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RE: RE: Why Not Teflon!

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Posted by Rick Crockett on September 21, 2000 16:02:17 UTC

Hi Tom:

Wow! a teflon toilet seat. That must have cost a small fortune... While I have never seen a teflon toilet seat I have seen and made bushings for telescopes using teflon and most mushed out just like I said. Some of those I replaced with Polypropylene which has a higher dimensional stability. Used as john did the teflon shoul work well although I just read a posting where one "Dob" owner was having the teflon pads "wearing" or "squishing" down until the retaining bolts were wearing against the formica.

Having tried the dry lubricants I can also say that they work for a time then mess up the plastic bushing. As the solvent media softens the nylon, the particles embed into the plastic. The very small and very hard particle that once acted like minature bearings then act like abrasives. The plastic manufacturors recommend white petroleum jelly (Vaseline) for Nylon and generic by other names.

We are talking about a GEM mount aren` we? In which case the better and most probably least costly permanent fix is to go to Oilite or Brass Bushings. It may be that this can be done with stock sizes and no machining. The best fix would be the bearings I mentioned.

About 1969, when you were meeting john dobson, I was welding the fork mounting for my 12 1/2" Newtonian, my umpteenth telescope project. All of the aspects of my suggestions here come from first hand experience not theory. I am not anti-teflon, I just know where in a scope it will work and where in a scope it will not.

Cheers,
-Rick

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