CI-700 Hercules

Posted by Jim Fusco   06/01/2004 07:00AM

I was unhappy with the backlash in the default settings so I decided to make some improvements. The heart of a mount is the bearings.

Removal of the taper bearings were quite easy and the much improve roller thrust bearings were used. However a small amount of play between the worm gear and shaft needed to be removed. I decided to use a slightly thicker shaft made of chrome vanadium drill rod, very strong.

Along with installing needle roller bearings, the shafts became fully supported. I designed a double clutch system that not only allow torque to be applied from both sides of the gear but it also allowed the worm gear to run true to the shaft.

The worm gear bearing was a plastic nylon disc. I ended up using a bronze bearing in its place. The first replacement was a fiberbearing that turned out extremely well, but the bronze bearing was ordered.

The Latitude adjustment screw was replaced with a thicker, finer thread screw with a knob. The bronze bearing nut that rides the screw was replaced with a stainless steal bearing nut. A latitude lock was created by replacing the allen screws that hold the mount to the mount base with adjustable handles.

All allen setup screws were removed and replace with knobs or handles. This greatly improved setup and break down times.

Along with other minor improvements the mount performs extremely smoothly and goto's tend to be pinpoint. I believe this is due to the reduction of backlash. I also tested the mount up to 130lbs. At this weight my goto system tends to be taxed, however the mount's motion remained very smooth.

To view more pictures and notes, go to:
http://www.geocities.com/jgfusco3/CI-700Hercules.html

Thanks for looking,

-Jim