I think I might have broken my Lightbridge already...

[dobserver]

Last night while trying to get Jupiter in the EP while it was quite low I noticed the scope wasn't holding its vertical position very well. No matter how tight I made the knob it just kept sagging down. Further inspection revealed roughness in the round aluminium bit and grooves on the pad.

I must have moved it while it was locked tight I think - Doh!!

Please tell me this is not irrevocable and what I can do about it? Can you buy the new pad things? Are they easy to fit? Should I try to smooth off the aluminium with wet and dry or something?

Please tell me I am not the only stupid idjot with a Lightbridge and that I can make it better.....

Steph

[Doc]

I have heard a few people have done this, just look on the yahoo group.

I personally never use the altitude brake. Have you any counterweights to balance your scope? You will find a proper balanced scope is 100 times more better to use then having to lock the brake all the time.

I doubt if you have broken your scope and if you are worried I'm sure some wet and dry will remove any marks.

[dobserver]

Thanks for the swift reply Mick. What do you use for counterweights and how have you fixed them on?

[John]

The Lightbridge altitude friction brake is pretty useless I found so I don't think you have devalued the scope much even if you have worn it a bit !.

You really need to counterweight the tube so that you don't need to use that brake at all. Here's my LB 12" showing the puny brake (now redundant !) and my counter weigting - there are much simpler ways to do it as well though (eg: divers weights, water filled bottle strapped to tube etc:

[Doc]

I have gone a different route and have secured round weights to the bottom of the mirror cell. To do this you have to remove the lower OTA so the mirror cell is visible as the bolts go in from the top.

I haven't a photo yet so will post one as soon as I can.

[dark knight]

A Jahmanson - That looks the perfect cure, Is that a ready made counter weight system and if so where did you get it.

What we don't understand is how the bearing that the brake clamps against has got scored, it looks like a worn brake disc on a car. The scope is only a month or so old. The only thing I can think of is if some grit somehow got trapped between the bearing and the altitude brake,,,very strange as the pad that forms the brake is soft compared to the bearing, so the pad on it's own should not have left score marks no matter how tight it was done up.

[John]

Those aluminum "wheels" are pretty soft so anything abrasive will score them - maybe some grit got inbetween the pad and the disk ?. I regularly check the felt strips that the wheels rest on to ensure that nothing rough has got onto them.

My counterweighting system is made by Meade but indended for SCT's - I found it on e.bay at a giveaway price otherwise I would have gone for the DIY approach as well. The nice thing about my system is you get 3 interchangable sliding weights (1,2 and 3 lbs) so you can really fine tune it if and when you add extra weight to the upper tube assembly (eg: a bigger finder). It's attached using strong adhesive pads so no drilling.

John

[Beyond_Vision]

This happened to my lightbridge within the first few weeks. It's also easy to damage the brake as you drop the tube assembly into the base if the brake hasn't been undone and opened up.

Regards

Kevin

[Mike W]

I`ve just checked mine and have the same problem. I took the clamp off and dug out a small shard of alloy embedded in the wear pad which I think has been plucked off the edge of the bearing, if you check you may find that they are quite rough in places even though they are a machined surface.

Mike

[albedo0.39]

PM sent - easy to fix...

[dobserver]

I have to say I'm so glad it's not just me - in a nice way!

Thanks for your comments, and for your kind offer of help Steve.

Steph

[albedo0.39]

Did the fix work Steph ? Hope so !

[dobserver]

It did Steve, I really appreciate your help. The Beast is as good as new now - although it does seem to be a design fault so I'll take extra care that I don't let it happen again.

Next job is to sort out some sort of counterweight I think.....and to keep my fingers tightly crossed for some decent skies:icon_rolleyes:

Thanks for that, mate.

Steph