Henk, Dump that junk dovetail and buy a solid dovetail from ADM or Losmandy. It is not the fact that it's a Vixen size dovetail so much as it is a poorly made and possibly out of spec dovetail. The dovetails walls must be the correct angle and make full contact with the saddle and clamps. The reason to never use an extrusions this way is that they flex and adding more tension just adds spring pressure to the dovetail and eventually the dovetail will fail or slip when the material doesn't recover dimensionally.? ?
No once clamped properly (as I check and double-check religiously), the OTA is rock solid.? The triangular shape holds it in the base just fine.? You are making a problem where there is none while I agree that if the dovetail is crap, you are right.? This one is not.? Keep in mind the Mak-Newt is only 14 lbs., it's not a 14" SCT so no Losmandy dovetail is needed.
