Modifying the SW ED80 (1 Viewer)

I am thinking of doing some mods to reduce weight and a new paint job on my Skywatcher..

I tried to pull off the lens hood but it would not come off, but did seem to unscrew, so I inscrewed it and found I had taken off not only the hood but the front lens as well, then I noticed a weird 'gassy' smell and the tube smelt 'gassy' so I screwed the lens back on. Incidenatllay I pulled a bit harder and the hood does come off - Paul's right, there is hardly any weight at all to it.

Any way, My questions.

1/ this 'gassy 'smell, are the tubes gas filled, like spotting scopes, to prevent fogging.

2/ Is it safe to take apart, ie: lens, focuser etc. This is so I can spray paint it, drill the tube and attach the mounting rail direct, remove the redundant front mounting plate etc and also flock the whole unit.

3/ Any UK suppliers of flock ?

cheers.

There's no gas inside the scopes, maybe the paint is fairly fresh and there's some residual smell. The lens shades job is also to prevent fogging but you might get some fogging on a very cold winters day. I keep my scope in the garage which keeps the scope at a similar temperature to the air and this helps with stopping fogging. In winter it's good to let the scope acclimatise maybe half an hour before you plan to use it. It has to be very cold to fog it up though.

It's perfectly fine to take the scope apart, I've stripped mine down quite a few times, mainly to clean the back of the glass as it's hard to get to.

I got some black flock paper off ebay which was cheap enough and good quality. It's supposed to be sticky back but the glue on it is very poor, you would need to add your own adhesive. See link. You get 5 x A4 sheets for £3.35 and that's the price delivered. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/A4-Flock-sticky-back-adhesive-craft-paper-BLACK-/140337952690?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Crafts_CraftingPaper_EH&hash=item20accb37b2

Paul.

Seem to have got a bit of the thread grease off the lens housing on the glass, got most off but there is a bit of a smear there now. used ROR lens cleaner which got most off. Any suggestions - dont want to go rubbing in case I cause some damage.

I'd stick to the lens cleaner and nothing stronger. I find the cleaning cloths for my wife's glasses are quite good, she always wonders why they go missing :-O. Use a clean section each time until the smear is gone. I find some types of cloth work better than others.

Paul