Re: Old Ring Gear vs New Ring Gear G11
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Hi Les, Some thoughts on your puzzle: Aside from the worm, which originally was stainless steel, and then later went to brass, the major parts are aluminum.? I believe Losmandy anodized all the aluminum surfaces. That is why they recommend against using a polishing paste to to polish down the worm to ring gear teeth.? In doing that you would polish off the hardened ring gear surface. If the aluminum is anodized, it's surface is converted a very hard Al2O3 (sapphire composition) surface. During the anodization process a dye can be used to change the aluminum color to black or any other color.? It can be left transparent clear too.? So your ring gear color change from black to aluminum from different year versions might mean they left off the black dye.? ?That surface is hidden from view under all the metal covering surfaces.?? As for the bearings being changed... I am not aware of any changes there by Losmandy.? Different models could have different bearings...maybe the Titan would have larger ones.? Some G11 owners did put in a "3rd (cylinder needle) bearing" at the top of the RA or DEC axis. That can help hold the 1.25 inch rotating shafts.? But the top is always a flat needle bearing faced by two hardened needle bearing race surfaces.?? If you left out a top flat needle bearing or it's flat facing washer, the ring gear center would not mesh with the worm gear center.? Those have to be well positioned in height to get a smooth drive.?? You could vary the bottom bearing parts near the clutch knob.? There is nothing critical there for spacing...only up near the ring gear.?? Mark Crossley's website lists these bearing types and their order numbers. All the best, Michael ? On Fri, Feb 7, 2020, 6:47 PM <lesleyrgreen@...> wrote: I have a 2011 G11 which I rebuilt this summer and did several of Micheal Herman's mods. Getting .5 - 1.5 when guided and about 4 - 5 arc/sec peak to peak unguided, everything works nicely. Decided to go ahead and do the same for my 1998 G11 which I know has never been apart. Boy am I glad I did. Bearings were seized from the dried up grease, same story as I have read here a hundred times. Funny thing is I used it in the public library parking lot for the 2017 eclipse as a public outreach event and it performed flawlessly all day, well for visual anyway and shooting some dslr pics of the eclipse. Quite a testament to this mounts ruggedness.? |
Michael Herman