I too had a slight amount of grittiness until I realised that the final
locking down of the focusser knob setscrews is very critical. It took me a
long time to get this exactly right - not too loose so that there was
backlash and not too tight so that it felt gritty.

Once it was right though, the feel was superb - one of the best mods I have
ever made to my LX50 and certainly the most cost effective. I now have no
use for my electric focusser. Michael Hart and Pete Peterson have come up
trumps here for the mechanically challenged like me.

One point worth mentioning is that I had to smooth off the flange on the
threaded brass part against which the bearing sits. Mine was very slightly
rough with bumps which made the roller bearing rotate unevenly, and
smoothing out the flange eliminated this.

Incidently, my focusser assembly unscrewed under finger pressure alone. It
would appear that there is a very wide variation in how tight this is from
only finger tight to very difficult to budge.

Nigel


At 11:04 31/07/01 -0700, you wrote:
>Philip--
>
>I feel a slight amount of grittiness when adjusting focus; when the assembly
>was not yet connected to the scope, I adjusted the tension so that it was
>tight enough, but not so tight that I felt any grittiness. At that setting,
>there was a slight amount of grittiness when it was installed, but very
>little, and it is otherwise so smooth, that the slight grittiness helps me
>"feel" the motion.
>
>Whenever I take the focus knob out, I also move the whole assembly up and
>back several times, to spread the grease on the shaft evenly. After doing
>that, the mirror seems to move much more smoothly. This was suggested in
>the MAPUG archives, and it seems to be very helpful in minimizing mirror
>shift when reversing focus direction.
>
>Yeah, it may be that yours was more tightly attached, so you had to use
>greater pressure to take them apart. I did use a fairly thin set of
>adjustable pliers, and a cloth, and mine came apart fairly easily.
>
>--Mark

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From:- Nigel D.R. Burge - Isle of Skye - Scotland
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