Renewal of lunt O'Rings

[Nigella Bryant]

Hi all, after observing the Mercury transit I was convinced it wasn't performing at top notch. It's 8 years old and bought second hand last year. Anyway long story short, I got in touch with a well known firm who sent me two sets of O' rings free of charge and free of postage. 

Today I proceeded to disassemble the pressure tuner and was surprised what I found. First it was full of grease and I mean congealed at the bottom of the tuner. Second there was some wired stuff like screwed up plumbers tape (pic attached). Third the two old rings where not the same and the front one very soft and pliable (Red, pic attached). I can only assume the previous owner had some issues and attempted a DIY bodge. I could be wrong and lunt has changed the O'Rings but that doesn't explain the plumbers tape. 

I've now installed the new rings which are black and hopefully it'll be fine. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Nigella Bryant

[Davey-T]

Weird, never seen coloured rings and certainly no PTFE tape in them must have been DIY attempt, not sure why as new O rings have always been available.

Dave

[Nigella Bryant]

3 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Weird, never seen coloured rings and certainly no PTFE tape in them must have been DIY attempt, not sure why as new O rings have always been available.

Dave

I know Dave, weird, the PTFE tape was wrapped around the rings but squashed up at the end, like when you wrap a water pipe, glad I investigated. 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Nigella Bryant
New content

[Davey-T]

Bit of Sun forecast for the next couple of days so hopefully be able to try it out.

Dave

[Nigella Bryant]

38 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Bit of Sun forecast for the next couple of days so hopefully be able to try it out.

Dave

Yeah, supposed to be clear Monday where I am, so hopefully be able to test it. 

[Highburymark]

Very odd. There were red o-rings fitted to the Lunt 50 pressure tuner but haven’t seen them on the 60 before. Clearly a previous owner had been trying some modifying! I’ve seen some of your images so obviously it was still producing the required amount of pressure. Important to clear the build up of grease at the end to stop it going through to the etalon. It may be that it only comes on band right at the end of the piston’s travel. That’s not unusual. Hope it still delivers the goods once you’ve cleaned it out.

[Nigella Bryant]

2 hours ago, Highburymark said:

It may be that it only comes on band right at the end of the piston’s travel. That’s not unusual. Hope it still delivers the goods once you’ve cleaned it out.

Yeah, it only came on band at the end of the piston's travel. Should be able to test it tomorrow (Monday) as it's forcast for clear skies during the day. I have been able to get decent image's. The thing that's perplexed me was the plumbers tape, weird. 

[Nigella Bryant]

Pressure tuner seemed to hold pressure and didn't have to thread to the end this time. Lovely view of an interesting area, filament and plage. Attached image, will post further under solar imaging area. Thanks, I knew something wasn't right, advice to others, don't use plumbers tape, it's only for water, lol. I'd love to have words with the person who had done this to this lovely scope. 

[AdeKing]

On 17/11/2019 at 09:11, Highburymark said:

Very odd. There were red o-rings fitted to the Lunt 50 pressure tuner but haven’t seen them on the 60 before. Clearly a previous owner had been trying some modifying! I’ve seen some of your images so obviously it was still producing the required amount of pressure. Important to clear the build up of grease at the end to stop it going through to the etalon. It may be that it only comes on band right at the end of the piston’s travel. That’s not unusual. Hope it still delivers the goods once you’ve cleaned it out.

I've checked the pressure tuner on my LS60 and I'm pretty sure that both my O-rings are red, the one closest to the OTA is certainly red, the other looks to be as well, but I haven't dismantled it fully.  

On 17/11/2019 at 11:33, Nigella Bryant said:

Yeah, it only came on band at the end of the piston's travel. Should be able to test it tomorrow (Monday) as it's forcast for clear skies during the day. I have been able to get decent image's. The thing that's perplexed me was the plumbers tape, weird. 

My LS60 also doesn't come on band until almost the last thread, the previous owner did say that he thought it might need some attention, so maybe I need to give this a go.

I assume that its a Bresser Europe job again?

@Nigella Bryantwhat type of grease did you use when you reassembled the pressure tuneer?

I'll post back with an update once I've replaced the o-rings.

Ade

Edited November 18, 2019 by AdeKing
Extra info.

