Ioptron CEM70 and Tri-pier north-south wobble

[paul]

The mount and tri-pier are very solid but I was still troubled by a slight north-south wobble of my mount head which I tracked down to two issues:

1. There are two hex bolts on the north facing flat plate of the CEM70 mount, these seem to adjust the clamping force of the mount to the base plate (Azimuth adjustment). They were stiff in their holes but a slight tightening stopped the mount rocking on its plate and the Azimuth adjustment was till smooth.
2. One of the three M3 bolts (The North bolt) that hold the Tri-pier top-plate on to the tube seemed to move up and down as I carefully rocked the mount north-south. The bolt was tight and didn't want to over tighten it so I removed it for inspection. For tolerance reasons I guess, the hole that the bolt goes through is slightly larger than the bolt. The only thing preventing the movement was the friction of the bolt head against the tube wall. Rather than do any major metal work I used some aluminium foil to create a collar around the bolt to fill the space then bolted it all back down.

 Both are now rock solid.

 

[paul]

The aluminium foil, not surprisingly, didn't last for long. I decided to replace all three bolts with higher quality ones (the original are soft metal dome heads.) This has allowed me to tighten the bolts and improve the clamping force. It now feels substantially more secure and there is definitely no wobble.