re:screwless focuser

Jon,

Good point!

Ballendo

>Running hard bearings against a soft aluminum tube will probably
>chew things up. For a scope, perhaps delrin rollers might work
>better. Jon A

P.S. How about making something like this to "feed" the focusers'
alum tube in a "live tooling" setup!? Could make new "fingers" for
the lathe steady rest,incorporating the skewed bearings. Mount
the 'outer tube' in the chuck (with the 'inner' tube inside; that's
the one we're "threading") for support of the 'free' end. Put a die
grinder (or dremel) in the tool holder and you can make 'em all day
long :-)

You would start with a longer tube than necessary, so the bearings'
indentations (if any) would be off the REAL part... OR...

You could make a steel rod with a 'step' sized to fit inside
the 'inner' tube. Hose clamp holds the REAL part (at actual length in
this setup) to the steel "feed rod". The steel rod sits inside the
skewed bearings of the steady rest. That dog'll hunt!!!

I might even make some "skew-able" fingers for my steady rest, for
just this sort of thing...