tiny upgrade on my Skywatcher 6" newt

[bornfree]

really a tiny upgrade. bought a sand paper and 2 30cm washers.

when i took out the secondary mirror previously, i saw that the base had 3 punch holes; the 3 collimation screws had chewed into the base leaving those ugly marks. since watching a couple of youtubes that say it is a good tweak to add washers at the base to prevent the screws from drilling into the base and making the rotation of the secondary mirror impossible for fine tuning the rotation.

this time round, placed the sand paper on a flat surface, and the base of the secondary mirror flat on the sand paper and started moving it in circular and figure 8 motions the base still had the 3 collimation screw marks but at least it is flatter now. i also did the same to the washers to polish out any rough edges.

ok, technically, there is suppose to be another Teflon washer, but i have no idea where to acquire it and 2 washers shd do the job just as well, i guess.

the hard part is balancing the secondary mirror gingerly and aligning the 2 extra washers which are like live kittens ready to run everywhere. not forgetting trying to aim the screw driver at the screw to screw into the base of the secondary mirror. still it is manageable. except the constant fear of things suddenly sliding and u have to drop everything to grasp at the secondary mirror is no joke.

without a cheshire i can only eyeball the position of the secondary mirror, it seems like a high time i get 1. using reflection of the donut on the primary mirror, i try to get it in the crosshair of the spider vein, well at least as close as possible. and the mirrors as round as possible. next is to use the laser collimator and i saw that dot is off by quite a bit, with a slight turn of the secondary mirror, i could get it very very close to the donut! wow. such ease. next is to tighten all collimation screws until they just touch the washer. with minor tweaks, it could get the dot in the centre of the donut.. not as painful as the other times when i feel like tightening the base til the spider veins seems to be twisted.. :x tweaking the primary mirror seems to have a slight improvement as well. kind of easier to do it. maybe because the secondary mirror is at a better position and not "stuck" in the angle predetermined by the 3 collimation screw marks.

this is really a good tweak i love! should i ever upgrade and get another newtonian, this will probably be the first thing i will do after i unbox.

[Gary]

Thanks for sharing your tweak! Photos please!!

[bornfree]

eager to get everything in place, so did not take any until the whole thing was over and then... crap forgot to take picture...

[antares2063]

i think some of the hardware stores in neighborhood areas sell washers

[bornfree]

my neighbourhood doesnt have the size i want.. i had to go to ubi, whole rows of hardware shops n workshops there.. got the 2 washers, plenty if screws on sale as well. the newt has 2 thumb screws on the focuser for holding the eyepiece missing, will go there to find next time.

[depardeuz]

Hi bornfree, do highlight if you can get thumbscrews from one of the shops. Kinda hard to find thumb screws that comes with the scopes!

[antares2063]

Yong sheng at ubi, circuit link road there? I wish to go there someday too

[bornfree]

quite a number of workshops.. wonder if can get to the the boss, then rent their machinery to do some weekend diy projects like building ur own truss newtonian.. XD