> Thank you again for your comments. For a relatively simple product,
> it's hard to believe that we had a full man-month of engineering invested
> in it before we released it. There were many many fine details that
> needed to be addressed, and based upon inputs such as yours we
> continue to improve this product.

I can believe that it took that long to make it (practically) idiot proof.
The instructions are good, and the effort you made in getting the thrust
washer exactly the right dimensions made life much easier than it might have
been otherwise.

> The long arm Allen wrenches are on order and will be substituted in
> the kits later this week when received. And as soon as you and I
> (working together) identified the source of your problem the kit
> instructions were revised to more strongly warn against damaging
> the brass focuser insert. We also explained in detail just why it's
> so important not to leave pliers marks on the brass focuser body.

Well, the instructions say something along the lines of "use cloth or
paper to buffer the pliers to prvent damage to the edge of the flange".
then go on to say that this isn't actually too important since the flange
is hidden.

Well, yes, if there are marks on the edge of the flange it isn't (really)
important. But in my case (and I may be an exception) the know was REALLY
tight for the first two or three turns. So tight that flange edge not only
ended up with marks (not important) but it "crushed" slightly leaving bumps
on the bearing surface.

Quite honestly, pliers were not the right way to do this in my case where
so much force was required. It needed a much better fit between the jaws of
the gripping tool and the flange.

However, I am prepared to accept that this was my fault for not recognizing
that *in my case* pliers were not the right answer. I think I was not really
expecting the brass to be quite that soft ...

> Although we'd sold a good number of the EZ Focus Kits you
> were the first person and only person that I know of to encounter
> this problem. With 4 pages of detailed instructions you'd think
> we'd had covered everything.

I don't think you can hope to cover all the possible wierg problems that
people might have. I have seen many people praise this modification, and
little bit easier you would probably never have heard from me.

The one coment that I think just might be worth exploring is that the
grease used really does make a big difference. The grease supplied in your
kit works fine, but the range of pressures on the thrust bearings which give
smooth operation are quite small. The difference in additional load between
moving the mirror in or out can make the bearings feel less smooth.

Using the PTFE based grease made a big difference, and appears to make the
thrust bearings much more tolerant of the load/pressure on them before they
begin to feel "gritty".

You might want to invest in a tube:

and try it for yourself.

Despite the problems that I had, i am happy with the modification, except
that it now reveals that the mirror movement is not as smooth as it could be :-(

> Details on this kit are available at:
> http://www.peterson-web.com/SkyDiv/ez_focus_kit.htm

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