The much promised EQ6 strip down guide.....

[Astro_Baby]

I'm happy to announce that my EQ6 strip down/rebuild guide is now fully online and (as far as I can tell) debugged.

The guide is here EQ6 Strip Down Guide and as ever I am happy for people to critique it so that it can be improved for the benefit of any poor EQ6 owner who find himself in despair

Mel

ps thanks to themos for point out an obvious mistake earlier today Much appreciated.

[steppenwolf]

Not had time to look yet, Mel but looking forward to doing so.

[Psychobilly]

Superb....

[Starflyer]

Excellent Mel, I think I'll be doing mine in the summer.

Many thanks,

Ian

[Marmite]

I'm happy to announce that my EQ6 strip down/rebuild guide is now fully online and (as far as I can tell) debugged.

ps thanks to themos for point out an obvious mistake earlier today Much appreciated.

So how does this one differ from all the other Atlas/EQ6 rebuild and tune-up guides?

[Marmite]

I'm happy to announce that my EQ6 strip down/rebuild guide is now fully online and (as far as I can tell) debugged

....I am happy for people to critique it so that it can be improved....

So how does this one differ from all the other Atlas/EQ6 rebuild and tune-up guides online?

[tooth_dr]

I needed that so badly to sort out the stiffness around the head of mine

[Paulus]

Hi Mel (Astro_baby),

Excellent write up and photos too . That should keep me busy for the next few days, time permitting .

So how does this one differ from all the other Atlas/EQ6 rebuild and tune-up guides online?

Marmite: All the other rebuild articles are a lot briefer in their description of what to do and look out for.

Also from experience, I have found the tutorials, & advice from Astro_baby to be very concise and to the point, (even when your question is very basic or even silly ).

Additionally she is very thorough and precise to a point of fanaticism, this known on SGL, thus making the time spent doing &/or answering a worthwhile endeavour for both the writer and the reader.

And finally, the more information out there, the more you can decide what is and isn't worth bothering with, over time.

Thanks again Mel

[Astro_Baby]

Marmite - to answer your question as to why bother ? The answer is very simple. I enjoy doing these guides and they are of use to people. I have yet to see a strip down guide for the EQ6 which is really fully comprehensive. Most have few pics and even briefer text. I dont lay claim to being the last word in guides for anything but in truth most of the EQ6 guides out there are hardly comprhensive OR rely on the reader already knowing a fair degree about the workings of the mount and/or having a lot of engineering nous.

You seem to be suggesting that because someone esle has done one (even though one of the links you gave has been offlne for ages ) means its pointless to try and improve on whats out there OR to give people an alternate source of information which may better suit their needs.

The EQ6 guide is my own attempt to make taking down of this mount as simple and well documented as possible. If you have ever taken one of these mounts to bits you will be well aware of the various pitfalls. If the guide saves one person from frustration or wrecking their mount throuigh ignorance then I would consider the whole project worthwhile.

People who know me know I do these things because they interest me and they are of potential use to the wider community. I could simply have stripped the mount and rebuilt it and never bothered creating a guide but I am somewhat altruistic by nature and believe that knowledge, where possible, should be shared.

If we were all to take an attitude that 'its already been done' then there would be little progress and we would be stuck using the sort of highly technical, nay incomprehensible, guides that were the norm 30 years ago in astronomy.

You do seem to have a bee in your bonnet about this guide, why that is I can only speculate.

The guides are created in my own time from my own resources and I make them available for no fee or charges. They run on a very fast and reliable server paid for ouit of my own pocket. If you dont happen to believe the guide is any use than that is your opinion. It would not change either my reasons or my motivations for creating them and neither would it deter me from creating other guides as and when I have the time and resources.

The choice of whther to use the guide is yours - it is there for the whole community.

[astromerlin]

There can never be enough guides, help or advice. Great job Astro_baby, My EQ6 is in need of a stripdown at some point so your guide will be of great help.

Cheers

John

[Matthew.Blake]

I'm happy to announce that my EQ6 strip down/rebuild guide is now fully online and (as far as I can tell) debugged.

The guide is here EQ6 Strip Down Guide and as ever I am happy for people to critique it so that it can be improved for the benefit of any poor EQ6 owner who find himself in despair

Mel

ps thanks to themos for point out an obvious mistake earlier today Much appreciated.

You've just earned 563 awesomeness points!

Bookmarked.

[Deneb]

Another Excellent Guide AB, & simple to follow.

Cheers

Nadeem.

[beamish]

Thorough, very thorough- can see this getting loads of hits.

[durr]

Mel, well done babe, superb as always and the photographs are a tremendous help, and you are right there isnt another like it. Like lots of others on this site we enjoy your efforts and hey a woman beat all the those guys hands down. Steve

[red dwalf]

you can never have enough of these step by step tutorials !

for some people, like me, the striping down and rebuilding of an expensive piece of kit like this is very daunting.

please keep up the good work Astro Baby, these are much appreciated

[steppenwolf]

Hi Mel, I have now read the strip-down from 'lid' to lid' and it is up to your usual very high standard - the standard that other guides must aspire to!

