My new toy a Fullerscope IV mount.

[Doc]

Look what I required the other day. It's a Fullerscope IV Mount, it came complete with lots of counterweights and two worm drives with reduction gearboxes and motors. Unfortunately these didn't work and the wiring was very old and dangerous.

It needed a really good clean, a lot of elbow grease, the bronze gears were very tarnished, almost black in places. I didn't take photos off the original state, I forgot I was too keen to clean it up.

The axis are very smooth, the shafts have no rust on them as they were originally made of steel, maybe these are stainless I will have to check later.

I will have to make up a plate to connect the mount to my barlebach planet tripod.

Below are lots of photos of the beast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Horwig]

What a selection of mounts on one bench😀

 

Huw

[JeremyS]

Oh, the hours I spent lusting over pics of these mounts in the Fullersopes catalogue! 🙂

Good luck with the project.

[Sunshine]

HUGE!! how much does that behemoth weigh?

[Dave Lloyd]

Want one!!

[Paul M]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Oh, the hours I spent lusting over pics of these mounts in the Fullersopes catalogue! 🙂

Good luck with the project.

Me too and they haven't lost their allure. Unfortunately I'm not motivated to refurbish my old mk3 I got new in the early 80's. No point me taking on a mk4 project.  

[Doc]

Thanks guys for all your comments.

I have wanted one of these ever since I wandered around the Fullerscope shop in East London way back in the early 80's. I was always drooling at the 6" refractor sitting on the Fulerscope IV mount but in those days could never afford it and had no where to put it.

So the idea with this one is to make an adapter so it sits on top of my planet tripod. Fit stepper motor drives to the worm gears and fit a go-to system via Nexus 11 so it's wireless with either my phone or Ipad.

If it hasn't already got stainless steel shafts fit them, regrease all the bearings and clean up the worm gears.

Some sort of magnifying glass with built in red light in front of the needle so you can read the degrees or hours easier on the brass circles.  Only problem is to make it small enough so to not look out of place.

Replace all fixings with brass nuts and bolts.

Not sure of a paint job, I like the way it is. Maybe a good polish with some beeswax and a protective laquer. Maybe a preservation not a restoration.

It will give me something to do while in self isolation LOL.

[Paul M]

Sounds great. I've never been a fan of setting circles, chocolate fire guard and all that, but I love the idea of pimping them with illumination. I agree about the paint finish too, I'd looked at it wondering what your intentions are. The current state gives it character; a life lived!  

Looking forward to seeing the finished mount

[maw lod qan]

Amazing piece of equipment. How much will it carry.

[John]

Great find Doc

They used to have a whopping great brass refractor on one of those in the BCF showroom at Telescope House (London) in the 1980's. Like a few others who have posted I've lusted after one a few times in the past.

I would have liked one when I had my Istar 6 inch F/12 refractor - it would have done a better job than the EQ6 did I'm sure !

 

[Doc]

I think it's about 35Kg. I have seen a photo of one mount with four telescopes on it. Also it carries a 6" F15 no problems.

[Rusted]

The MkIV can manage a 6" refractor but my 7" f/12 cooked the drive box during the Mercury Transit.
The bigger refractor became a bit unwieldy too. It just feels a bit "floppy" instead of absolutely rigid with the 6".
The last picture below is my 7" f/12 on the MkIV with a figure for scale. The black scope is a 6" f/8.

Do add a turnbuckle to allow fine polar altitude adjustment and safe altitude locking. The original altitude locking screws are usually stripped.

You have a much better MkIV than mine! I swapped my rust prone axis shafts over to stainless steel.
Be careful here! You must obtain Imperial 1.25" and not 25mm if you need to swap yours!

I have one stainless steel worm and one very rust prone, steel one. Both yours look like SS with nicer end-play adjusters.
The worm housing adjustment is awful on mine.  Tending to zip over the wormwheel teeth when I manually slew.

I really wouldn't put a MkIV on a tripod. My massive, welded, 200lb+ pier is only good enough for a 6"refractor.

The black wrinkle paint is available in spray cans and is used by motorcycle customizers.
Warmth is essential to get a bold wrinkle like your original finish.

Enjoy! I waited from the 1960s to finally get my hands on a MkIV. It is a vast improvement on the MkIII but still not perfect.
I could never afford a Fullerscopes eyepiece. Let alone a telescope and/or mounting!

[andrew s]

I had one, after years of lusting. Only real issue was the crude worm block attachment/adjustment. Hope your rebuild goes well.

