Lovely looking set up, looks immaculate. That's nice to hear about these Cartons, they seem to be well regarded.
I've ordered the Vixen adapter to allow the use of 1.25" eyepieces etc. I have the same back projection arm, screen etc and an inverting eyepiece adapter to flip the image view, plus some other bits and bobs, and a cleaning bag (never opened)
I removed the lens cell, indexed both lenses with a marker and cleaned the outer surfaces, but I didn't separate the lenses as they appear pretty clean internally. The foil spacers are in OK condition and I didn't want to risk damaging them or messing up any fine tuning
I dialed in the viewfinder, it's very good. Crystal clear and a sharply defined cross and circle.
About the mount:
You seem to have the same mount as mine. I've done a big google search to see if I can find any guides on maintenance or disassembly, but drawn a blank, so I'm hoping somebody can help here
I removed the cover from the Dec worm box (see below) and this was straightforward, It's not a full 360 degree toothed wheel. The worm acts on a forked arm and has a limited range of travel in Dec. I've cleaned it and added some PTFE grease:
Dec Worm gearbox (above)
The RA axis looks more complicated and I'm assuming that this has a 360 degree toothed wheel driven by the worm gear
There's a bunch of screws in this box, I assume some act on the worm to adjust any clearance and backlash, but I'm wary of messing around here unless I know what I am doing
View underneath RA onto worm box (counterweight bar removed)
I'd be grateful if anybody can advise on this.. as to what screws do what, and which ones to remove to access the worm
Maybe I am late to the party, but I can provide a bit of information on this mount, since I tried to adjust mine (exactly the same model, but on the Aerolite tripod) last week.
If I remember correctly, the screws in the RA axis box are there just to hold the bearings in place. No fine-tuning is possible with them.
To adjust the clearance and backlash, you need to loosen the screws and then rotate the bearing holding the worm gear. The hole in the bearings is not centered; it is elliptical. This means that by rotating the bearings, you can move the worm gear backward or forward in relation to the toothed wheel.
Unfortunately, you need a specific tool, a pin wrench, to act on the two small holes found on the bearings.
A similar tool is required to unscrew the counterweight bar holder to disassemble the rest of the mount.
Regrettably, this is not the easiest mount to work with. For me, it was a dead end. The cost of purchasing the pin wrenches, combined with the fact that one of the worm gears is broken at the part that connects to the flexible command, left me with no choice but to abandon the restoration project. The cost of the tools and spare parts (if they can be found or recreated) would be much higher than the entire value of the mount.
Therefore, I am planning to dispose it or give it away for spare parts
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