Buck's Gears & Buck's Tune-Up customer feedback

From CA: I just wanted to take a moment to leave some feedback. The gears you sent were absolutely perfect and resolved the stripped plastic gears in my LX200. Smooth as butter and the tracking has been significantly improved. While not the most enjoyable process, the instructions were well written.   I hope to make another purchase from you in the future.  Thanks!  Christopher

From Ireland:. I have to say that the Buck’s Gears I got from you and put in both axis has made a huge difference. Last year with the nylon gears, I was about ready to dump the scope and go back to an EQ mount. With the steel gears, it’s like s new mount.

Yahoo LX200GPS user group message #78715 “I did the gear job on my LXGPS 12″, and the declination backlash went for 50% to 5%. The RA went from 70% to 15. I did not have to perform the radical third step. There was noticeable improvement in worm gear errors. Both the DEC and RA worm gear errors with PEC are now seeing- limited, which means that both axis are usually less than +/- 1 arcsecond. This was not true before I changed the gears.”

From Phoenix AZ: “Since I installed Buck’s Gears my GOTOs are just scarry accurate!  What’s in the eyepiece stays centered in the eyepiece ALL night.”  (8″ LX200GPS)

From Arizona: Hello Pete,  I installed the gears with no problems. The scope had brass gears (12″ LX200GPS purchased last August). There was a good deal of slope in the mesh of both the RA and Dec brass gear. The new gears went on very precisely and I was able to eliminate close to all backlash.  They are indeed precision gears. Re-assembly went smoothly. I did a new polar drift alignment and 3 PEC trainings. With a 12.5 mm dual crosshair eyepiece and X2 Barlows the star I used for the training stayed very close to the center throughout all the training. Much much better than when I did this with the original brass gears. I was clouded out last night and tonight so I have not had a change to test further.

Yahoo’s LX200GPS user group posting #85382: I know I’ve lauded Buck’s gears before.  I had always known that there was a difference in the way the scope performed before and after.  Before, gotos were often out of the field of the eyepiece. After, always within the inner third.  It is abundantly clear, though, with photographs.  Before, you could see the periodic error as worm trails as the stars moved in the field, often well over a tenth of the image frame (14″ scope with Canon 20D). I would keep two images, throw away four or five, keep two images, throw away four or five, … This was 45 second exposures alt/az. After Buck’s gears, I”m seeing almost all of the images as keepers.  While most of it may not be the move from nylon to stainless, the gears are a lot more than hardware, but some instructions on eliminating backlash, cleaning, etc.

From Oregon (Yahoo’s LX200GPS user group posting #86356) :I installed one of the first sets of Buck’s Gears distributed to the public (nearly three years ago?) and I checked them the other day and they look as good as new. Very little grease discoloration, great mesh, and my GOTO’s are still great after several years of use.

Yahoo LX200GPS user group posting #86374: 
    From England – Although I only got my Buck’s Gears a few months ago, I’ll heartily support this! A few nights ago (just before the clouds cover Cambridgeshire forever) I got my scope out but I didn’t put the rigid dew shield on. Hence less wind drag. I couldn’t believe it. Sixty second exposures (alt-az) without a hint of the gross trailing. True, PEC was switched on as well, but as I was centring M51, I could not believe how good even single images were. Before doing the upgrade, about 10 seconds was the best it would do and even then, half of the images had to be rejected.  I did have to do extensive use of aluminum removal as per the instructions to get a close gear meshing but the results are breathtaking. It’s a whole new instrument.
    Another group member’s response to above  –  My experiences as well. It’s hard to go wrong with the gears. Before, two out of four pictures looked like a worm crawled across the exposure for every star. Afterward, the worst was some oval shaped stars. I’m betting with PEC most of that would go away. My gotos went from “goto and hunt” to “goto inside inner third of fov”. Most times I didn’t even have to center the image.

From Illinois:  I installed the precision Dec. gears last night.  WOW, what a difference.  Operation is smooth as silk and I now have confidence that the gears will hold up because they are so well aligned.  I can’t wait to upgrade the RA gears today.  By the way, I thought my scope has plastic gears, but when I opened the drive the gears were brass.  I was disappointed until I inspected the gears closely.  They were so poorly aligned that the tips of all the gear teeth were badly worn.  I don’t think the worm was ever aligned because the worm and motor shaft weren’t parallel.  After installing the precision gears and squaring up the worm and shaft, the gears meshed 90% or better. …… Thanks for your wonderful product and clear instructions.

Yahoo LX200GPS user group posting #99953:   I bought a set of the new gears and they are superb. My LX200GPS 10″ had the newer Meade brass gears, yet the difference has still been noticeable.  I was very wary of trying to change the gears (Having never done anything like it before). However, the instructions are very comprehensive and the tips are good ones.

Yahoo LX200GPS user group message 103854: I have just installed Buck’s Gears on my 12″ LX200GPS. Going through the adjustment process with the installation and using PEMPro to set my backlash has worked wonders for my backlash problems. I believe that you can purchase just the adjustment instructions for the RA and DEC gears if you already have metal gears in your LX200R. I highly recommend CCDWare and PEMPro for tuning an LX200 (collimation, PEC, Backlash).