I bought an EQ2-mounted telescope and (foolishly) decided to strip and
clean it. The slo-mos' worm drives were packed with black gunge which I
scrupulously cleaned out. This was a mistake; the gunge served an
anti-backlash function.

Does anybody know where I can find a replacement?

Another Dave
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On Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 5:02:51 PM UTC, Another Dave wrote:
> I bought an EQ2-mounted telescope and (foolishly) decided to strip and
> clean it. The slo-mos' worm drives were packed with black gunge which I
> scrupulously cleaned out. This was a mistake; the gunge served an
> anti-backlash function.
>
> Does anybody know where I can find a replacement?
>
Sounds like a smart-alec answer, but I genuinely would
find some specialist telescope/ATM forums, and ask there.
Or even check with the manufacturer?

I recently picked up a cheap russian microsope for a very good
price. That is also packed full with grease, and from reading around
those with a lot more experience in the area that, it sounds like you
need to be careful what you replace it with.

I seem to remember greasing a (non-equatorial) telescope mount with
vaseline, when I was a callow youth. I don't think that worked well...

J^n

On 11/02/2023 17:02, Another Dave wrote:
> I bought an EQ2-mounted telescope and (foolishly) decided to strip and
> clean it. The slo-mos' worm drives were packed with black gunge which I
> scrupulously cleaned out. This was a mistake; the gunge served an
> anti-backlash function.
>
> Does anybody know where I can find a replacement?

I am pretty sure that is a grease like that is used in garden tool
gearboxes. I think it is a lithium grease

But to be honest, almost any thick grease is going to be OK in that
application. Are they metal worms and plastic pinions?

Anyway, its not a steering box or other high torque application so
almost certainly a lithium grease will do, and its cheap enough.

>
> Another Dave

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the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that
authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

Frédéric Bastiat

On 11/02/2023 17:02, Another Dave wrote:
> I bought an EQ2-mounted telescope and (foolishly) decided to strip and
> clean it. The slo-mos' worm drives were packed with black gunge which I
> scrupulously cleaned out. This was a mistake; the gunge served an
> anti-backlash function.
>
> Does anybody know where I can find a replacement?
>
Google grease for camera lenses

Kilopoise Grease is one I've used in the distant pass but I'm not sure
which grade so you may have to do some research before selecting the grade.

https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/494932.pdf

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On Sat, 11 Feb 2023 17:02:47 +0000
Another Dave <dmarsden@nospam.com> wrote:

> I bought an EQ2-mounted telescope and (foolishly) decided to strip
> and clean it. The slo-mos' worm drives were packed with black gunge
> which I scrupulously cleaned out. This was a mistake; the gunge
> served an anti-backlash function.
>
> Does anybody know where I can find a replacement?
>
What you need is a "damping grease".

On 2/11/2023 12:02 PM, Another Dave wrote:
> I bought an EQ2-mounted telescope and (foolishly) decided to strip and clean it. The slo-mos' worm drives were packed with black gunge which I scrupulously cleaned out. This was a mistake; the gunge served an anti-backlash function.
>
> Does anybody know where I can find a replacement?
>
> Another Dave

Families of greases, come in all different viscosities.
The stiffest grease will stand up and you can carve
a statue out of it (used in very large cranes).

The folks here, put more emphasize on adjustment of the
bearings, rather than relying on "heavy grease" to damp
out mis-adjustment. If a grease were to be too heavy,
the worm gear could not drive the movement.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/312796-too-much-play-in-the-eq-2-mount/

When I want a grease here, I buy a tube of it at
the Black&Decker (DeWalt) store. I repacked the
electric lawn mower bearing, the hedge trimmer bearing,
and a nice table fan bearing. This is usually a synthetic
grease. The last tube I bought, it happened to be a
urea-based grease.

Whereas the hardware store would sell you a petroleum
based grease (the "brown stuff"). And bacteria can grow
in that.

Paul

I thought anti backlash was normally done by two gears on beside the other
with a spring so the teeth of each gear is forcibly meshed without any
play. The usual mistake is putting them back together without tensioning the
spring.
Seems a bit odd to rely on grease, since in cold weather its bound to be
thicker than in the heat.
I've seen thick grease in Aerial rotator gearboxes to avoid the servo
hunting when a very massy antenna is turned though, It just damps the
resonances.
Brian

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"jkn" <jkn_gg@nicorp.f9.co.uk> wrote in message
news:f42c5970-b4ed-4012-aed5-a7fbbc61bcc9n@googlegroups.com...
> On Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 5:02:51 PM UTC, Another Dave wrote:
>> I bought an EQ2-mounted telescope and (foolishly) decided to strip and
>> clean it. The slo-mos' worm drives were packed with black gunge which I
>> scrupulously cleaned out. This was a mistake; the gunge served an
>> anti-backlash function.
>>
>> Does anybody know where I can find a replacement?
>>
> Sounds like a smart-alec answer, but I genuinely would
> find some specialist telescope/ATM forums, and ask there.
> Or even check with the manufacturer?
>
> I recently picked up a cheap russian microsope for a very good
> price. That is also packed full with grease, and from reading around
> those with a lot more experience in the area that, it sounds like you
> need to be careful what you replace it with.
>
> I seem to remember greasing a (non-equatorial) telescope mount with
> vaseline, when I was a callow youth. I don't think that worked well...
>
> J^n
>
>