It hasn't convinced me to do mine (yet) but that is because I am a woosie but if I do ever strip mine down, it will be your guide that I will use. Obviously if it all goes wrong, I know you'll just come on over and fix it for me

Well done, a great resource as usual.

[Beyond_Vision]

Well done Mel your HEQ5 guide helped me sort out problems on my mount and I'm sure this one will be great for EQ6 owners.

Regards

Kevin

[MikeP]

Thanks very much Mel, great piece of work. Hope your fingers have recovered.

I've a couple of questions -

I have a little bit of play in DEC that I think I need to adjust out. When I wiggle (hope that isn't too technical for you) the axis, I can feel some movement. Can I simply adjust using the "Worm Engagement for DEC Axis" or do I need to do the strip down and reassemble? How much movement should I be able to feel, if any?

Thanks in anticipation and for creating the guide.

Mike

[David Galvin]

So how does this one differ from all the other Atlas/EQ6 rebuild and tune-up guides online?

Firstly I would like to offer my appreciation of the work that Mel has done in the past regarding her 'How to' articles. She always covers the subject in depth and backs up with excellent images to ease the work load. Just look how well the article covering collimation of fast f ratio scopes has been used just recently. Once again she has done it with the complete 'How to' for the EQ6 and whilst I do not need to work on mine, as yet, I am sure that I may well feel the urge to tweak the R.A worm in the coming year and I will certainly be using Astro Baby's guide.

Secondly I am concerned by the reaction to 'Marmite' when he has only asked for the difference in other similar on line EQ6 articles or has the original line been edited? Maybe I have read it differently?

Yours respectively (with smiley's and a salute) :):)

Dave Galvin.

[Astro_Baby]

Mike, Just do the worm engagement part. A little tip here is to take off the worm end float covers (big metal black round things on the EQ6 and small rubber bungs on the HEQ5). Take these off from the side opposite the motors. You will see a slotted nut inside. You can use either circlip pliers, thin nosed snipe plier, two small allen keys or two small screwdrivers to tighten or loosen these.

Slighlt tighten these nuts up - and I mean slightly - check if the play has gone away. If it has run the mount on its motors through 360' for the axis you just messed with. If the motors bind you will have to do the complete worm engagemnt process. If they dont and the play has gone then theres your problem solved. A lot of gyp with these mounts with excessive play is down to the worm end floats working loose.

If after messing with the end float its still no better and/or the motois are binding you will need to do the worm engagement process. Do this with no scope added to the mount to start with. The worm engagement for both mounts is a large portion of trial and error and you need to allocate a lot of time to get it right. The HEQ5 is IMHO the harder of the two to get right. The EQ6 is a bit more forgiving and much easier to get the RA right - the HEQ5 is a complete cow to get the RA right (ie no play in the axis and no motor bind either).

Worst case for you would be after adjustment the motors may bind so you may have to loosen the motor screws and back the motors off a little bit.

Steve - if you ever wanted to run this process I would be more than happy as your not to far away to pop over and help/advise. Bear in mind its a full days work. To do the one I worked on took two 10 hour days. Admittedly I was getting pics, taking tea breaks etc but its still a very long haul. Once your started if you run into problems theres no ceiling on how much time you could use up.

By the way a few days ago I inspected a very recent NEQ6 Pro and it appeared to be very well set-up out of the factory with none of the horrors. No over sprayed paint, good lubrication etc. My guess is Synta have upped their game in the QC department. They do seem very responsive to client comments and in the almost 2 years I have owned the SW200 they have imporved all sorts of things on the scope and the mounts. Thats really good to see I think.

Improvements have been stuff like;

External collimation bolts on the 200 tube

Upgraded focusre to Crayford from R&P

The 200 DS series with a 10:1 Crayford

The EQ6 has had polar illumiation added and a dimmer function added

HEQ5 and EQ6 dont use the horrible Synta goop anymmore

HEQ5 basic reintroduces after customer demand

all this speaks of a company who are actuallly listening and taking on board whats said in reviews it seems and that can only be good news for us folk.

[steppenwolf]

Steve - if you ever wanted to run this process I would be more than happy as your not to far away to pop over and help/advise. Bear in mind its a full days work. To do the one I worked on took two 10 hour days. Admittedly I was getting pics, taking tea breaks etc but its still a very long haul. Once your started if you run into problems theres no ceiling on how much time you could use up.

Cheers, Mel - very kind offer. Luckily, right now my mount is working just fine with no backlash and it is the quietest EQ6 I have so far heard but one day, I just know that I am going to want to get the old Synta gloop out of it (my one is an early upgraded to GoTo version) and I know I will be turning to your guide.

[Capricorn]

Will read the guide later.

How's the finger/hand ?

[Mick UK]

Astro_Baby can i just say a big thank you for taking the time to do this, i also own a Heq6 pro and altho its only a few months old, ive no doubt in the future i will be looking for guidence should i ever need to strip it down for any reason. So from me, Thank you very much:)

[Astro_Baby]

How's the finger/hand ?

Throbbing LOL

[GazOC]

Good work Mel. I hope I never have to use it though (if you see what I mean!!)