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Post by mikey cee on Apr 15, 2012 10:46:05 GMT -5
Well I finally finished one of my things on my "to do" list during last night's rainstorm. I nearly lost my old Jaeger's big periscope erfle eyepiece the other day. Whenever I roll my scope thru the meridian all of my eyepieces hang upside down. Well you guessed it..... out falls the Jaeger's from roughly 7' above the carpet covered floor. It crushed the field lens near the retaining ring. I made a narrow field stop out of black paper and a cutting compass. Now instead of a 2° FOV I have a 1.8° FOV. The culprit....those G..D... Mickey Mouse pretty, undersized worthless set screws that all manufacturers put on their diagonals. I tapped out the old holes to 10-32's and put in new socket head screws with pressed on plastic tee thumb screw heads. Now I can lock not only my eyepieces and binoviewers but also the 2" diagonals as well. Also guess what else?? Yeah I got marks and gouges on my "pretty" chromed barrels but who in the hell cares? The danged things are covered up anyways when used instead of sitting in a case or box. In the pic you can see a couple of finished screws with their black tee heads. |Now all of them are done.  Mike Attachments:
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Post by Watcher3 on Apr 15, 2012 19:04:49 GMT -5
Nice solution. It would be great if Istar could make some heavier duty thumb screws that would still work with the compression rings on their diagonals.
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Post by Ales - iStar Optical on Apr 16, 2012 4:37:31 GMT -5
Not sure what Im missing here.. but we use just about same size locking screws on all of our diagonals. But if you guys feel that we should go with a beefier, larger screws, we will give it a serious consideration since we are getting ready to produce another batch of both FG (Red) and BK7 (Blue) diagonals. The last batch of 80 sold out recently... also,... the bottom plate will be redesigned, instead of polished stainless in 2mm (we are no longer able to source this thickness polished stainless steel sheets) we MAY go with 1,5mm polished stainess plate (with laser cut Istar logo) - it should still be reasonably sturdy,... or go with 3mm alloy plate, black mat powder coated in same fashion as our OTA tubes OR powder coat them with either Opal Gel RED or Opal Gel BLUE and laser cut Istar logo.. we will do some more testing and decide.. in the mean time I would like to hear your thoughts,
cheers,
Ales
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Post by Watcher3 on Apr 16, 2012 7:49:37 GMT -5
With all the heavy eyepieces on the market today, I find myself having to be very careful, every time to avoid what happened to mikey. some set screws similar to what he has pictured would, I think be a plus, leaving no doubt when you're ready to go. Be another way to differentiate a diagonal in a market where they are all pretty good now days.
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Post by bn1777 on Jan 10, 2013 23:05:38 GMT -5
Mikey , I have done the same thing to all my diagonals as well , but M5 metric as its easier to get here in OZ , yes the supplied ones are a joke ! I had my bino viewer daigonal and 2x eyepieces do the dreaded 180 degree flip on me a while a go , scary in the dark ! But I do most of my viewing on the grass , but still ..
This is a good idea Ales .
Brian.
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Post by mikey cee on Jan 17, 2013 19:15:43 GMT -5
Remember fellas it isn't just the size of the setscrew....it's also the shape. A socket head capscrew with a black or colored press on plastic "T" cap would give you a more sure grip and quick too. Gnurled round heads just don't cut it especially with gloves on.  Mike |
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Post by mikey cee on Jan 17, 2013 19:34:53 GMT -5
My first photo was the wrong one. It was a before pic. Here is the correct after pic. Sorry. Mike Attachments:
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Mike
Mike