Astro Babys HEQ5 strip and clean

[Ferox]

I recently got a HEQ5 syntrek and have been looking at the stripping and cleaning how to by Astro Baby

What I'd like to know is do you think it is worth doing on a brand new mount? (not even been used once yet due to the fantastic cloud spotting weather )

I assume it will void any warranty but would any improvement in performance and life of the mount make that an acceptable loss?

Andy

[Ben Ritchie]

I'd say it's worth doing if you're comfortable doing it - with mine the basic manufacture was fine, but the assembly/QC was very lacking, so a strip-down, clean and reassemble was well worth it even on a new mount.

[Astro_Baby]

I think it would be debatable myself. Mine showed none of the black goop thats supposed to infest Synta mounts. It did however show signs of poor quality control but mines a bit older - I am told newer mounts are much better as someone at Synta has clearly kicked in some bottoms down on the factory floor.

With that said IF mine had worked perfectly after the Synscan upgrade I wouldnt have put it off. It didn't so forced the issue somewhat.

If it was me and the mount appeared to work ok and stuff like PEC is not hugely important I'd leave well enough alone - I give you fair warning getting the RA gear alignment right at the end of the process is a complete perisher and unless you have lots of patience it will drive you to distraction.

Also as already said if your a bit cack handed and/or uncomfy messing with stuff then I would definitely leave well alone.

[jgs001]

Andy, I've done nothing to my HEQ5 Syntrek, except follow Astro Babys setup instructions (superb btw). I'm able to image with my C80ED at prime for between 2.5 and 3 minutes without any trailing or errors showing. I won't be doing mine anytime soon following the if it ain't broke, don't fix it idea.

[David Galvin]

As an engineer I would say "if it ain't broke, then don't fix it". especially if it is still under warranty.

[Ferox]

Thanks for the replies, I'll leave well enough alone for now (I'm fairly handy with practical things but wasn't really looking forward to it).

Andy

[Astro_Baby]

Its not actually that hard Andy - it looks worse than it is to be honest and most of its pretty straigtforwward. For all that unless I had to I dont think I'd have bothered.

[Doc]

On the 1 million pound machines in work out motto is "If it ain't broke don't touch it"