Telescope Reviews: Old friend renewed - 10" dob into the 21st century

This story begins in the early 1980's. I had a dream to have one of RASC
Ottawa's best telescope makers built me one of his amazing creations. Max Stuart was a good friend and mentor who shared his passion for astronomy
with all. I bought several parts for the scope - Tectron 2" rack and pinion focuser, secondary mirror red dot finder and the truss tubes. Max did the rest - ground the primary (better than Strehl .98 - about 1/12 wave!), made the spider (a ultra thin curved 3-vane : when 4 vane were the norm) and 2ndary holder, 6 sided aluminum upper tube assembly, aircraft aluminum 10" diameter side bearing, mahogany plywood mirror box assembly and bent aluminum protective edging and a radical mirror cell with a push/pull mechanism that allowed collimation at the eyepiece. The upper cage assembly and 4 truss tubes were attached to a 4-side square base that used 4 threaded knobs to attach it to the lower mirror box assembly (imagine this design almost 30 years ago). Max's wife made the black material shroud. The 10" f 5.35 Dob was completed. This scope was as beautiful to look at as it was to use. I owned this scope for more than 10 years. I nicknamed the scope "Max 10" for obvious reasons.
Another telescope at the local dealer caught my fancy and and I sold the scope for a great price of $1200.00. The dealer always wanted a Max Stuart scope and now he got his wish.
Flash forward to late 2011. I'm cruising the internet looking for really nothing in particular. I checked this same dealers' website and there it was
my Max 10 for sale for the princely price of $678.00 tax included. I quickly called the dealer to inquire if the scope was sold. NO was answer but the
scope was badly neglected - never used! Just collecting dirt, dust etc.
I said put her aside, I'll be in on the weekend to take a look. It wasn't a pretty
sight - completely covered in at least a 1/4" of dust, I removed the mirror cover and couldn't even see my reflection in the primary, it looked awful. I
needed to rescue my lost companion. Paid the asking price and returned home.
I spent 2 hours cleaning off the dust, waxing the wood, I carefully cleaned the primary and secondary mirrors. The coatings looked in really good shape - no need for a recoat. I spent one evening observing with my 'new scope',
after careful collimation the optics were as outstanding as I remembered. I was a real fool to have sold this scope in the 1st place.
Now its 2012, my scope needs to be brought into the 21st century. I replaced the focuser with a 2nd hand JMI NGF-1 crayford dual speed version - it even had the same hole pattern as the original. Placed a cats eye triangle in the centre of the mirror with the special template. Removed the red dot finder and attached a quick disconnect 60mm diameter finder ring and a beautiful StellarVue 8x50 RACI finder with rotating head. All this extra weight on the Upper Cage Assembly required counterweighting but I didn't want to mark the beautiful wood finish. I carefully drilled 4 holes on the back
of the mirror box behind the mirror cell, installed two 5/16" threaded rods
- used large washers and wing nuts as well as several small Meade lead counterweights and carefully balanced the scope. I had recently purchased the Explore Scientific SWA eyepieces and ES UWA eyepieces (on sale!) and now am ready to observe tonight. I can get 1.4* with the ES 28mm SWA.
I also purchased a Howie Glatter laser/blug combo to get perfect collimation.
This little beauty has risen from the dead and will quickly become the ultimate travelling companion!
New first light in tomorrow's Deep Sky section - weather permitting.