My Dob with rocker box weights 60 lbs, so I used eboney star formica with 2" round virgin teflon pads for the azimuth bearing. The movement is very smooth, but still takes about 3x more effort than the altitude. At a recent star party, I compared my movement with the imported Orion and harding sytle DOBS and my dob is far superior, but against an obsession that is 2x the size of my scope, I would have taken a distant 2nd place. I went to the Obsession web site and they state they use glassboard and eboney star. I take it, they use the "glassboard" on the azimuth bearing. I looked up glassboard which seems to be FRP or fiberglass reinforced plastic, which seems to be a very high bumpy surface which is used as wall and ceiling covering for industrial and retail. Does anyone have any experience with FRP vs eboney star. Does anyone have an obsession telescope that can say for sure that the azimuth bearing uses a very bumpy surface?
Help with DOB azimuth bearing stiffness - FRP or E
Started by astro101, 09/15/2004 02:40PM
Posted 09/15/2004 02:40PM
Opening Post
Posted 09/15/2004 03:24PM
#1
Hi Steve
I believe FRP is what is on my Starmaster 11" and it is very smooth in the AZ motion. It has much larger bumps than Ebonystar which I would assume means less surface contact therefore smoother movement and less striction.
I had a Hardin 8" and I replaced all the bearing pads with virgin teflon and it improved movement both axis immensely so I never did put Ebonystar on it.
For what it's worth
Buck
I believe FRP is what is on my Starmaster 11" and it is very smooth in the AZ motion. It has much larger bumps than Ebonystar which I would assume means less surface contact therefore smoother movement and less striction.
I had a Hardin 8" and I replaced all the bearing pads with virgin teflon and it improved movement both axis immensely so I never did put Ebonystar on it.
For what it's worth
Buck
Funding Member
