Stripped a thread on my mount

[Mark_C]

Hi all,

I did something extremely stupid with my mount today. I was adjusting the two little 2mm grub screws on my AZ-EQ6 to try and reduce some play that was present in the worm gear on the RA axis and have somehow stripped the whole thread out (long story). As there is now no set screw to hold against the brass block that positions the worm, there is a load of play in the RA axis, more than what I started off with. Unfortunately I'll be honest and say that I am not really a mechanically minded person and shouldn't have been messing. Is there anything that can be done to solve this? 

Any help would be most appreciated.

Mark.

[Mark_C]

Oops I've just realised I've posted this in the wrong part of the forum, should be in the Mounts section.. really sorry about that. Would it be possible to move to the correct place?

It has been one of those days where nothing has been going right!

[LeeB]

not sure on the ezeq6 but on my mount I would retap 1mm larger and replace grub screw, I don't think it would foul anything inside, just check first.

[Tinker1947]

You will need a 3mm tap and a 2.5mm drill bit, plus a tap wrench, there not expensive, drill a hole through a piece of wood, make the wood thick enough to allow the drill bit to go right through and through the mount housing, the piece of wood is held against the mount housing to keep the drill square to the hole, your going to have to strip the mount to clear out the swarf from drilling and tapping the hole.....

[dkbender]

Over here, if we want a really good thread repair, we use a Time-Sert.

http://www.timesert.com/'>http://www.timesert.com/

[faulksy]

Hi all,

I did something extremely stupid with my mount today. I was adjusting the two little 2mm grub screws on my AZ-EQ6 to try and reduce some play that was present in the worm gear on the RA axis and have somehow stripped the whole thread out (long story). As there is now no set screw to hold against the brass block that positions the worm, there is a load of play in the RA axis, more than what I started off with. Unfortunately I'll be honest and say that I am not really a mechanically minded person and shouldn't have been messing. Is there anything that can be done to solve this? 

Any help would be most appreciated.

Mark.

i can probably help you, but i need to no the size of the screw now, 2mm seems very small

[CodnorPaul]

If you are unsure on fixing it yourself get in touch with Graham at Astrotec - he will be able to save that for you

[Mark_C]

Thanks guys for all of your responses. This will remind me never to mess with things I'm unsure about, especially when it's on such an expensive item. I've uploaded some photos, not that they will help!

not sure on the ezeq6 but on my mount I would retap 1mm larger and replace grub screw, I don't think it would foul anything inside, just check first.

You will need a 3mm tap and a 2.5mm drill bit, plus a tap wrench, there not expensive, drill a hole through a piece of wood, make the wood thick enough to allow the drill bit to go right through and through the mount housing, the piece of wood is held against the mount housing to keep the drill square to the hole, your going to have to strip the mount to clear out the swarf from drilling and tapping the hole.....

This is the first thing I thought of, however I'm not sure if I'm confident tapping a new thread myself ... I also don't think I would have a clue how to strip and put back all of the parts go back, there are guides to dismantle the EQ6 but I think the AZ version have a slightly different internal layout and I can't trust myself to put things back the way they were. I think I only have one shot to get this right and knowing my current track record I will end up screwing it up again and make it even worse.

i can probably help you, but i need to no the size of the screw now, 2mm seems very small

Thanks for the offer Mike, I might have to take you up on that. The grub screws are actually 3mm in diameter and 5mm in length, I don't know how I came to measure them as 2mm! 

If you are unsure on fixing it yourself get in touch with Graham at Astrotec - he will be able to save that for you

Thanks for that Paul, I shall certainly keep that in mind.