Kim, the BKD preceeded my weightless mount and they are not related. My Weightless mount was featured in Sky and Telescope about eleven years ago and is for refractors and Cassegrains, not Newts. Bill saw it in S&T and called me. I like Bill's original BKD in that it was adjustable. Having one-finger pushability is good on large scopes if there is no wind blowing at all, but otherwise you need a little more friction. On 2/17/11, Kim Hyatt <kimharch@cut.net> wrote:
Chuck, was your weightless mount the genesis of Bill's BKD device? Do you have pics of your system? The concept as conceived or maybe re-conceived by Bill really does make large alt-az/Dobsonian mounts much more usable. I remember being able to steer some very heavy classic Dobsonians (with large square mirror box and tube attached, such as the 22-inch that Brent Watson used to own) with very little effort after the modification. I modified my own 10-inch, but with later changes did away with the BKD-type lifter and simply re-positioned the nylon bearings to make it smoother. If you can't steer your scope with one finger it might be too "heavy."
I think Bill's greatest contribution was simply in being a great friend and teacher.