Eq8 R pro mount adapter help.

[Nigella Bryant]

Hi all,

I've a pier with steel plate that was used for my neq6 mount. Now I've an Eq8 R pro mount that is replacing this. I have an Eq8 R pro mount plate that has the required mounting bolt holes. My question is,

Can I just mount the Eq8 mount plate on top of the existing steel plate and just use the centre bolt through the steel plate and through the new mounting plate to secure the mount and use the new mounting plate azimuth adjustment bolt holes to lock in azimuth or do I have to drill new holes through the steel plate to secure all three bolt's to both plate's?. New Ali plate and existing pier attached.

Many thanks

Nigella

[AKB]

I had this challenge with my Mesu recently.  I ended up drilling three holes in the old top plate (there was room in between the adjustment bolts.  I didn’t think that a single bolt would suffice to stop the possibility of rotation. 
 

Tony

[Nigella Bryant]

10 minutes ago, AKB said:

I had this challenge with my Mesu recently.  I ended up drilling three holes in the old top plate (there was room in between the adjustment bolts.  I didn’t think that a single bolt would suffice to stop the possibility of rotation. 
 

Tony

That's a pity I was hoping that I'd not have to drill into the steel plate, lol. 

[Tomatobro]

I am lucky as I have access to machine tools when I made my plate but a few pointers on the adapter plate

The square post that the adjusters push against cannot have the locking nut above the plate as the slot in the mount is not wide enough to accommodate it so I had to mill a recess so the top of the nut was just below the top plate surface

The height adjustment is fairly tight because if the top of the post is too high it will foul the worm that does the Dec adjustment. Too low and the Az screws are not fully engaged with the post

The two Az base screws that lock the Az can be M8 if accurately placed but the SW drawing calls for M6.

Re reading your post you probably can get away with just using the centre bolt and forget the outer screws. I found that during the final polar adjustment each time these were tightened it pushed the Polar alignment out. In the end I found that the mount moved the same amount each time they were tightened so I just allowed for this when doing the alignment so when they were tightened it moved in the right direction (M6 outer screws)

Edited October 26, 2021 by Tomatobro
update