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WARNING - Bendy EQ6 Altitude Bolts

Astro_Baby

By Astro_Baby
in Discussions - Mounts

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philming

philming

Posted
Posted

Hi all !

Well for my part the "putty" solution, since it's called that way, does work. No problem so far.

And I have quiet some load on the ount (GSORC8 + double plate + ST80 or Equinox 80 + all the shooting and guiding stuff.)

My two cents ;-)

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Astrokev

Astrokev

Posted
Posted

Just come across this long thread - very interesting and a tad worrying.

I've recently acquired a new NEQ6 and haven't even got it out of the house yet as I'm having a new bespoke dovetail made to fit my OTA. Yet, when setting the mount up and getting used to how it works and how to adjust I was very surprised at how stiff the south adjustment bolt was to turn. I've got it to roughly 52' as marked on the scale, but still need to fine adjust once it's in the garden. I'm now worried that I've already damaged the bolt before I've even got my scope on!

So, with some trepidation I ought to go and check it out........

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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You have to relase one bolt ro turn the other, not doing this is the biggest cause of bolt bendyness IMHO.

Personally I'd change them...as already said £30 well spent to avoid big headaches later on.

Your adjustment might just be stiff bceuase the friction bolts are a bit tight...unfortunately to get at those you have to risk busting the plastic side caps so I would leave well alone. Dont ,be tempted to squirt lube into the machanism where the firction bokts are....theres a plastic shim in there which will dissovle with some lubes and make the problem much worse.

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Sp@ce_d

Sp@ce_d

Posted
Posted

Not sure if this is mentioned back in the thread.. mines in an obsy now but I used to release both bolts, grab the head & move into rough position so you only need a small tweak of the north bolt to align.. much less stressful.

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Sp@ce_d

Sp@ce_d

Posted
Posted

To be honest I don't think its a case of panic though. If you're sensible & don't force anything you should be ok. I never replaced mine.. just took care not to force, using the method as I mentioned above. The stronger bolts will still strip the threads if forced so you'll still have to be careful.

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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Yup Cantahris, its amazing how many times this gets mentioned, and in fairness if you have never used an astronomy mount before its not always obvious.

The one at the start of this thread was almost certainly caused by its owner turning the bolt relentlessly without loosening the other bolt and I have seen a similar mount in even worse shape resuloting from someone deciding the best thing to turn the bolts with was a wrench....stripped the threads right off the mount casing. That mount casing is quite soft metal, its only some kind of pot metal. Under normal stresses its ok but it isnst designed to be torque wrenched :)

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Astrokev

Astrokev

Posted
Posted

Well, I've taken the bolts out and checked them - both absolutely straight, so that's great news.

So I was puzzled as to what could've caused the extreme stiffness when trying to adjust the south bolt (that is, extreme to the point of not being able to tighten the south bolt at all!). While the bolts were out I thought I'd check the free movement in the head. Couldn't even budge it, which was a little worrying. After exerting as much force as I could muster on the head, it finally jolted free, and smashed painfully into my chest. Battered and bruised, but at least the head was free.

Has anyone experienced the head seizing like this?

I moved the head back n forth to it's full extent around the altitude axis and it seems reasonably free now. Perhaps the lubricant hadn't been effectively applied? Hopefully I've sorted the problem. A useful experience, as I'll now approach altitude adjustment with great care.

Kevin

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Paulus17

Paulus17

Posted
Posted

I haven't had my HEQ5 all that long and still haven't had much chance to use it,but straight away realised that the supplied handles would be awkward to use,so made this to help.

Even though mine came with the replacment bolts,not fitted, i can't get the cap back on if i use the replacement lever type so just have the one new bolt with the knurled handle and still use the original but with this extra lever,works a treat.

post-23363-0-22310400-1351243419.jpg

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Tinker1947

Tinker1947

Posted
Posted

Replacement bolts from here are high tensile , i don't know the thread size on the EQ6 but the M12 by 100mm (4") are £3 each.....I ordered some Bobs Knobs type from this company came to about £8 with the postage if i remember rightly, but they phoned me to say the size i wanted was a backorder and i could wait or they would send the next size,,,,,all for a order worth a fiver......i took the replacement size.....

http://www.a2a4.com/acatalog/M12_SOCKET_CAPS_A4___80_CLASS.html

DSC_9468.jpg

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Astrokev

Astrokev

Posted
Posted

I find it impossible to understand / believe how a bolt can become bent through overtightening it - tightening a bolt against a fixed surface will apply a force which acts in a constantly changing angle on the end of the bolt as it turns. Since the bolt is bent in a single direction, this cannot be due to the bent bolt being turned. To put this another way - once the bolt begins to bend, the very fact that it is bent by even a small angle would prevent it being turned further.

However, I can see that it's theoretically possible for a bolt to become bent if the opposing bolt is overtightened. In this case the force on the bent bolt would act in a linear direction only. That said, the torque required to turn a bolt to be able to bend the opposing bolt would surely be huge. It's difficult to believe that this could be done without the use of a wrench of some kind.

I think this is borne out in practice with my own mount. The head of the mount became jammed at around 50' (still not sure why this happened). However, with the North bolt loosened right off, I used all my force to try and turn the South bolt by hand, until I couldn't turn it at all. After removing and checking both bolts, the South bolt was still as straight as an arrow. Perhaps not all bolts are made equal?

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  • 2 months later...
Chris

Chris

Posted
Posted

I've just found this thread after being shocked by how difficult it was to adjust the latitude to 51 degrees on my new NEQ6, I didn't have this issue with my old HEQ5! After reading the thread I'm guessing my issue is more down to overtight friction bolts as I set latitude with the mount head on its side on my living room floor and the north bolt wasn't even in the mount, so no scope load nor

apposing bolt to blame.

Its all set up on a pier in my obsy now although I'm not sure if I should just leave it alone or swap out the bolts? I'm guessing no more adjustments means no more damage, or are the bolts likely to bend over time? I've lightly tightened the apposing bolt which I noticed had the effect of altering the altitude so something must be bending in there, this is not good for someone who worries like myself:( I'm guessing I should completely slacken the apposing bolt if there is already to much friction from the friction bolts? not that its very tight to begin with just taking up what I thought would be slack but perhaps bolt flexure.

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springbok

springbok

Posted
Posted

Only had my NEQ6 for less than a month, no even used it in anger yet due to the cloud :embarrassed:

Thnaks to all the advice on SGL, I ordered the uprated bolts the same day as picking up the mount from FLO.

Steve B from FLO also checked the mount moved OK out of the box with no bolts in place.

Fingers crossed I may get o use it soon.

Grahame.

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Astrokev

Astrokev

Posted
Posted

I'm increasingly convinced bent bolts are not the result of "normal" tightening. Bolts do not bend by themselves, and cannot bend over time without a large external force being applied. Starfox - unless you take a wrench to it, I personally wouldn't worry too much.

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Astrokev

Astrokev

Posted
Posted

As an add-on.... if you were using your mount as a mobile mount and needing to constantly adjust the altitude then I'd probably go for an upgrade simply because the SW bolts are damned hard work on the hands!

I'm keeping my SW bolts as my mount isn't going anywhere at the moment!

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