clean | Earwig Haven Observatory

I used the same procedure again to remove, clean, and re-grease the Right Ascension worm block. Some photos:

: The RA worm block cover, remove 4 corner screws to remove.

: RA worm block cover coming off

: RA worm block. Cover the cable hole with tape or paper to avoid losing screws in the mount housing.

: Removing the RA worm block

: RA main drive gear, with old grease

: RA main drive gear, grease cleaned out with toothbrush and cloth

: RA worm gear, grease cleaned out with toothbrush and cloth

: Molykote 33 grease, rated for very low temperaturs.

: Grease evenly applied to main drive gear, filling teeth

: With worm block reinstalled, remove rubber cap and adjust cam stop and spring plungers

I then ran the mount through several iterations of exercise, and all seems well. Even motion, no stalls, no weird noises.

Finally I did the manual mechanical check for hysteresis on both worm blocks, and no motion detected in either case. I think I’m ready to start polar alignment – just need the couple of days of forecast thunderstorms to pass.

Following the instructions in Bisque’s video, I removed the Declination worm block, cleaned all the grease out of the drive gear and the worm gear, and re-greased. Because of our winters, I used MolyKote 33, which is rated for much lower temperatures than the standard Lubriplate 103 that Bisque normally uses.

Some photos of the cleaning process, but I forgot to take photos of the re-greasing:

: OTA removed from mount

: Underside of mounting plate, the cover for the Dec worm block, 4 screws to be removed.

: Removing the cover from the Dec worm block

: Dec worm block removed from mount, motor cable not disconnected yet

: Dec worm block set aside

: Cleaning old grease out of Dec drive gear with a clean dry toothbrush

: Cleaned Dec drive gear

: Cleaning old grease out of the worm gear

: Clean worm gear

I then reassembled the Dec worm block into the mount and reset the cam stop and spring plungers to factor spec, and ran the Dec motor through 10 end-to-end exercise runs. I ended up backing the spring plungers off 1/8-turn more than the lower end to eliminate a slight binding noise I could hear in the exercise. (The manual specifies 2.5 to 3.5 turns back from bottom. I ended up using 2-5/8 back from bottom.)

Next I’ll do the same procedure with the RA block.

Earwig Haven Observatory

Amateur Astronomical Observatory in Ottawa

Tag Archives: clean

Cleaned and re-greased RA worm block

Cleaned and Re-Greased DEC worm block