Regards Andrew 

[Doc]

Many thanks Rusted for your contribution to this thread. I must say your blog is a wonderful read and packed full of information regarding Fullerscopes, you must be proud.

Regarding the RA and Dec axis shafts, I placed a magnet on them and it stuck very well so I would say they are steel and not stainless steel but i could be wrong.

[Gina]

I agree with not repainting it and keeping the original look.  Looks an interesting project.  Yes, replace the drive motors with something like NEMA 17s.

[des anderson]

Always a dream to own a Mk4 and I changed my mind when I got my first newt from Dudley at Fullerscopes he said I would regret it and I did. Enjoy your refurbish. Des

[Rusted]

3 hours ago, des anderson said:

Always a dream to own a Mk4 and I changed my mind when I got my first newt from Dudley at Fullerscopes he said I would regret it and I did.

Can you explain what you meant by the above?

Your post suggests that Dudley, as the vendor, suggested that you would NOT enjoy his products. 

Or did you mean, perhaps, that you should have bought a MkIV and didn't?

[Doc]

6 hours ago, des anderson said:

Always a dream to own a Mk4 and I changed my mind when I got my first newt from Dudley at Fullerscopes he said I would regret it and I did. Enjoy your refurbish. Des

I don't understand either 

[Doc]

Spent a little time in the workshop today. Last year I purchased two 11" diameter aluminium blanks for another project that I didn't get round to so I used these to make an adapter to join the Fullerscope to the Barlebach tripod. I wanted to incorporates an azimuth adjustment slot that gives the operator about 20 degrees of adjustment for polar aligning so after a few minutes of head scratching I came up with this. They are a little large in diameter but I don't have anyway to make them smaller, they are way to big for my lathe.

One day I must get a dividing head or rotary table but drilling and filing the slots kept me fit. The next job is to sort some adjustment in altitude, better start scratching my head again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JeremyS]

Looking good @Doc

[NGC 1502]

Very late to this thread......

I’m guessing you got that mount from Danbury in Essex ?   If so then you got it from a clubmate of mine,  good luck with the refurbishment.....

Great workshop too.....👍

Ed, Castle Point Astronomy Club.

Edited March 26, 2020 by NGC 1502
Correction

[Doc]

Hi Ed,

Yes it was from Kevin in Danbury, a very nice gentleman indeed had a great chat with him.

[Rusted]

Doc,

Good job!

I think you are going to hate yourself unless you intend to use your MkIV somewhere further south.
Your polar altitude is way too low for Nottingham at 53N.
Your lovely disks will get in the way if you try to increase the angle.
I had to chain drill into a solid lump of steel for my mounting flange to take a big bite out of it to reach 55N.

Your "get out clause" [in perfect hindsight] is to add a thick lump of metal to lift the MkIV base.
Enough to allow the MkIV polar casting to clear your top disk.

I used a turnbuckle to adjust polar altitude:
Yachting stuff is pretty in stainless steel if you can find a small one.
An exhaust clamp went around the PA casting for my top attachment point.

Nice tripod BTW!

[Doc]

I have thought about this already Rusted and I have to either take a slice out of the back off the adapter to match the base of the fullerscope mount that will give me the clearence or cut a reccess into the adapter plate so the mount body fits between the adapter plates, similar to what you have done in the second photo. I don't really want to add another big lump of metal, it's going to look a bit over the top.

Then I need to come up with something like your turnbuckle design to fine adjust it. The bottom of yours is attached to your pier, I don't have that luxury, where can I attach it to?

The planet tripod is very good indeed easily holds the weight of the Fullerscope and my other handmade mounts.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Rusted]

If you were to place a carefully shaped block under the base it would save you a lot of problems.
It would look like an original part as a matching extension of the MkIV's base flange [just thicker.]
You could use laminated plywood until you feel the need to replace it with a lump of alloy.

Unfortunately the MkIV balances on the wrong side of the PA altitude pivot bolts. The north side!
So you have to think in terms of applying tension on the south side.
Sadly there is no room nor useful anchor point on yours.

Or apply compression [lift] on the north side. Compression is fiddly because of the lack of space.
A vertical stud [screwed rod or all thread] somewhere under the worm housing would do it.
Though you'd need a nut and a spanner [or wrench] because of all the weight falling on the lifting stud.

I tried moving the balance point south with massive weights on the PA shaft. Not successfully!

I'd suggest you remove both shafts and the Dec assembly while you play with adjustment ideas.
It will avoid struggling and trapped fingers!
Peter Drew must have come up with something clever for the MkIV's altitude adjustment by now.