, heated it in hot water, moulded to shape (rolling pin is useful for getting even thickness), I then took the polymorph and got a rough shape that I needed and made a hole with a small screwdriver so that the thumbscrew would still fit. I reheated the polymorph carefully so as not to lose the shape and then pressed in the polymorph so that it was a nice tight fit, screwed in my thumbscrew enough to just bite and left it to cool for 10minutes, job done.

[Parus major]

Well done, it's well satisfying managing to fix something like that. If it comes unstuck Sky's the limit sell those type legs for a few quid, though.

Anyway, top marks on buying a good telescope!

[bullettooth]

hey reggie,

thanks alot for that. its good to know about that stuff for the future "just incase"

fortunately mine only cracked along one edge so was an easy fix.

[bullettooth]

thanks parus, i love my scope. been totally impressed with it so far (apart from the tripod obv ).

good to know about the spare's also

[Reggie]

No worries Bullettooth, I'm pretty sure that even if I'd found the bits of plastic for mine it would've been too weak to glue, there was enough of the fitting left to just hold the metal insert in place, I originally tried to mold a replacement of just the bit that had snapped off, unfortunately, the cyanocrylate + activator just didn't bond polymorph to the existing plastic, that would've been my preferred fix.

[Flying Eye]

Reggie, if a lot of it is missing, it's worth using milliput, you can find it in model shops or even on Amazon.

When set it can be sanded, filed or drilled and even threaded with a tap tool.

Comes in differing grades and if a thread is likely to be needed then I'd suggest fine grade.

Not trivial cheap but it moulds on like plastiscene and sets like steel. Can be smoothed as it cures with a wet finger, which can pre solve much shaping and filing work later.

Obviously can be painted too, in the past I've even used cellulose based paint with no issues.

Nothing else quite like it in my experience to date.

HTH

[Reggie]

Thanks Ian, that's most appreciated, I used polymorph as it was the only thing I had to hand, I don't actually need a thread, just a method to hold the threaded metal insert in place, which is knurled on the outside, so the coarser grade stuff will be ideal.

I'll look at millput at some point in the future, I'd like to make it look nicer, at the moment it looks like my tripods foot has got a plaster cast on it

[teh_feckerer]

I had Exactly the same issue on my old 'pod because a friend over tightened the screws, used a similar fix. Total winner