OTA Dissassembly

[Naemeth]

Okay, so I'm thinking of disassembling my Heritage 130P OTA so I can do three things:

1) Flock Inside of Solid Tube

2) Clean Mirror (it's pretty dirty!)

3) Make Shroud for the inside of the flex tube, that will move up and down with the flex tube (so I can store the tube packed up if I need to)

The problem is, I don't have the right screwdriver, but I have no idea what I need, I've got some pictures to see if anyone can help, and the only dimensions I know are the head of the screw is 5mm for the secondary, and 4mm for the mirror cell on the bottom. Annotations included in second of each picture

[earth titan]

Looks like a small Philips to me.

Don't confuse with possidrive as this is slightly different.

[moriniboy]

Most Skywatcher screws can be undone using a Phillips screwdriver (cross head) they come in varous sizes so buying a screwdriver set should get you everything you will need. Looking at the secondary collimation screws can you confirm what they are like as its not clear on your photo.

The mirrors need to be really dirty before cleaning is required

[moriniboy]

Also shrouds tend to go on the outdide of the truss tubes you dont want fluff etc falling on your primary mirror</p>

[Naemeth]

Most Skywatcher screws can be undone using a Phillips screwdriver (cross head) they come in varous sizes so buying a screwdriver set should get you everything you will need. Looking at the secondary collimation screws can you confirm what they are like as its not clear on your photo.

The mirrors need to be really dirty before cleaning is required

They are done by Allen Keys (size 2, the second smallest). The scope had been sat there for about 9 months I think before I bought it, and it's got a few black bits (probably paint flecks from the focuser) on it, I've got the de-ionised water to do it, and figured I might as well do it all at once, since to flock the tube the mirror needs to be out anyway.

I was going to use Neoprene, which does a great job of staying put!

The Phillips sizes confuse me, what would I need out of 000,00,0,1,2?

[Naemeth]

Got the screwdrivers , Number 2 and Number 3, and they fit brilliantly, now I can get started at some point.

Thanks for the help everyone .

[Steve Ward]

You want distilled water not de-ionised if you really need to clean the mirror , de-ionised water still contains minerals etc that will leave streaky deposits when dry.

Steve.

[Naemeth]

You want distilled water not de-ionised if you really need to clean the mirror , de-ionised water still contains minerals etc that will leave streaky deposits when dry.

Steve.

I thought deionised water was the cleaner one , do you know where it's best to get pure distilled from?

[earth titan]

You can buy it from suppliers on the internet. But thoroughly agree - not de-ionised.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

[Naemeth]

The OTA is currently in bits (), the mirror is pretty dusty, but I may do that at another time, can't get it back perfectly yet as I didn't do a great job with the flocking, and the OH helped (I'm useless at DIY, even though I usually insist on doing it myself!), doing a better job than me .