[Nigella Bryant]

46 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

I've checked the pressure tuner on my LS60 and I'm pretty sure that both my O-rings are red, the one closest to the OTA is certainly red, the other looks to be as well, but I haven't dismantled it fully.  

My LS60 also doesn't come on band until almost the last thread, the previous owner did say that he thought it might need some attention, so maybe I need to give this a go.

I assume that its a Bresser Europe job again?

@Nigella Bryantwhat type of grease did you use when you reassembled the pressure tuneer?

I'll post back with an update once I've replaced the o-rings.

Ade

Hi Ade, use silicone grease on the O'rings once replaced. Bresser will replace O'rings free of charge. 

Edited November 18, 2019 by Nigella Bryant
Added comments

[AdeKing]

26 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Hi Ade, use silicone grease on the O'ring once replaced. Bresser will replace O'rings free of charge. 

Thanks @Nigella Bryant, I have sent a support request to Bresser Europe.  They were very quick when they replaced my blue filter earlier this year.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Ade

[Nigella Bryant]

1 minute ago, AdeKing said:

Thanks @Nigella Bryant, I have sent a support request to Bresser Europe.  They were very quick when they replaced my blue filter earlier this year.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Ade

Brilliant Ade, hope it sorts yours out too. Well worth the investigation and repair. 

[Highburymark]

On 18/11/2019 at 14:50, Nigella Bryant said:

Pressure tuner seemed to hold pressure and didn't have to thread to the end this time. Lovely view of an interesting area, filament and plage. Attached image, will post further under solar imaging area. Thanks, I knew something wasn't right, advice to others, don't use plumbers tape, it's only for water, lol. I'd love to have words with the person who had done this to this lovely scope. 

Looks excellent Nigella - very pleased for you. Goodness knows what the previous owner was thinking. 

Ade - you need 100% silicone grease. Attached is a pic of the one I use which seems to work well - bought from local hardware store. Doesn’t mean anything’s wrong with the tuner if it’s coming on band at the end of travel - but you should be able to go through from no detail to full detail and then back to a loss of detail again before hitting the end. I tend to clean out the piston and regrease once a year.

 

 

[Nigella Bryant]

28 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Looks excellent Nigella - very pleased for you. Goodness knows what the previous owner was thinking. 

Ade - you need 100% silicone grease. Attached is a pic of the one I use which seems to work well - bought from local hardware store. Doesn’t mean anything’s wrong with the tuner if it’s coming on band at the end of travel - but you should be able to go through from no detail to full detail and then back to a loss of detail again before hitting the end. I tend to clean out the piston and regrease once a year.

 

 

Thanks Highburymark, yes my tuner now goes from no detail to full detail to no detail again as you say. Lovely pic of silly cone grease, well, that's what I call it, lol. 

Anyway, it's been great to help other's too. Thanks for the tip of regressing every year. 

[AdeKing]

7 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Looks excellent Nigella - very pleased for you. Goodness knows what the previous owner was thinking. 

Ade - you need 100% silicone grease. Attached is a pic of the one I use which seems to work well - bought from local hardware store. Doesn’t mean anything’s wrong with the tuner if it’s coming on band at the end of travel - but you should be able to go through from no detail to full detail and then back to a loss of detail again before hitting the end. I tend to clean out the piston and regrease once a year.

Thanks Mark, mine does go from none through full and then loses detail but as its right at the end of travel it only just completes before the end stop and it very stiff to turn.

Thanks for the tip about cleaning out and re-greasing yearly.

Bresser has said that they've posted out the replacement o-rings and grease, so lets see how we go.

I know that the OTA has had little maintenance done for the last few years, so hopefully I'll see some difference.

Ade

[Highburymark]

Hope you see some change Ade. I actually bought the external Lunt pressure tuner when one came up for a very good price - it’s a great device but far too expensive new. Will be interested to hear how you get on.

[AdeKing]

7 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Hope you see some change Ade. I actually bought the external Lunt pressure tuner when one came up for a very good price - it’s a great device but far too expensive new. Will be interested to hear how you get on.

I had looked at that option, but you're right its far too expensive for me to buy new.

I have been keeping an eye out for a used one, but suspect that they are a very rare occurrence as they're a very expensive and very expensive piece of kit, what a combination .

I'll post back to let you know how I get on with the replacement.

Ade