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Clive,
Thank you for your interesting info.
My sextant arm has a slight lateral movement
(shaking) exactly near the "parking position"
that is near 65 degrees.
As I believe that this SNO was never used before
(and I certainly use it VERY carefully),
this can be the result of transportation.
(I don't know how much transportation its it had in its
lifetime, but it was delivered to me from Ukraine,
and then I had a transatlantic roundrip flight,
with sextant (packed as well as I could) in the
checked in luggage.

By the way, the Russian manual recommends disengaging
the worm from the arc during transportation
(just by putting tape on the levers that disengage)
and securing the arm to the frame with another piece of tape.
I did not do this, packing instead pieces of foam everywhere
to prevent any motion or stress.

Alex.


On Mon, 21 Nov 2005, jcs wrote:

> Some years ago when I was servicing a sextant for a friend I noticed an
> excessive and variable (i.e. dependant on the part of the arc being used)
> backlash problem.My surmise was that at sometime during its life the index
> micrometer worm had been clumsily grated across the gear arc, and back lash
> was occurring wherever the worm did not now properly engage. This only
> occurred
> only over certain parts of the arc, mostly near the parking position, as the
> sextant was put away in its box.
>
> This could occur on a sextant if the clamping lever had been insufficiently
> gripped as the index arm was rapidly moved and the teeth on the gear (which
> was made of a hard metal) come into contact with the softer arc and damage
> the tops of some the teeth. If you were to look at the shape of the damaged
> teeth in  profile their normal triangular shape would be turned into that of
> a breaking wave.
>
> My thoughts are that If you find backlash occurring on a old or second hand
> sextant or anytime on
> a plastic one, look carefully at the shape of the gear teeth. If any damage
> is not very bad It may be carefully repaired. But!  Beware, always look very
> carefully if you are buying second hand. Even a new plastic sextant is not
> immune, especially if "shop soiled!"  This, in my opinion, is the greatest
> risk with plastic sextants. They do need Extra Tender Loving Care!
>
> CLIVE
>

   

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