Messed up my XT bearings. Help!

O.K., I changed my Orion XT dob's alzimuth bearings by swapping out the teflon pads and added the ebony star surface. Seems to work good... Smart old me, decided to change the altitude bearings also. Since it seemed so easy. Now my bearing surfaces are too smooth on the altitude and with my scope so out of balance, it'll swing easy to one side or the other...

So what should I do (short of adding ebony star surface to the altitude surface):
(1) Sand the teflon surface with very fine sandpaper.
(2) cut down the teflon surface
(3) Try like hell to rebalance the scope - i don' think this will work by itself...
(4) Go to Orion and beg for some cheap pads

Your suggestion is greatly appreciated.

I would prefer number (3) myself. A well-balanced scope is always the best.

Other options you might try:

1. Moving the teflon pads farther apart will increase the friction.

2. Add a spring as a virtual counterweight. Many of the Orion scope had something like this. Except I think the spring just pulled on the center of the altitude bearing to increase the friction, thus minimizing balance problems. You can also attach the spring below the center of the alt. bearing. If the scope is top heavy, the spring will stretch more and more as the scope is pointed toward the horizon, and help to pull the scope back upright.

Hope this helps,
Kevin

Tony Leung said:

O.K., I changed my Orion XT dob's alzimuth bearings by swapping out the teflon pads and added the ebony star surface. Seems to work good... Smart old me, decided to change the altitude bearings also. Since it seemed so easy. Now my bearing surfaces are too smooth on the altitude and with my scope so out of balance, it'll swing easy to one side or the other...

So what should I do (short of adding ebony star surface to the altitude surface):
(1) Sand the teflon surface with very fine sandpaper.
(2) cut down the teflon surface
(3) Try like hell to rebalance the scope - i don' think this will work by itself...
(4) Go to Orion and beg for some cheap pads

Your suggestion is greatly appreciated.

Hi Tony,
First off, no lubricants on the Alt bearing. Next, as Kevin mentioned. moving the Teflon pads further apart will increase friction. Adding more Teflon will also ad friction, but moving them to about 120 degrees apart should make a big difference.
However, balancing the scope is a must. You should not rely on stiction for holding the scope in place. It should be only to hold the position while changing EPs. Even then the scope balance should be doing the main work of maintaining the scopes position.

Tony,
You've gotten a lot of very good advice so far. I really am a big proponent of using magnets. And, as mentioned, you can help with the balance problem by placing them on the bottom of the optical tube. Get a large/heavy magnet so you can place in between the altitude bearings above the rocker box, and you'll only need to move it very little to get good balance.
Actually, since your scope tips both up and down, it sounds like you really don't have a balance problem, you just need more friction...but you already knew that. Good luck. -Kurt Horsley