It could only happen to me...

[DannyHarvey]

I have just brought a new C11 home and before I could road test it I find this has happened...

oh dear oh dear...

[rowan46]

[floppygoose]

What the !! - How did that happen?, or was that straight out of the box?

Phil

[Crebles]

 too!

[DannyHarvey]

No its a year old - the mount that is. Its had a c6 on it.

[Kirscovitch]

I'm not sure exactly what that is but it looks bad..... 

[DannyHarvey]

This is where altitude is adjusted on a CG5 mount

[Kirscovitch]

How the heck did that happen?

[Zakalwe]

Dodgy altitude bolts strike again.

A C11 on that mount is going to be pushing it a fair bit. I know that mine on an EQ6 was wobbly as heck.

[DannyHarvey]

I think its down to my technique. When i adjust my alt I always clamp it a little at the end and the metal on these bolts are notoriously cheap so they have warped. I have some heavy duty adjusters on order - just got to extract Mr Bendy Bolt nice and cleanly...

[DannyHarvey]

I was setting by alt low so I could calibrate my polar scope and it got tighter and tighter I must have been making it worse

[jambouk]

What a pain!

It seems crazy to me that these things can so easily happen.

Good luck.

James

[DannyHarvey]

Im pretty new to astronomy so a bit green. Should have been a bit easier on the bolts! New ones are made of kryptonite hopefully! ;-)

[Dave_D]

ouch  is the mounting plate on the bent bolt removable?

[Moonshane]

apparently this is a common issue with these mounts/bolts. unfortunately you will need to either carefully cut the inside off and then screw the outside part off (if you can) of cut off both ends and use a screw/stud extractor. occasionally the thread will be damaged and it may be necessary to either drill and tap a larger thread (and get a larger bolt) or add a helical insert of an appropriate size. it's certainly fixable.  when I had eq mounts I used to align without the OTA on which reduces stress on the parts.

[Moonshane]

this may possibly help although it's a different mount

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/86537-warning-bendy-eq6-altitude-bolts/

[DannyHarvey]

Got a mate who is good at extracting these sorts of things - its on his work bench now..