Legs sliding up during imaging

[Tomatobro]

On an EQ6-R I find that the leg clamps can allow the inner leg to creep up the outer when the mount has 16 kg on it. I am a bit nervous about breaking the plastic levers if I go too mad but has anyone else experienced this? I am going to engineer a fix for this problem so its not going to be an issue but if you have had the problem and had to do a fix I would be interested to know how you did it.

[Davey-T]

Swopped mine on Meade tripod for nice comfortable rubber coated star knobs.

Dave

[kendg]

Hose clamps come to mind for me.

[Tomatobro]

Ok here is what I came up with. Industrial bearing suppliers do double split shaft clamps in incremental sizes so 3x 38mm clamps obtained. I would have liked to have used stainless steel ones but they go from 36mm to 40mm so had to make do with plated steel versions.

Some M6 stainless studding cut to 55 mm lengths and three stainless knurled knobs (all from that well know online shop)

The legs are adjusted using the Skywatcher clamps and the shaft clamps are then slid up and hand tightened.  These hold the leg adjustments and the legs cannot slide up the tubes.

I had to make up spacers so that the knobs would clear the clamp.