Popular Post Doc Posted March 18, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 18, 2020 Look what I required the other day. It's a Fullerscope IV Mount, it came complete with lots of counterweights and two worm drives with reduction gearboxes and motors. Unfortunately these didn't work and the wiring was very old and dangerous. It needed a really good clean, a lot of elbow grease, the bronze gears were very tarnished, almost black in places. I didn't take photos off the original state, I forgot I was too keen to clean it up. The axis are very smooth, the shafts have no rust on them as they were originally made of steel, maybe these are stainless I will have to check later. I will have to make up a plate to connect the mount to my barlebach planet tripod. Below are lots of photos of the beast. +Bino-viewer, +Streetbob, +TasKiNG and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 That should keep you busy while you're self isolating Mick!! Bit of a beast innit!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 (edited) Plenty to do Ron looking forward to tinkering while in isolation. Edited March 18, 2020 by Doc +RonC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Not sure about the mount but certainly impressed with the man-cave 😂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Graham Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 So you are the one who bought it. Nice one Mick I was very tempted but had to constrain myself. Glad to see it went to a good home. If you need the adapter plate cut let me know and I will do it on the water jet at work for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Aha, you bought it. Same here Graham, I had to restrain myself as well. , I always wanted one and they can be made into superb mounts. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 (edited) Thanks for the comments guys and thanks for the offer Graham. One thing I am a bit puzzled about is that it has no polar scope option, how did they polar align I suppose by drift alignment. Thinking about designing an adapter plate to somehow incorporate azimuth adjustment when polar aligning as well as securing the mount to the tripod. Phil and Graham how would you polar align apart from drift alignment? Edited March 18, 2020 by Doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Graham Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 You can get a pretty good alignment by using a mounted scope. Set the mount up as if you were setting the home position on a skywatcher mount then center Polaris in the scope using the azi dec adjustments. This will give you a good starting point then drift align. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bino-viewer Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 They don't make 'em like that anymore Mick. And you were only taking about Fullerscopes just a few days ago (with a 6" F15) ! I will follow your restoration with much interest. I'm sure you'll do an excellent job. You may have seen this old CN thread about a similar restoration. Have a look at the last photo : i think the chap has 4 scopes mounted on it, with goodness knows how many eyepieces on those turrets....? 😀 35Kg of counterweights need to balance it. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/398267-restoring-a-fullerscopes-mk-iv-mount/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Graham Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 The azi adjustment on the plate is dead simple to achieve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 17 minutes ago, Bino-viewer said: They don't make 'em like that anymore Mick. And you were only taking about Fullerscopes just a few days ago (with a 6" F15) ! I will follow your restoration with much interest. I'm sure you'll do an excellent job. You may have seen this old CN thread about a similar restoration. Have a look at the last photo : i think the chap has 4 scopes mounted on it, with goodness knows how many eyepieces on those turrets....? 😀 35Kg of counterweights need to balance it. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/398267-restoring-a-fullerscopes-mk-iv-mount/ I will incorporate those encoders you gave me eventually and have it running via Nexus, well thats the plan anyway. +Bino-viewer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 Thanks guys for all your comments. I have wanted one of these ever since I wandered around the Fullerscope shop in East London way back in the early 80's. I was always drooling at the 6" refractor sitting on the Fulerscope IV mount but in those days could never afford it and had no where to put it. So the idea with this one is to make an adapter so it sits on top of my planet tripod. Fit stepper motor drives to the worm gears and fit a go-to system via Nexus 11 so it's wireless with either my phone or Ipad. If it hasn't already got stainless steel shafts fit them, regrease all the bearings and clean up the worm gears. Some sort of magnifying glass with built in red light in front of the needle so you can read the degrees or hours easier on the brass circles. Only problem is to make it small enough so to not look out of place. Replace all fixings with brass nuts and bolts. Not sure of a paint job, I like the way it is. Maybe a good polish with some beeswax and a protective laquer. Maybe a preservation not a restoration. It will give me something to do while in self isolation LOL. +Streetbob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 13 hours ago, Graham said: You can get a pretty good alignment by using a mounted scope. Set the mount up as if you were setting the home position on a skywatcher mount then center Polaris in the scope using the azi dec adjustments. This will give you a good starting point then drift align. Yup, or you could do what celestron did with the cge mk1 I had, get a polar scope, make a bracket and clip it onto the ra when you want to align, funnily enough it worked well. Doc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithysteve Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Looks very exciting Mick 👍🔭 Just up your street 👌 Doc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 4 hours ago, philjay said: Yup, or you could do what celestron did with the cge mk1 I had, get a polar scope, make a bracket and clip it onto the ra when you want to align, funnily enough it worked well. I had exactly the same idea Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) I placed a magnet onto the shafts and it stuck very well indeed so I would presume my shafts are steel, and not stainless steel would you guys presume the same. I always thought a magnet doesn't stick well to Stainless is this correct? Edited March 19, 2020 by Doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithysteve Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Apparently there several types of stainless, I would have said stainless is non magnetic, but looking on the web...: A basic stainless steel has a 'ferritic' structure and is magnetic. ... However, the most common stainlesssteels are 'austenitic' - these have a higher chromium content and nickel is also added. It is the nickel which modifies the physical structure of the steel and makes it non-magnetic. So there you go, unhelpful or what 😊👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 56 minutes ago, Smithysteve said: Apparently there several types of stainless, I would have said stainless is non magnetic, but looking on the web...: A basic stainless steel has a 'ferritic' structure and is magnetic. ... However, the most common stainlesssteels are 'austenitic' - these have a higher chromium content and nickel is also added. It is the nickel which modifies the physical structure of the steel and makes it non-magnetic. So there you go, unhelpful or what 😊👍 Thanks Stephen thats cleared it up nicely 😀 Smithysteve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Graham Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 You will probably find they are Chromium steel. Hence the lack of rust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 14 minutes ago, Graham said: You will probably find they are Chromium steel. Hence the lack of rust. Never thought of that Graham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 26, 2020 Author Share Posted March 26, 2020 (edited) Spent a little time in the workshop today. Last year I purchased two 11" diameter aluminium blanks for another project that I didn't get round to so I used these to make an adapter to join the Fullerscope to the Barlebach tripod. I wanted to incorporates an azimuth adjustment slot that gives the operator about 20 degrees of adjustment for polar aligning so after a few minutes of head scratching I came up with this. They are a little large in diameter but I don't have anyway to make them smaller, they are way to big for my lathe. One day I must get a dividing head or rotary table but drilling and filing the slots kept me fit. The next job is to sort some adjustment in altitude, better start scratching my head again. Edited March 26, 2020 by Doc +Streetbob, philjay, +Graham and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Graham Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Nicely done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Looks good to me Mick, it will be sturdy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 27, 2020 Author Share Posted March 27, 2020 Sturdy doesn't come near Baz it's rock solid no movement at all. BAZ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Nah, you want tge 5' three legged pillar Mick 😁looking good there, only slightly envious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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