Focus Mount

[Crossway]

Could anyone please tell me what  the special viscous  grease is  which has been  smeared around the  ratchett  in the focus mechanism of my  scope  ( Astromaster Reflector). 

It is obviously a very  cheap way of  regulating slackness  in the focussing movement and it does work  OK but  has become a wee bit slack with use and I would like to "recharge"

 

Pete.

[Xplode]

No idea what is used in your focuser, but i suggest PTFE grease as it doesn't take up water like som other greases.

Personally i use Suberlube 

[Waldemar]

58 minutes ago, Xplode said:

No idea what is used in your focuser, but i suggest PTFE grease as it doesn't take up water like som other greases.

Personally i use Suberlube 

Yep, PTFE is the best lubricant there is, but does not do what you want at the moment... probably the contrary if you want to fill gaps up with grease...

Your best option is to adjust the focuser and get ridd of the play and use SuperLube as Xplode suggests. Using a thick kind of grease does not solve the problem, just postpones it (for a very little while).
Utlimately you may find yourself needing to buy a better focuser.

[Andy Mitchell]

Sounds like what many refer to as Synta* Grease (or Synta Glue). Exactly what sort of grease it is no one seems to know. Probably because people either avoid going near it or replace it with something utterly different

* They make kit for lots of people including Skywatcher, Orion and Celestron.

[Crossway]

Thanks  for your responses ......I  have never heard of any of theae products so it is new ground for me.   The  stuff in the focus mount is really more like a thick waxy , sticky grease which is very difficult to clean off and  by description  sounds  as if Synta Glue might be the substance. Just a thought but perhaps this sort of  material is used in the auto trade.

Pete

[Waldemar]

Apparently that stuff is used to cover up bad craftsmanship... That kind of 'solution' will never work properly. Maybe you can find a way to measure the gap between the focuser tube and the focuser itself and use a piece of thin copper sheet to fill it up.

Copper sheet is available in very thin sizes and used to get rid of play in all kinds of technical applications.  https://www.amazon.com/Copper-Sheets/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ACopper Sheets
Alluminum foil may be of use as well, depends on the gap you have to fill. If you are going to try that, be sure to use it all around the tube and do not overlap but totally.

[Crossway]

Hi Waldemar ,  Yes, I have heard it said before that  the thick grease covered poor engineering but whatever, I must say that it actually does work well  . Recently I have noticed a very slight slackness which I feel should be easily correctable using bit of this sticky goo..

As you  say , the alternative is to use a metal shim.......I have tried a very thin  adhesive teflon tape  on another scope but results were not too satisfactory. It worked well enough for a time and than started to tighten up so I abandoned the idea and removed the tape.

Pete

 

[Waldemar]

Hi Pete, I can see why that happened... the adhesive may ruin the effort. The metal foil should not be used with adhesive. The point with grease is that it will only last for a short time and then the problem reoccurs allways at a time you you do not need that...
But I understand buying a new focuser is not always desirable either. The cost may  be too high in relation to the problem.

With calipers you could determine the play and get a piece of copper shimsheet of the right thickness to solve the problem. A bit of PTFE grease will then get a smooth movement.