New Balls Please...

[Psychobilly]

I am thinking of giving my "abused" CPC800 a major overhaul before the dark nights set in...

One of the weakest links in the scope is the fact that the Azimuth bearing "may" be fitted with nylon bearings like here and seeing as I am using the scope on a pier these are being put under a lot more strain than they are when used in alt/az mode...

Have been considering the various options that are available and I quite fancy fitting some grade5 Ceramic bearings as they would essentially be a fit and forget solution but would cost many times more than Using Chrome steel or stainless steel ones (404C if i can get them)

I have also been looking at greases and yesterday piked up some "standard" white lithium grease and also some fluropolymer ceramic Synthetic grease so I'll have to decide which of those to use...

Any thoughts?

Peter...

[brianb]

If the nylon balls are almost good enough then chrome or stainless steel will certainly be adequate. As for grease, this shouldn't be a problem, it's not as though the operating temperatures are particularly high ... probbaly best to get some nice sticky stuff that doesn't seperate out easily like the gunge that Celestron use does.

[adamsp123]

Hi Peter is it worth the expense?

I mean a good set of "normal" bearings well packed with Standard Lithium grease should be OK for a long time, are you going to treat (abuse) it as a F1 car or deep space probe LOL.

Dunno I know it's nice to use the best but sometimes it can be overkill.

Just my £2 billions worth (billion is the new p these days)

Pete

[Psychobilly]

Cheers Brian...

I am think i will probably go with Stainless the ceramics would be around £100 for grade 5's I'll see if i can get some grade 10 stainless ones... fortunate in having a very good bearing supply company localy

The Grease I will probably use is Finish Line Ceramic Grease £8.50 for a 2 ounce tube in the UK...

Pete I have a very bad habit when it comes to upgrading things... I bought both the Ceramic and Standard lithium greases yesterday curiosity and all that...

Peter...

[m.tweedy]

I used super lube when I stripped down and regreased my mount

http://www.henkel.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/SID-0AC8330A-44CDCBB1/henkel_uke/hs.xsl/3217_UKE_HTML.htm?countryCode=uke&BU=industrial&parentredDotUID=productfinder&redDotUID=1000000JAD2

[Psychobilly]

All done Grade 10 Chrome BB's took 2 hours start to finish ...

out of the obs guide and wide-field scopes off stripped cleaned both Axes new bearings fitted to Azm re-assembled and tested... mounted back up on the pier/wedge and guide and wide-field OTA's re-fitted....

Sounds so much nicer...

Need to co-align the 3 OTA's check SCT collimation and polar alignment next clear night ... and hopefully it will all be OK

Peter...

[Psychobilly]

Ok finally go to do a proper test of the setup tonight...

Heres the latest guide graphs after playing with the settings on PHD Guide 1.10.9 beta...

[ATTACH]26721[/ATTACH]

And heres some crops from the full image of stars from 900s subs (35nm Ha filter) from the 1000D on the Megrez 72 ff III

Peter...