skywatcher 150 pds - crayford - only two bolts

[DavePrice]

Dear All,

I have just started to assemble my new skywatcher 150 pds with EQ5 pro goto mount.

The mount went together fine, but...

The crayford focusser assembly is ONLY attached to the main tube by the two lower screws/nuts. The two upper holes are clean and empty and as far as I can see, mostly line up with the holes in the tube (but it is hard to juidge precisely) but there are NO screws/bolts fitted in those two upper holes. Is that normal? The whole crayford assembly moves slightly as I turn the adjusters.

Also on that front, the adjusters are not exactly "light and smooth" (yes I have undone the lock bolt below it) and frankly the focussing tube grinds a bit against one of the upper rollers and indeed a scratch line is starting to show on the adjuster tube by one of the rollers if I look down at it from end of main tube.

What do folks think? Is this normal for these 150 pds scopes? It all looks a bit wrong to me.

Dave Price

[Parus major]

This is not normal at all. Contact the vendor immediately as it's unusable. There's a chance the nuts have fallen into the tube. A slim chance but I wouldn't accept it, send it back for a replacement unit.

[DavePrice]

Thanks for the rapid reply. I did not feel it was right, but being new to this area I was not sure if they only normally fitted the two bolts.

I have now emailed the supplier again (I have now sent three emails one after the other...) so I will see what they say in the morning.

Dave Price

[Parus major]

Just out of interest, who's the supplier?

[DavePrice]

I'd rather not say at present as they acted well when I chatted to them when discussing what I might buy and they have not yet had a chance to respond to the problem. In any case, the scope did not ship from them but came direct to me from the UK central warehouse of Optical Vision Ltd (the importer).

Dave Price

[Parus major]

Oh, I wasn't meaning anything like that, just some have faster turn around than others with different contact means.

[DavePrice]

Retailer has arranged to collect faulty scope and provide a replacement. I now just wait for Federal Express to arrive.