I'd have to agree with that recommendation whole heartedly. Each time I set up my dob I try to remember to take a pocket knife to the altitude's teflon pads and scrape off the built up grime down to a fresh layer of teflon. For azimuth, I do the same with the additional step of cleaning the (un-textured) formica with some windex and a paper towel. Obviously it's more difficult to get to azimuth pads (at least on my rocker) but done every few trips keeps it nice and smooth. Dave On Friday, October 10, 2003, at 05:05 PM, Jim Gibson wrote:
Just as a point of interest, in the October 2003 issue of Sky & Telescope there is an article by Martin Lewis entitled Better Dobsonian Bearings. Lewis makes this interesting observation:
ìPrevious experience has shown that textured laminates, like Ebony Star, perform better than plain onesÖ.
I believe that the main reason that plain laminates have a reputation for inferior performance is their susceptibility to fouling from dust and other debris. With textured laminates dirt is pushed into the troughs in the surface and out of the way, where with untextured laminates it simply builds up. This difference between laminates didnít show up in my tests because they were conducted with clean bearings surfaces. If you keep your bearings clean, untextured laminates are worth trying.î
So, Three guys, Brent, Chuck and Martin all saying the same thing. The neat part is that we have best experts right here on this list.
Jim